Chiefs Roster Includes Seven Top 10 Draft Picks
PEORIA, IL -The St. Louis Cardinals, ranked as the #1 organization in baseball by Baseball America, have announced the preliminary 25-man roster that will take the field for their long awaited return to the Peoria Chiefs in the 2013 season. The roster includes seven players who have been drafted in the first 10 rounds, 11 2012 draftees, 11 players ranked in the top 10 in their positions in the organization by Baseball America and three Illinois natives. The current roster includes 26 players so there will be at least one roster move before Thursday's home opener at 6:30 p.m. against Wisconsin. Full Roster PDF.
The top ranked prospects on the 2013 Chiefs roster are RHP Tyrell Jenkins at #8, 3B Patrick Wisdom at #11 and OF Charlie Tilson at #19. Both Jenkins and Wisdom were supplemental first round picks and Tilson was a second round pick who missed all of 2012 with a shoulder injury.
The opening day roster includes 13 position players and 13 pitchers for manager Dann Bilardello. Of the positions players, six are infielders, five are outfielders and two are catchers. Wisdom is joined in the infield by Alex Mejia, Jeremy Schaffer, Breyvic Valera, Ildemaro Vargas and Jacob Wilson. Mejia was drafted in the fourth round last June after helping the University of Arizona to a College World Series title. He hit .250 in 23 games for Short Season-A Batavia before a season-ending ACL injury. Schaffer was drafted in the 18th round last June out of Tulane University and hit 10 homers with a .272 average in his first pro season at Johnson City. Valera signed out of Venezuela in 2010 and hit .316 with 23 extra-base hits, 33 RBI and 39 runs scored last year for Batavia. Wilson hit .275 in Batavia last season with six homers and 25 RBI after being drafted in the 10th round out of the University of Memphis. Wisdom was the 52nd overall pick in last year's draft as a supplemental first rounder out of St. Mary's College. He hit .282 with six homers, 16 doubles, five triples and 32 RBI for Batavia in 2012.
As for the outfielders, Tilson will be joined by Nick Martini, Michael Swinson, Jordan Walton and David Washington. Martini was drafted out of Kansas State in the seventh round in 2011 and the Illinois native hit .266 with 52 RBI in 130 games for Quad Cities in 2012. Swinson was drafted in the 12th round in 2008 out of high school and hit .184 last season for High-A Palm Beach. He appeared in 142 combined games for Quad Cities in 2010 and 2011. Tilson, 20, was drafted in the second round in 2011 out of New Trier High School in the Chicago suburbs and has played only eight professional games. Walton signed as a free agent in June 2012 out of Randolph-Macon College where he was a D3 All-American. Last season he hit .240 in 44 games split between Batavia and Quad Cities while accumulating 12 RBI and five doubles. Washington, a 15th round pick in 2009 out of high school, hit .267 with nine home runs and 32 RBI last season with Batavia. Washington is also expected to play first base.
The opening day roster will have two catchers: Casey Rasmus and Gerwuins Velazco. Rasmus hit .220 in 49 games for Quad Cities last season. The younger brother of Blue Jays OF Colby Rasmus, Casey was drafted in the 36th round in 2011 out of Liberty University. Velazco hit .343 with five doubles in 31 games for Johnson City last season after singing with the Cardinals out of Venezuela in 2008.
Of the 13 pitchers on the roster, the Chiefs have six starting pitchers. Righties Joe Cuda, Kurt Heyer and Jenkins are joined by lefties Kyle Helisek, Hector Hernandez and Dail Villanueva. Cuda was drafted in the 27th round last June out of Eckerd College and he was 7-1 with a 4.15 ERA in 13 starts for Batavia. Helisek was drafted out of Villanova in the 30th round last June and he was 4-2 with a 3.42 ERA in 10 starts for Batavia. Hernandez was drafted in the 10th round of 2010 out of high school in Puerto Rico and was 7-8 with a 4.43 ERA in 24 starts of Quad Cities last summer. Heyer was drafted in the sixth round last June after leading Arizona to the College World Series Championship and he made just four pro appearances and no starts last summer. Jenkins was drafted in the supplemental first round (50th overall) in 2010 and signed away from a football scholarship to Baylor. Last season he was 4-4 with a 5.14 ERA in 19 starts for Quad Cities. Villanueva, a 2009 signee from Venezuela, started 23 games for Quad Cities in 2012 going 10-7 with a 4.29 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 123 2/3 innings.
The bullpen consists of seven arms, all right-handers: Mike Aldrete, Corey Baker, Joe Donofrio, Dixon Llorens, Zach Petrick, Jhonny Polanco and Joe Scanio.
Aldrete was drafted out of San Jose State in the 39th round of the 2012 draft and is the son of Cardinals bench coach Mike Aldrete. He split last season between Johnson City and Batavia going 1-0 with a 6.52 ERA in 19 games while striking out 27 and walking ten in 29 innings. Baker was drafted in the 49th round in 2011 out of Pittsburgh and he was 3-3 with a 2.44 ERA in 20 games last year for Batavia. Donofrio was drafted out of the University of California-Berkeley in the 31st round last June. He was 4-2 with a 1.23 ERA in 14 outings for GCL and Johnson City while striking out 31 batters in 28 2/3 innings. Llorens was drafted in the 25th round in 2012 out of Miami Dade CC and he was 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA and four saves split between Johnson City and Quad Cities. Petrick was signed as a non-drafted free agent in June 2012 out of Northwestern Ohio and he was 5-0 with a 2.17 ERA in 13 games last year. The Morris, IL native is the younger brother of former Cubs pitcher Billy Petrick. Polanco was signed in 2009 out of Nicaragua and played two seasons in the Venezuelan Summer League and one in the Dominican Summer League before coming to the US last year. He played for the GCL Cardinals and Quad Cities in 2012 going 1-3 with four saves and a 2.31 ERA in 16 games. Scanio was drafted in the 16th round in 2012 out of Northwestern State and he went 2-4 with a 3.41 ERA and two saves in 19 games for Batavia last season.
As for the roster breakdown, the Chiefs will start the season with Tilson (12/02/92) as the youngest player and Donofrio (5/10/89) as the oldest. There are five 20-year olds, three 21-year olds, six 22-year olds, and 12 23-year olds. Ten of the players were drafted by the Cardinals in 2012, four in 2011, two in 2010, two in 2009, one in 2008 and seven were signed as non-drafted free agents. Twenty of the Chiefs players were born in the United States while four are from Venezuela, one from Nicaragua and one from Puerto Rico. Of the US-born players, five are from California, three from Florida and three (Tilson, Petrick and Martini) are from Illinois while Scanio is a St. Louis native. Nine of the players on the Chiefs roster have prior Midwest League experience with Quad Cities, eight last season and one in 2011 while 13 of the players appeared in at least one game for Bilardello in Batavia last season