Many times you hear of a player or you see their name in print but you really don’t know much about them or how they are doing. This is an attempt to help you with that. Here are the Top 30 prospects in descending order.

 

Getting to Know the Prospects

 

Cardinals Prospect #28 – Chris Ellis

   This right-hander is 6’5” 205 lbs and is 24 years old. Many feel he will make an appearance in the major leagues in the 2017 season. Currently, he is at AAA Memphis where he has a 2-3 record along with a 7.88 ERA. He has appeared in 11 games in which he allowed 42 hits in 32 innings of work along with 28 earned runs. He has walked 15 and fanned 31 batters in which they are hitting .314 against him.

 

OLE MISS

Chris Ellis was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the 3rd round ( #88 overall) of the 2014 draft out of Ole Miss. He was drafted after his junior season in which he was 6-0 with a 1.81 ERA in 11 starts for the Rebels. He worked 69.2 innings and fanned 46 batters. In his college career at Ole Miss he was 11-2 in 122.1 innings and fanned 91 while sporting a 2.72 ERA.

He posted a 6-0 record with a 1.81 earned-run average in 11 starts for the Rebels during the 2014 season. Ellis struck out 46 in 69.2 innings. In his three seasons at Ole Miss, Ellis went 11-2 with 2.72 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 122.1 innings

The Cardinals acquired him from the Braves in the Jaime Garcia deal. The Braves sent John Gant, Luke Dykstra and Chris Elli in return. At the time of the trade, he had been in the AA and AAA of the Braves and overall went 12-9 with a 4.49 ERA in 28 starts.

 

Coming to Cardinals

Looking at this prospect we find he has been traded twice and that raises some red flags for his career. The Angels sent him to Braves in the Andrelton Simmons deal. If you consider the quality other teams gave up to receive him then a case can be made for quality in his own right.

He has three pitches that are his best. One of the issues from Ellis is that he has had some problems staying in the strike zone. He has a fastball hits the low 90’s frequently, the mid 90’s on occasion. It is all in the grip of the four-seam fastball as he gets lots of movement on it. This was the reason he was selected when he was and why teams like the Cardinals are excited about his ceiling.

He follows that with a slider that appears to be a cutter and that is the pitch that batters miss the most. His third pitch is the change-up and it comes in 10-15 mph slower with the same arm slot as the other pitches. He controls this pitch for a strike over all the others.

There could be a reason for Ellis to come up in the 2017 season but until he gets the ERA down in Memphis, he is likely to be a September call-up or wait til next season.

More Prospects to come

#27 Johan Oviedo
#26 Bryce Denton
#25 Ronnie Williams
#24 Zac Gallen
#23 Nick Plummer
#22 Connor Jones
#21 John Gant
#20 Alvaro Seijas
#19 Marco Gonzales

 

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