Anyone can come up with a list of top prospect names. We give you that and much more.

Now that our 40 top prospects have been unveiled, we are moving into a series of nine articles in which we dig into the details behind the votes, the risers and fallers, the sleepers, new names and the departed, position, draft class and historical breakdowns and much more.

Seven of the nine articles will be for subscribers with a couple made free so non-subscribers can get a taste of what you are missing. I will post a notification of the new articles each day on this thread, with the full schedule always listed on the top 40 countdown page

First up:

You can see all of our individual votes on the St. Louis Cardinals’ top minor league prospects for 2013 side by side. We also look at the names from last year's list who left the top 40 and why. For all these players, their placement in all previous top 40s is listed so you can see their progress or decline over time.

"2013 Top Cardinals Prospects: The Final Tally"

It's interesting that Kozma is the only one who made the list in '08 or '09 who is still on the list. In contrast, five guys (Hamilton, Ottavino, Anderson, Reifer, and Pham) were on in '09 or before and are now off the list other than by graduation. Miller, Adams, Jackson, Chambers, and Sanchez are the guys who first appeared in '10.  I wonder how many of them will be back next year....

Huge jumps for Maness, Garcia, Valera, and Siegrist!

Of the top 10, only one will be older than 22 on opening day.  (That's Adams, born in August 1988.)  Miller, Wong, and Rosenthal were born in 1990, Wacha and Martinez in 1991, Taveras, Jenkins, and Garcia in 1992, and Kelly in 1994.  I hadn't notice this before, but Miller and Wong were born the exact same day.

edit: I started wondering which will be the ones to graduate this year. Seems like it could be a lot.  Here's my guess, in order of most to least likely: Kozma, Rosenthal, Miller, Adams, Chambers, Freeman, Cleto, Jackson, Sanchez.  My guess is the first five make it.

I can't help but wonder if Wacha won't pass up Miller before they both graduate. I hope Chambers gets a chance this year. Freeman could graduate if he's good enough to hold his own in the pen, but if that happens, then Rzepczynski will probably be traded. I hope all the speculation about Jackson turns out to be only speculation and that he earns a chance to start some games at short. If Sanchez can ever find his mojo, the sky's the limit for him. If not, there are other players coming fast.

By the way the word 'mojo' comes up now and then in reference to players in various sports. Here's what it means for anybody who hasn't thought to take the time to look it up yet:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_slang_word _mojo_mean

In a new report for 2013, I dig into the players who joined the top 40 for the first time as well as the most notable movers and shakers from 2012.

"2013 Top Cardinals Prospects: The Newbies"

 

Link to top 40 countdown page

As another "thank you" to this community who worked very hard on your top 60 list, today's article is free to all. In it, Gagliano highlights five players who made the community top 46, but fell just short of the combined site top 40. (Also, many thanks to Gags and BobReed for writing up the 45 player capsules in the article series on behalf of the community.)

"Cardinals Prospects: Best of the Rest: Community" (free article)

 

Link to top 40 countdown page

I like Stoppelman quite a bit.  He was a starter in college and had a 10.3 K/9 rate, which looks awfully impressive when mixed with the 12.8 K/9 rate in his Batavia debut.

I like Dixon Llorens more though (not that he is a lefty or anything)

I wish we could put Alex Reyes in here. I would like to see where he slides in (if at all) as well as the two rule 5 guys.

Bean got ranked really high on Fangraphs, but likely nowhere else.  He was an "other" on Sickels list.

Stock got ranked #14 on Mayo's top 20 for milb.com.  Not sure about that one as Mayo also put Gorgen, Fornataro, and Blazek in his top 20, despite all three being in the 30-40's on our community polls. None of the four got put on any other list either.

In today's article, I highlight five players from my top 46 that did not make the consolidated top 40. Tomorrow will be Carioca's turn.

"2013 Cards Prospects: Walton's Best of the Rest"

 

Link to top 40 countdown page

Domeboys: Have you heard any information as to the condition of Tuivailala's discomfort in his elbow which forced his early departure from Instructional League? Maybe that is a question for Vuch at Winter Warmup. Thanks

I have not heard, but that is on my question list for sure. (I started a thread on the subscriber board to solicit questions.)

