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

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.

More from St Louis Cardinals Prospects

• Reflecting on the 2013 Cardinals’ top 30 prospects
• The St. Louis Cardinals’ 2024 rotation needs work
• Cardinals: Moises Gomez hit 39 home runs, could be in St. Louis in 2023?
• Cardinals: These two prospects have the tools to break out in 2023
• Cardinals: Alex Reyes and Delvin Perez should be cautionary tales

Doyle was drafted out of Yavapi College, where he showed a great ability to hit as he had an a slash of .371/.478/.592 with 17 homers and 29 doubles in his two years there, according to Baseball Cube. His ability to hit didn’t really translate that well to pro ball, but it makes sense that the Cardinals aggressively placed him at Johnson City instead of the GCL due to his already advanced hitting ability.

I could see a scenario where the Cardinals actually choose to only have Doyle see action at State College next season, as it would be close to his normal collegiate season in length. Doyle is an intriguing guy, who likely projects out to be a utility guy with some pop (think Jedd Gyorko).

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. 

Live Feed

Motor City Bengals

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.