St. Louis Cardinals: 10 Most Valuable Draft Picks Since the Turn of the Century

8. Skip Schumaker, Round 5, 2001

Cardinals career (2005-12): 810 games, 2,687 plate appearances, .288/.345/.377 slash line, 23 homers, 211 RBI, 20 steals, 4.7 rWAR, 2006 & 2011 World Series champion

It’d be hard to name too many Cardinals players who have evolved in a more interesting way than Skip Schumaker did during the course of his eight-year stint in St. Louis. Schumaker, who came up as an outfielder capable of playing all three positions, struggled at the plate in spot duty during his first two big-league seasons, and though he pulled it together and became an effective bench player in 2007, he didn’t get many starts until poor performance and an injury to Chris Duncan created an opportunity for him in 2008.

His value reached a whole new level in 2009, though, when Tony La Russa’s desire for more offense in the middle infield inspired him to try Schumaker at second base. He ended up starting 124 games at the position for the Cardinals that year, and he went on to be a jack of all trades for the rest of his career. He’d somewhat fallen out of favor behind guys like Daniel Descalso and Ryan Theriot by the time the Cardinals advanced to the World Series in 2011, but he hit .600 while starting three games during the NLDS that year and won a ring during his penultimate season as a Cardinal.

Next: 7. Matt Adams