The Cards ended up taking Brett Wallace with their first round pick in this year’s Rule 4 Draft. This is honesly kind of surprising because they are taking a BIG chance that he will be able to handle 3rd base on an everyday basis in the majors. Granted, he has only committed 8 errors in 50 gams for Arizona St. this year, but scouts universally had him tabbed as a 1st baseman-a position he can’t play in St. Louis-due to his slow feet and overall lack of athleticism. The guy can hit better than anyone in college baseball, but it’s difficult to swallow taking him at such a high spot, especially with some of the names still on the board. There was still buzz about the phenomenal workout high school outfielder Aaron Hicks had in St. Louis before the draft, and if you were going to take a pure hitter who might struggle at 3rd, why not go with Canadian Brett Lawrie, who is at least a more athletic alternative? I was convinced the Cards would take college lefty Christian Friedrich, the second-best lefty on the board and a guy who was seen as a pretty safe choice (as far as pitchers go). And of course there was my favorite player in this draft, high schooler Ethan Martin, who could end up being the next Troy Glaus OR the next Micah Owings. Then again, they went with the safe choice in choosing the bat that will almost certainly translate to the major league level and they are just hoping the glove isn’t too detrimental. With their compensatory pick, the Cards took righty Michael Lynn from Ole Miss. Again, they went with the safe choice here. Lynn doesn’t have overpowering stuff but has 4 average pitches that should translate to the bigs and is seen as a back of the rotation innings-eater type who shouldn’t take too long to work his way through the minors. The passed on Missouri prep pitcher Tim Melville, once regarded as one of the top right-handed pitchers in the class but who fell to pick #115. Instead they took left-handed college outfielder Shane Peterson, a guy who can play any position in the outfield and should hit for a decent average but not much power, and high school infielder Niko Vasquez from Las Vegas. Vasquez is a guy with some pop, but is not very fast and lacks the athleticism to stay at the shortstop spot for long. He has a strong arm, so I suspect the Cards got him with an eye for moving him to 3rd at some point in his development. He has committed to play at Oregon St., but struggled to stay eligible academically in high school and I’m not sure if he has even qualified academically yet. I have a hunch this will not be a tough guy to sign. One guy who shouldn’t be tough to sign but might be difficult to get into baseball action soon is righthanded pitcher Mitchell Harris. Harris was so highly regarded that the Braves drafted him as a junior last year despite the fact he was enrolled at Annapolis and could not sign a baseball contract. As far as I know, the Navy does not have the program which allowed Army football player Caleb Campbell to opt out of his field commitment to play in the NFL and do recruitment work, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. Anyway, the draft is currently in the 45th round, so if you want the complete list of guys the Cards took go to mlb.com and check the draft tracker, although it’s tough to tell who a lot of these guys are past the 5th or 6th round and at this point I’m just keeping an eye out to see if any people I know have gotten picked.
