St. Louis Cardinals: End of Season Draft Recap Part Four

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John Mozeliak is waiting on baseball just like you and I. Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports /

The St. Louis Cardinals had quite the successful draft, were there some potential steals in the later rounds that could be players at the major league level?

Hello and welcome back to the St. Louis Cardinals‘ “End of Season Draft Recap” series. I have been a little busy with our “Top Prospects” series last month and the historical series in December, that I have unfortunately been unable to continue looking at the 2015 Draft. It is a new month and I have a clean slate, so it is time to continue this series.

So, today we are going to take a look at the five players the Cardinals selected from rounds 17-24. You might be thinking, “Wait five players from 17-24? That doesn’t add up…” you would be correct, but this is due to the Cardinals unfortunately being unable to sign their 18th, 21st, and 23rd picks in Josh Rolette, Caidyn Greiner, and Gio Brusa. So, let’s get to the players they did manage to sign.

17th Round: Chris Chinea C

As I predicted the Cardinals tried their hand at drafting catchers to help the organization out with Yadier Molina on his way out the door in a few years. One of those catchers was Chris Chinea. Chinea was a junior out of LSU, who was primarily a first basemen for the Tigers.

Chinea hit the ground running when he was assigned with Johnson City, as he finished the season with a slash of .313/.356/.506, while slugging six homers and 11 doubles. Chinea is a strong hitter who in my opinion has the chance to at least be a backup catcher in the league if his defense at the catching position is sound. His added versatility at first will help him advance through the system if his bat continues to play as sound as it did.

You can’t discount Chinea’s ability to hit at Johnson City and praise top prospects Edmundo Sosa and Magneuris Sierra in the same breath, so it will be interesting to see how Chinea’s bat plays as he moves up through the system. He will get the shot to start the season at Peoria and I don’t see why he couldn’t see a promotion to AA Springfield at some point in the season if he continues to hit, as he is a bit more advanced coming from an SEC school in LSU.

Chinea will be at the Cardinals MLB Spring Training as a non roster invitee.

19th Round: Ryan McCarvel C

Sticking with the catching theme the Cardinals selected Ryan McCarvel out of Howard College. Unlike Chinea, McCarvel is a bit more raw coming from a school like Howard, unlike a D1 powerhouse like LSU. McCarvel is a bit more athletically built than Chinea as well, standing in at 6’3″ 200 lbs. This lead to McCarvel splitting the games with Chinea at first and catcher.

McCarvel had similar success to Chinea, but was oddly sent down to the Gulf Coast team for a five game stretch, this was after a good start of hitting .282 and totaling a 120 wRC+ in 25 games, in the GCL McCarvel totaled just three singles in his five games there. His overall Johnson City numbers netted him a slash of .282/.329/.474, with a 117 wRC+, and 17 extra base-hits (10 doubles, four homers, two triples) in 40 games.

What I like about him is the athletic build, which could lean him to playing multiple positions. This will be necessary, as he is working against his teammate Chinea for time at the catching position, as they both likely advance to Peoria. Although, if Chinea is sent to Springfield at any time next season, we could see him take over catching duties for Peoria. Moving forward, they could separate the two by moving one on to Palm Beach and the other on to Springfield.

Next: Rounds 20-24

Mr. Mozeliak is impressed with this draft. Image Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /

20th Round: Luke Doyle 2B

Had it not been for a disappointing month of August for Doyle we could be talking about another impressive rookie showing at Johnson City. However, the versatile Doyle was not very effective as a whole for Johnson City, as is evident by his .207/.345/.354 slash. However, what is impressive for Doyle is that he did finish the season with 17 extra base-hits (13 doubles, three homers, one triple) and had the really high OBP of .345. So, had it not been for the low average of .207, we could be looking at an impressive player.

22nd Round: Hunter Newman 1B

Well, unfortunately the Cardinals were unable to come to an agreement with another high potential prep prospect in round 21 with Cadyn Greiner spurning the Cards attempts to sign him. However, the Cards weren’t just going to mail it in with their 22nd pick .

They grabbed two things the organization was lacking and that is first basemen and power potential. Hunter Newman has the potential to be the out of nowhere candidate to become a power hitting first baseman for the Cardinals , much in the way that Matt Adams did coming out of Slippery Rock.

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Newman was drafted out of division two school Tennessee Nazarene University, where he slashed an absurd .451/.558/.877 with 18 homers. Naturally, this led to Newman collecting a ton of hardware. G-Macsports.com tells us about this here,

“Two organizations, the ABCA/Rawlings and Daktronics, named him their 2015 Midwest Player of the Year. He is the 2015 G-MAC Player of the Year, a G-MAC first team all-conference selection, a ABCA/Rawlings Midwest Region first team honoree, a Daktronics Midwest Region first teamer, and honored as a NCBWA Midwest Region first team member.”

So, clearly the Cardinals grabbed a guy with a history of success and a pretty good bat. As expected, Newman’s way above average results did not come with him to pro ball. He slashed .259/.310/.376 only knocking in two homers in his 47 games with Johnson City. I don’t see any reason to expect Newman to start any higher than State College next season. I am not sure we can expect much out of a Division II batting champ, but we shall see.

24th Round: Danny Martin 2B

While the Cardinals whiffed on signing Gio Brusa out of Pacific University, the Cardinals went the the next round grabbing another low risk high potential player, like they did with Hunter Newman. Martin comes from a more readily known Division II school in Azusa Pacific University.

Thanks to Baseball Cube, we have stats on the three seasons Martin spent with the Cougars. In his NCAA career, Martin slashed .352/.435/.562 with 26 doubles and 19 homers in his three years. Interestingly enough, Martin didn’t play a full season or wasn’t a starter for his Freshman and Sophomore years. Martin much like Harrison Bader, had a breakout in his final year as a Cougar.

In 2015, Martin slashed .381/.473/.678 with his largest home run total of his career with 16, pitching in 12 doubles as well. This is likely what led to him being drafted. While this is really impressive, I am not sure Martin has much of a future at his position in this organization.

Next: St. Loius Cardinals' End of Season Draft Recap Part 3

I am not sure what led to him only playing in 14 games for the State College Spikes, but in those 14 games he did have an average of .304 with five extra base-hits (three triples, one double, one homer). There’s not much of a shot for Martin to play regularly beyond State College, as the Peoria roster will be quite heavy with infielders and he won’t leapfrog them to Palm Beach or Springfield, especially after only playing 14 games at State College.

That will do it for this week, come back next week, as we take a look at some more late round prospect additions. If ou have missed any of the previous three, you can check them out here.

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