3 prospects the Cardinals should call up to St. Louis, 3 they should be patient with

Be patient with Gordon Graceffo

On stats alone, Gordon Graceffo is not someone you'd think to be calling up to St. Louis this early in the season. In his four starts thus far, Graceffo is 2-2 with a 4.34 ERA but has punched out 22 batters in 18.2 innings of work.

A deeper dive into the box scores will tell you why the Cardinals may be looking at Graceffo better than the numbers show. In his four starts thus far, Graceffo gave up just one run in two of them and zero runs in another. The reason his ERA is much higher than that this season is because of his second start of the year, where he gave up 7 runs in just 2.2 innings pitched. Other than that, Graceffo has been stellar thus far.

Graceffo is someone I could easily see them looking to use out of the bullpen this year in St. Louis, or perhaps get a shot in the rotation if an injury occurs or someone needs to be removed from the group. But as we stand today, like Robberse, I would be patient with this young starter.

Graceffo made 21 starts in Memphis last year and now has four under his belt this year. He looks much more comfortable at the Triple-A level now, but with the kind of talent and potential he has, St. Louis should not rush him.

By the time late May or early June roll around, Graceffo may be at a place where they would feel good about calling him up, but until then, let him have consistent success at this level and prove to St. Louis why he belongs at the highest level.