St. Louis Cardinals: Pipeline prospects of the week from the Cards

Two minor league pitchers within the St. Louis Cardinals organization were names to the Prospects of the Week list in the MLB Pipeline.

The St. Louis Cardinals have a plethora of pitching. This is a good thing as we know that one can never have enough pitching in baseball. This week, as a matter of how great the organization is with its pitching, two of the minor league (one now a major leaguer) pitchers were named to the MLB Pipeline’s prospect team of the week.

These two pitchers were Austin Gomber and Ryan Helsley. Gomber was with Memphis for the majority of this past week but was called up to the Majors as part of the St. Louis Cardinals’ pitching carousel. Helsley has spent the majority of this season in Springfield but made his first starting appearance in Memphis over this past weekend.

Here’s the remainder of the prospect team lineup according to MLB Pipeline:

• Christin Stewart of the Detroit Tigers organization in left field
• Dustin Fowler of the Oakland Athletics in center field
• Dustin Peterson of the Atlanta Braves in right field.
• Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays at third base
• Kevin Smith of the Toronto Blue Jays at short stop
• Gavin Cecchini of the New York Mets at second base
• Peter Alonso of the New York Mets at first base
• Brett Adcock of the Houston Astros joining Gomber and Helsley in the pitching corps
• Zack Collins of the Chicago White Sox at catcher

Have a look at the career of Helsley:

While the sample size is small, there is much here about which to be excited. With a AA ERA of 3.90 across 10 games and 55.1 innings is something of which to be proud. Add to that the AAA ERA of 2.25 across two outings and 12 total AAA innings. In addition, respective 2.29 and 3.50 SO/W ratio in AA and AAA would look really nice wearing the Birds on the Bat in St. Louis.

Here’s a look at Gomber’s career:

Also some small sample sizes, Gomber carries a highly-respected 2.78 ERA across 91 career innings. I have had the privilege of seeing Gomber pitch in person in Memphis and he is everything he is advertised to be. His SO/W ratio is a nice 3.13 and that too would look nice playing for the St. Louis Cardinals.

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But wait, Gomber is with the big club currently. He was purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday alongside Jack Flaherty. Flaherty made the start on Saturday and then saw himself headed back to Memphis. Gomber remained with the big club but has yet to make an appearance out of the pen.

Gomber carries some other very impressive stats including an 81.1 percent of base runners left on base, 9.47 K/9, .308 BABIP, and a 3.46 FIP. While we fans would love for Gomber to have a lower BABIP, his stuff is impressive. Gomber manages a line drive percentage of 21.5, ground balls at 38.5 percent, and fly balls at 40 percent (26.9% of infield fly balls).

The fly ball percentage could use some decreasing but the fact that these are ending in outs is positive rather than ending in run-scoring home runs (his current percentage of home runs/9 is 0.35).

It is excellent recognition for St. Louis Cardinals to appear on the MLP Pipeline Prospect Team of the Week. Look for these names to grow in popularity as they appear in additional game action.

Next: Cardinals prospects

What do you think? Impressive? Would you like to see these names pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals? I certainly would love to see them. Thanks for reading!