Ranking the ceilings of the St. Louis Cardinals' top pitching prospects

It's no secret that the St. Louis Cardinals have a pitching problem. Well, let's be honest, they have a lot of problems right now. But one of the core issues they've been dealing with in recent years has been the lack of homegrown pitching talent.

No one needs me to go into the whole Zac Gallen and Sandy Alcantara rant again. We've all been there and done that. What's most frustrating about their situation is the Cardinals did bet on some elite talents that showed success at the Major Lworseague level. Jack Flaherty, Alex Reyes, and Carlos Martinez all looked like or even were for stretches, ace-caliber starters. But no one has been able to maintain that role for the Cardinals.

There is a lot the Cardinals need to do to right their ship for the future of this club, but one of the most important things they'll need to do is find a way to develop starting pitching as they did in the early 2010s. Martinez, Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller, Michael Wacha, Joe Kelly, and others provided much-needed pitching help for those Cardinal contenders.

Luckily for the Cardinals, there seems to be pitching help finally on the way, with some of those arms presenting elite upside.

Before we dive into these prospects, I used a mixture of a few different prospect lists to break down and draw my own opinions about these pitching prospects. These include Baseball America, MLB.com, Kyle Reis' Birds On the Black prospect rankings, and the "Data Driven Top 12 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects" by @KareemSSN and @CardinalsReek. Please check these out as they all provide excellent breakdowns of the Cardinals' prospects.

When ranking the ceilings of Cardinals prospects, I took into account both what they could turn into and what their floor is. Some guys may have slightly lower upside than another, but have a much better chance of panning out.

Here is how I rank the ceilings of the Cardinals' top pitching prospects