ST. LOUIS -- Matt Adams knew he could do so much more. He knew he could hit as well as, if not better than, the players who were getting all the attention. As opportunities arose, he kept getting passed over.
"I was kind of upset a little bit," Adams said.
That was seven years ago. The St. Louis Cardinals finally got around to picking Adams with their 23rd-round pick in the 2009 draft, after 698 players had gone ahead of him. The Pittsburgh area is known for developing quarterbacks, but it's not exactly an incubator for major league baseball talent and Adams attended a small high school and a Division II college, Slippery Rock.