PROSPECT PREFACE
I present to you my list of the top 35 prospects within the Cardinals organization!! The list is both exhausting and ever-evolving.
I am aggressive with who I deem to be a "Graduate." You can read the post that I wrote on The Graduates by following this link. As a heads up, you won't find Lane Thomas, Ryan Helsley, Genesis Cabrera, Andrew Knizner, Rangel Ravelo, or Edmundo Sosa on The Dirty Thirty-Five (R.I.Cardinals Prospect.P to Tampa Bay Ray Randy Arozarena and Texas Ranger Adolis "JAG" Garcia).
There is also another group of about 15 prospects that I could have written about. They are on the outside looking in, currently. I did write in-depth about five of them, and I presented those fellas in this article. I also briefly touch on a bunch of other prospects in that article.
Finally, I totally cheated and basically just copied and pasted the individual write-ups from the "Position Rankings" articles that I wrote after Black Friday. I hadn't realized how thorough those write-ups were until I started to redoing the D35. Those write-ups are the shells for these posts. I have added additional gifs and thoughts to each and I've done some MAJOR editing within each write-up, as well.
Please enjoy! Please have fun! Please tell me what you think!
Dylan Carlson
Age 21
Springfield & Memphis
1st Round, 2016
He's excellent, guys and gals. Like, REALLY EXCELLENT.
Baseball IQ? CHECK
Work ethic? CHECK
Natural Skill? CHECK
Natural Athleticism? CHECK
In-game power? Manifested.
Raw-power? mmmmmmmm.
Speed? Uh-huh.
Arm? Yup.
Approach? Come at me, bro.
Instincts? GOT IT.
Poise? Sheeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Switch-hitting ability? He uses more of his body left-handed and more of his hands right-handed, but he's got dis, yo.
Now, I'm just going to unload gifs:
Carlson has turned himself into an average-to-above center fielder, even if he does need just a tab bit more work out there. That's not say that it's in his best interest to stay there forever, but that he'll do good work there for years. He should be the opening day right fielder for the Cardinals, if we are being honest with ourselves. He's a plus-flashing right fielder, no doubt about it. Still, they're paying Fowler, and Shildt and Mozeliak have a love affair with Fowler (who is deservedly higher on the pecking order), so he'll probably get a less than fair shot to be the opening day left fielder for the Cardinals. He'll be fine in left field if that's where he ends up, but it is the position that he is least comfortable and has the least experience at.
You see, what you do is, you put him in the lineup as soon as possible. Then...
THE DEAL
He's the best hitting prospect that the Cardinals have had since J.D Drew. Yes, he's better than Colby Rasmus as a prospect. Oscar Taveras, too. See also; Brett Wallace, Kolten Wong, Stephen Piscotty, etc. The above statement isn't hyperbole. It's a fact. As most of you know, I'm not one to buy into the hype. The last time that I bought into a player that was getting this kind of hype was Jack Flaherty entering the 2018 season. So, to clarify, what I'm trying to tell you is that Dylan Carlson is the same type of prospect with the same kind of potential major league stardom as Jack Flaherty seemed to promise entering the 2018 season.
As we said about Flaherty at that time, Flaherty had a chance to be this generation's Adam Wainwright or Chris Carpenter. Carlson has the chance to be this generation's Ray Lankford (I couldn't help myself) or even Yadier Molina.
The switch-hitting Carlson is everything that you could want out of a prospect. We are in for a treat when the Cardinals eventually turn an outfield spot over to him. It might take him a minute to adjust before he really flourishes, similar to Austin Meadows at the major league level, but he'll be raking before you know it.
AND WITH THAT, so concludes another Dirty Thirty-Five!!! Thank you so much for reading these! Thank you so much for being a part of this!! I feel so lucky and so fortunate to have this platform. Thank you for being the catalyst for an entire community! I hope that you enjoyed!!
The biggest of shout outs should be given to @Cardinalsgifs, FanGraphs, Twitter, and MiLB. TV for all of the work that they do that eventually gets put into these articles.
Look at that beautiful pic by @Cardinalsgifs. Another one down, bud.
Thanks For Reading!!