The St. Louis Cardinals' farm system receives more national praise

Springfield Cardinals v Amarillo Sod Poodles
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The St. Louis Cardinals may frustrate some fans with their lack of big-time trades this off-season, but according to front-office executives around the league, they are sitting on a treasure of talent in their farm system.

Recently, the Cardinals were ranked a top 3 farm system in all of baseball. Most major outlets have not released their farm system rankings yet, but Jonathan Mayo was able to capture the opinions of front-office executives around baseball, who thought very highly of the Cardinals' system.

While polling executives about which team had the best farm system in baseball, the Cardinals received the 3rd most votes, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and overwhelming favorites, the Baltimore Orioles. What's even sweeter is not only did they rank highly in the best farm systems vote, but they also were voted the most underrated farm system in the league. Clearly, executives think highly of the Cardinals' farm system and think the general public does not understand how good of a pipeline they currently have.

The Cardinals also received votes for their ability to develop hitters, pitchers, utilize the draft, amount of "sleeper prospects" and how well they play the international market.

What may make fans chuckle the most is that the Cardinals were the 3rd most voted-for team when it came to "which team hordes prospects the most?". The Cardinals may be a bit too hesitant right now to deal with their young talent, but once again, recent rankings make it hard to blame them for their own excitement.

Not only did their farm system as a whole receive a ton of praise, but so did individual prospects in their system. Let's take a look at the excitement, and hesitancy, with different prospects in the Cardinals system.

Multiple prospects were name dropped by executives

Let's start with the biggest name in the Cardinals' system, Jordan Walker. After establishing his name as a superstar in the making among many in baseball, he was voted by executives as the prospect with the most useable power.

Even without the eyepopping home run totals in the minors so far, scouts and executives believe Walker will tap into that power at a high level going forward, especially since he has one of the most mature approaches at the plate for a player his age.

In those tools rankings, he was also praised for having one of the best hit tools among prospects and was named one of the top-hitting prospects overall.

From that same 2020 class, Tink Hence was tied for second as the most underrated prospect in today's game, and Masyn Winn was one of the top-voted defensive prospects. Once again, it's a reminder of just how great of a job the Cardinals did drafting in one of the weirdest draft seasons ever. The Cardinals' farm system is where it is not in large part due to that class.

The last prospect to receive a lot of praise was Gordon Graceffo, who received votes for how good his fastball was, secondary stuff, and his pitchability. Graceffo has risen significantly within the Cardinals' system, among talent evaluators throughout baseball, and figures to make an impact in St. Louis at some point in 2023.

Next. Top 5 Cardinals First Baseman of All-Time. dark

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