In this post-apocalyptic wasteland, we are now living in with none sports (specifically St. Louis Cardinals baseball), dreaming of a more pleasant future is one among the sole things we’ve to urge out of the unfortunate present.

In baseball, there’s nothing more fun when watching the longer term than dreaming of prospects. For our focus today, we are getting to check out the Cardinals’ first-round draft pick from 2020.

That’s a really bland and boring lead-in, but there’s a true chance that the pick, Zack Thompson, could rise and have an impression very almost like what Michael Wacha did for the Cardinals back in 2013.

In 2012, Wacha started at Rookie ball and threw 5.0 innings, then was moved up to High-A Palm Beach where he threw another 8.0 innings. to finish his season, he was moved to Springfield for an additional 8.0 innings before he was pack up for the year.

In the postseason, Wacha went on to dominate and win the NLCS MVP, throwing 13.2 scoreless innings against the Pirates, propelling the Cards to the planet Series. it had been the simplest start to Wacha’s career that the team could’ve asked for, and there are certainly parallels to the player Wacha was at the draft and Thompson.

From Baseball Prospectus St. Louis Cardinals tickets promo code was announced and Wacha was “Regarded as a refined college arm” out of the draft and seemed like a pitcher that would become “a prototypical mid-rotation arm, with workload potential and a solid-avg-to-plus arsenal.”

When watching Thompson, he fits an equivalent “polished college arm” profile that Wacha did. In his Junior season at Kentucky, Thompson put up a 2.40 ERA over 90.0 innings while striking out an elite 13.0 batters per nine within the best conference in college baseball (the SEC (War Eagle)).

Thompson features a different pitch mix than Wacha, throwing a fastball, slider, curveball, changeup from the left side and from a special arm slot. they’re different pitchers with different strengths, but that doesn’t mean their paths won’t be similar.

In his first season with the Cardinals, Thompson started at Rookie ball, throwing two innings before being pushed to High-A Palm Beach where he threw another 13.1 innings before he was pack up. In preseason, Thompson was showing tons of potential also as he was untouched (no hits or walks) in 3.0 innings, striking out three.

The biggest thing which will hinder Thompson’s potential rise to the Majors in 2020 (other than a brief season) would be an injury. Two of his three college seasons he addressed arm issues and while he’s gotten himself in better shape, it’s something that would come and haunt the 21-year-old. It’s a part of why the Cardinals were ready to draft the lefty, but players like Walker Buehler were drafted with injury fears and is now a top pitcher on the Dodgers injury-free. Thompson may never be an ace, but a bit like Michael Wacha, he has middle-of-the-rotation potential which is extremely valuable.

All of this is often assuming that the season isn’t delayed beyond reasonable repair due to all this we are browsing. If it isn’t, Thompson could easily be a midseason call up after a while in AAA and will make a push to be the simplest left-handed pitching prospect the Cardinals have.