The Cardinals are also no stranger to the 28th selection in the MLB First Year Player Draft. In odd years from 2001-2005 the Cards selected Justin Pope, Daric Barton, and Colby Rasmus in that order. (Now that I’m typing this, perhaps the departure of all of these players from the organization is not a good omen?) This season, the club chose LHP Rob Kaminsky from St Joseph High School (Montvale, NJ). Kaminsky has a scholarship to the University of North Carolina that must be “addressed” (read: cash thrown at).
Kaminsky appears to be another need pick for the Cardinals, addressing a left-handed starting pitching dearth in the farm system (just don’t tell John Gast and Tyler Lyons), and completely flying in the face of me, assuming that a club with one of the top-rated systems in the business would be going BPA in this draft. I should also clarify that I have no clue whether or not they actually did draft BPA, likely neither does the club. Time will tell. All I know is that there clearly weren’t any shortstops that even remotely impressed the club available at either 19 or 28 tonight.
Kaminsky obliterated his school’s records for strikeouts by a pitcher, which may seem to fit with a new philosophy in St. Louis under pitching coach Derek Lilliquist.
The goods on Kaminsky:
Video
Game film from Perfect Game
Baseball America game film
Kaminsky is included in video of three top prospects from the Northeast (FF to 2:51 for Kaminsky)
MLB.com preview video of Kaminsky
Scouting reports/Interviews
Hudson Belinsky at Baseball Prospectus ($ link) says that Kaminsky “might have the best pitchability of any player in next year’s draft class.” And things/words like pitchability really get me excited. Also, this: “the exciting part is his curveball, which has legitimate plus-plus potential.”
USA Today had Kaminsky 13th in their top pitching prospect rankings, but warned of his size: “He’s not very big by top-prospect standards, but Kaminsky has one of the best arms in the country.” Oh, well, I’m only concerned about the arm anyway. Cool.
Minor League Ball’s community mock had the Cards getting a steal on Kaminsky. (And reaching on Marco Gonzales.)
Initial reactions on the tweet machine
Jason Parks (Baseball Prospectus):
Patrick Ebert (Perfect Game):
Whoops, meant to say biggest steal of the draft so far, @PGAllAmerican LHP Rob Kaminsky going this deep to #Cardinals
— Patrick Ebert (@PGPatrickEbert) June 7, 2013
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Stick with us for more draft coverage, and again – check out Cardinals Farm for all draft updates!