# The Top 50 Cardinals Prospects – April 2018

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/the-top-50-cardinals-prospects-april-2018/
- Published: 2018-04-03T07:00:20-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

Every year, I release my top 50 Cardinals prospects where I compare my rankings 
to the average of other lists. I had this ready to go in my annual Cardinals preview,
but I didn’t have a chance to finish it due to various issues.

The benefit of waiting until the first week is the ability to see what happens in
spring training. [Jordan Hicks](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hicksjo03.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
moved up my list, while I was able to remove [Josh Lucas](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lucasjo02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
and [Breyvic Valera](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/valerbr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
and add [Casey Meisner](https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=meisne000cas&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-).

Here are the lists included this year: Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs,
MLB.com, Prospect 361, Prospects 1500, RotoProfessor, John Sickels of Minor League
Ball, The Cardinal Nation, Top Prospect Alert, Viva El Birdos (they had 3 lists)
and Kevin Wheeler of 101 ESPN.

The list is ranked according to my order, but I have the average ranking,
 median,
mode, lowest ranking, highest ranking, and how many lists each player appeared on(
total of 15).

[Alex Reyes](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/reyesal02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
is the unanimous choice for top prospect. [Jack Flaherty](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/flaheja01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
was pretty much the consensus #2, with [Carson Kelly](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kellyca02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
getting a few votes and [Harrison Bader](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baderha01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
receiving one as well.

I was high on [Andrew Knizner](https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=knizne000and&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
coming into the spring, and he did nothing to sway my thoughts. I think he’ll be
the heir to [Yadier Molina](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/molinya01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-);
I like Carson Kelly, but the Molina extension will cause Kelly to stagnate like 
[Bryan Anderson](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/anderbr05.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
did or be traded, which is the preferred course of action. Knizner is moving quickly,
hitting, and playing good defense.

I was more down on [Delvin Perez](https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=perez-003del&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-)
than most. He’s got a ton of potential, but he hasn’t shown it with the bat yet;
that especially concerning at the low minors. There were also some reports last 
year of his immaturity; from what I’ve heard, he didn’t listen to his coaches and
wasn’t considered a good teammate.

These rankings will be updated at the beginning of each month and hopefully I’ll
get a couple of scouting reports out before then.

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