The major league baseball draft next month will consist of just five rounds and anybody signed after that will receive no more than $20,000. But rounds six through 50, or six through 40 in later years, have produced some gems and the Cardinals would have quite a representative team from such players culled in the second and third days of the amateur draft.
The ultimate gold uncovered, of course, was a chunky infielder from Kansas City’s Maple Woods Community College in 1999. He was a 13th-round choice and his name was Albert Pujols and he will go into the Hall of Fame as a first baseman about eight or so years from now.