No one’s saying there isn’t risk (especially how he comes back from the injury – there was broken bone and ligament damage). I think if you say him on a baseball field you’d be wowed. He stands out tools, wise. Its typically my preference to bet on those types of guys (and Santana made it easy by murdering the ball this year) over a 4/5 starter. 4/5 starters are plenty valuable in a sabrmetric sense, but Santana – if he pans out – could be a much more rare commodity. The guys you want from a baseball ops perspective are the guys who can be impact players for you. Santana has a far, far higher chance of being an impact guy over some prospects who have really good chances to contribute in some way.

Cave is guy we followed and talked about quite a bit as an amateur. He’s a really nice talent.

Culver/Mitchell – I think you might be putting too much emphasis on performance. Its easy to prefer prospects who are performing well right now, but the real goal is to find guys who will perform when they reach the majors. These are 16-20 something year old kids… they aren’t down growing and they grow in leaps and bounds. Its easy to write off guys who aren’t hitting or getting K’s now. I did a full scouting report on Culver (its linked in the piece) and I think I explained the appeal there, but if I had to sum it up in a few words I’d say “athleticism & bat speed.” He’s got adjustments to make – but basically all prospects do. Sometimes guys are getting results in the minors who have flaws that will be exposed as they climb the ladder. Results aren’t everything.

Right.

You might be selling him a bit short, though.

Cuz you know better than them

I wouldn’t necessarily call a ~ .340 OBP definitively “defense-first.”

And TNSTAAPP. ML ready catchers with pretty good OBP’s and good defense > possible back end starter/long reliever.