Uh oh.
Earlier in the week we told you about the Cardinals decision to draft Tim Tebow Jr. on the first day. In short: average arm, average speed, average bat, selected in premium position… BUT JESUS!
The MLB draft is a long, torturous process, though. Days of drafting, not only the future MLB stars, but players that will fill rosters of hundreds of teams across the country from Low A to AAA. 12 rounds passed before the Cardinals took one Jose Alberto Pujols.
The past several years the Cardinals have focused on building up the minor league system. And by in large, they’ve taken it from the dredges back to at least respecticibity through the focus of Jeff Luhnow. Problem is, Houston noticed what the Cardinals were up to and hired him as their big league GM. So 2012 is the first draft since the mid 2000s that wasn’t helmed by Lunhow.
Predictably, some red flags have emerged.
Like Mr. Chris Perry.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen it all. I thought might come back next year and improve my status,” said Perry. “But going in the top 20 rounds kind of made the decision for me.”
So Chris Perry didn’t think he was good enough to be drafted, but the Cardinals took him in round 17? Hmmm.
Ok, ok. Again, it’s baseball. Unlike the NFL where you have to hit on every single premium pick and be at least drafting solid starters in the first 4 rounds or it’s death… baseball is more bingo. Put some names in a hopper and you’re going to hit now and again, you just want to stack the odds in your favor as much as possible.
But when Albert Pujols was drafted in the teen rounds, he was pissed. Real pissed. Hell, he’s still pissed. But that’s the kind of attitude you need to fuel a rise to stardom, or at least to get to the Major Leagues. Go ahead and take a mic into the Cardinals clubhouse right now and ask all 25 guys if they got drafted too high.
0% will say no.
It’s going to be years before we can say with any definitive answers if this was a good or bad draft in 2012. Even then, the results may be murky at best. But the red flags are starting to fly high…
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