Cardinals Notes: Prospects, Free Agents

The Cardinals have added role players such as Randy Choate, Ty Wigginton and Ronny Cedeno this offseason instead of making more substantial changes to their roster. But most of the players who led the Cardinals to an 88-win season in 2012 will return, so general manager John Mozeliak didn't need to make major moves this winter. Here’s the latest from St. Louis…

• The Cardinals have the top farm system in baseball, Keith Law writes in his annual rankings at ESPN.com. In Law’s view the Cardinals have "drafted well, fared well in Latin America, traded well and developed well over the past five years." Five of the top 100 prospects in baseball play in the Cardinals’ system, according to Law.
• Mozeliak explained to Anna McDonald of ESPN.com that advanced metrics encourage teams to pay free agents for what they will do next as opposed to what they have already done. "Now we're able to combine these advanced stats with the ability now to really create a model that gives us sort of recommendations on contracts, salary and length," he said. "When you start thinking about things like the aging curve — that is something I think 20, 30 years ago when players were signing contracts, they were signing contracts for what they accomplished — now people are signing contracts for what you expect them to do." The complete ESPN.com piece provides more insight into Mozeliak’s view on the role of baseball analytics.