In today's article, CariocaCardinal discusses five of his top prospects that missed the top 40.

"Cardinals Prospects: Best of the Rest: CariocaCardinal"

Link to top 40 countdown page

Another FREE article for your reading pleasure today, as we unveil our annual Cardinals All-Prospect Team, the top-ranked players by position.

Link to top 40 countdown page

Brian, I have completely enjoyed all the articles relative to the TCN 2013 Top 40 lists, and particularly this week's "Just Missed Lists".  I know you keep track of such things, so I was wondering if you have ever looked back at previous years "Just Missed Lists" of you, the Community and writers such as Carioca to see who amongst yourselves may have been the first in previous years to rank players who became either helpful players, or trade bait for the Cards or who currently stud prospects, e.g. who first, if any of you, had Taveras close to but just outside the Combined Top 40?

Thought that might be interesting to see who amongst you all have spotteed and ranked such players.  Thanks again for the work of all of you.

Indianacardinal wrote: Brian, I have completely enjoyed all the articles relative to the TCN 2013 Top 40 lists, and particularly this week's "Just Missed Lists".  I know you keep track of such things, so I was wondering if you have ever looked back at previous years "Just Missed Lists" of you, the Community and writers such as Carioca to see who amongst yourselves may have been the first in previous years to rank players who became either helpful players, or trade bait for the Cards or who currently stud prospects, e.g. who first, if any of you, had Taveras close to but just outside the Combined Top 40?

Thought that might be interesting to see who amongst you all have spotteed and ranked such players.  Thanks again for the work of all of you.

I have only done it informally, but I will take that to-do to look into it in more depth as I agree that it could be interesting.

The series continues with the sourcing of players and mix by position of the Cardinals top 40 prospects compared to prior years.

"2013 Cardinals Top Prospects – Behind the Numbers"

Link to top 40 countdown page

In today's article, we look back one year later at some of our best and worst predictions for the St. Louis Cardinals’ top prospect list from 2012.

"2012 Top Cardinals Prospects: Picks and Pans"

 

Link to top 40 countdown page

Wrapping the series up with top 40 prospects by predominant level of play in 2012 compared to past years as well as some other goodies.

"2013 Cardinals Top Prospects by Level"

Link to top 40 countdown page

Domeboys wrote:

Indianacardinal wrote: Brian, I have completely enjoyed all the articles relative to the TCN 2013 Top 40 lists, and particularly this week's "Just Missed Lists".  I know you keep track of such things, so I was wondering if you have ever looked back at previous years "Just Missed Lists" of you, the Community and writers such as Carioca to see who amongst yourselves may have been the first in previous years to rank players who became either helpful players, or trade bait for the Cards or who currently stud prospects, e.g. who first, if any of you, had Taveras close to but just outside the Combined Top 40?

Thought that might be interesting to see who amongst you all have spotteed and ranked such players.  Thanks again for the work of all of you.

I have only done it informally, but I will take that to-do to look into it in more depth as I agree that it could be interesting.

OK, I finally got to this one on my to-do list. As it turned out to be a fairly big effort, I ended up splitting the project into two articles.

In the first, which is posted for subscribers today, I went back to 2007 and pulled out the names from our individual prospect lists that did not make the site's consolidated top 40. The focus was on who identified players early that eventually reached the major leagues.

”Finding future Cards major leaguers off radar”

In part two, I look at 10 players who have stuck in the bigs, going back to when and by whom they were identified.

New, free article:

"Ten Cardinals in Scout.com Top 300 Prospects"

I am hoping Indianacardinal is around, as the second of two articles that I wrote based on his questions is now posted. I am certainly biased, but I think it is pretty interesting research.

"When did we identify future Cardinals major leaguers"

When 10 future major leaguers developed by the St. Louis Cardinals first appeared on top 40 prospect lists – ours and theirs.

Here is a random, but interesting factoid. Did you know that Bryan Anderson has more career MLB at-bats than Nick Stavinoha? That surprised me.

In a subscriber article just posted, I looked back at these two and many other former top 10 prospects who fell short of career expectations.

"Cards top 10 prospect list misses: 2006-10"