Top Minor League Systems

[wibadgers23]

Watching the Futures Game has me wondering what the top minor league systems would be as of right now. I know a lot about the Brewers system, but not a whole lot about the other teams. I think it would be cool if people could write up their top 5 or 10 systems including some of the top prospects in each system.

[TheCrew07]

There's been quite a bit of discussion about this between the various forums.

 

I agree with BA that Texas and KC are 1 and 2, doesn't matter to me which order.

 

Texas

They are active in the international market, draft well, trade well, are winning at MLB and have an incredibly strong farm system, take a different tact than most teams developing pitchers, and they just might be the strongest overall organization in baseball. They have a nice mix of impact pitching and hitting at the top including prospects like Jurickson Profar, Mike Olt, Martin Perez, Neil Ramirez, and Leonys Martin. BA ranked Yu Darvish as a prospect prior to the season, which I don't agree with on principle, but I do understand why they do that. Even without him I really liked this system, I've been following Texas' system since the Teixeira trade as Neftali Feliz piqued my curiosity because I was wondering who the heck he was and why Texas would trade for him. Between BA and MiLB there's a ton of articles and blog posts about these prospects.

 

KC

The Royals have been taking flak on the transaction forum for being in perpetual rebuilding mode, which isn't true at all my opinion. They've graduated a ton of nice young talent that should continue to ascend and they have another crop at AAA ready to get promoted for next year. Mike Montgomery, Jake Odorizzi, and Yordano Ventura and some pitchers I'm very interested in, as I've mentioned many time Odorizzi was my favorite Brewers pitching prospect prior to the trade. Position player wise they have Will Myers and Bubba Starling whom I would love to have. Cheslor Cuthbert is another big name international signing to keep an eye on according to the prospect gurus, though I just don't see it with him from a performance aspect. LHP John Lamb isn't pitching this year because of TJ surgery, but he was one of the better LH starting pitching prospects in the game prior, and of course I have a strong affinity for impact LHP. Just like with the Rangers most of the prospects here have had a ton of coverage on the prospecting sites that should be pretty easy to find.

 

Arizona

I love the top of this system so much... Trevor Bauer RHP, Archie Bradley RHP, and Tyler Skaggs LHP.

 

Beyond those 3 it's a pretty much just personal preference... Seattle, San Diego (lopsided hitting), and even the A's after their big trades went from a horrible system to pretty loaded at the top. Personally I'm into Seattle's system more with their top 3 pitchers.

 

Seattle

I'm fairly certain that all 3 of Taijuan Walker RHP, Danny Hultzen LHP, and James Paxton LHP will be no worse than #3s

 

I think 2 of the more underrated system by average fans are Toronto and Pittsburgh.

 

Toronto

This system is pretty even on pitching an hitting. The hitters would be Travis d'Arnaud, Anthony Gose (he touched 97 in HS as a pitcher), and Jake Marisnick is an extremely toolsy 21 year old in AA. Pitching wise they have Daniel Norris who's in short season ball right now but it was one of the better LHP pitching prospects in baseball, Toronto promotes pitchers very slowly, just like Milwaukee. I linked an article on the Lansing 3 in a recent link report, they've gotten a ton of press... Justin Nicolino, Noah Syndergaard, and Aaron Sanchez.

 

Pittsburgh

The Pirates have pretty even pitching and hitting even with some very notable flame-outs of high draft picks. Gerrit Cole and James Tallion concern me as a Brewer's fan, and if they manage to sign Mark Appel... look out. Hitting wise they have Starling Marte and Alen Hanson in BA's current top 50. Josh Bell is also a good hitting prospect though he's only played in 15 games because of injury. The system isn't extremely deep but I really like the talent at the top, much like the D-Backs.

[Tedaldtada]

TC07 nailed many of them for me.

 

A couple others you can bet will be in the discussion by the end if next season are the Cubs and the Astros.

 

Cubs: Just this past month, the Cubs have added two top-10 draft talents in Jorge Soler and the unsigned Albert Almora. Plus they brought 1st round arm Duane Underwood into the fold. Last draft the stole Javier Baez from us at #9 (we were 12th), nabbed Prince Fielder comp Dan Vogelbach in the 2nd and 1st round arm Dillon Maples for 2M+. They traded Cashner for Anthony Rizzo in a move that made zero sense for the power starved Padres. You have two hitters in AAA with starter potential in Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson. Jae Hoon Ha just played in the futures game and there are a ton of other high ceiling dreamers throughout the system. I dream about a talent acquisition phlosophy like this one.

 

Astros: I am very happy this franchise is moving to the AL. Jeff Luhnow is thought of as a bit of a visionary when it comes to talent acquisition in today's game. And the quicker than expected results are showing throughout the system. Jonathan Singleton has hit for power at every stop despite being very young. George Springer was the 1st rounder last year and of course stud Carlos Correia was the first overall pick in this years draft. Both look to have impact type bats. Because Correia signed for a couple million under slot, the Astros were able to draft Lance McCullers Jr and Rio Ruiz much lower than they deserved. Neither has signed yet, but both are expected to. If they can pen Hunter Virant in the 11th, the would make 4 first round worthy players in one draft. Just brilliant. Second round SS Nolan Fontana walked 5 times in his pro debut the other day. He is a major leaguer. Zack Greinke would likely give you a positive scouting report on 3rd rounder Brady Rogers. Throw in the surging Delino DeShields Jr. and a few smart deadline trades and Luhnow will have this team contending in no time.

 

One last note: despite the moronic Rizzo trade, I like the Pads system a bit more than TC07. Joe Ross could be very good and they cleaned up with a ton of early picks in this years draft including 3 HS pitchers who I saw at some point in the 1st round mocks.

[TooLiveBrew]

I love this thread topic; I'm in the same boat as wibadgers23 ("I know a lot about the Brewers system, but not a whole lot about the other teams."). Thanks for these responses, TC07 & Tedaldtada... hoping we see a few more too.

 

The Debbie-Downer thought I have to add is that it seems like everyone else in the NL Central has a pretty healthy farm system. Not good news for the Brewers heading forward.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8c/Debbie_Downer.PNG/215px-Debbie_Downer.PNG

[narwhalattack]

Melvin and Mark A better realize the importance of prospects and young guys soon because they can't rely on overpriced veterans forever. They have to stop patching the major league team with overpriced veterans and instead focus on bolstering the farm system with high upside guys. And also they need to take the draft more seriously and not allow the scouting department to be raided every other year. With a frail farm system this team could crumble in the distant future.

[igor67]

High upside guys are easy to find narwhal. There are skads of Olympians making less than peanuts who will be unemployed in a few weeks. Given the constraints of where we are picking these days high upside guys available to us tend to have a lot more in common with the Olympians than the Mark Appel's of the world. In that universe the Melvin strategy of taking big power guys even with an injury question mark or a weight question mark seems like a pretty solid valuing the value of prospects thing to me.

[Eye Black]

Thanks to TheCrew07 and Tedaldtada for the great analysis. It is very intriguing to see how teams approach building their organization and what type of results they generate. It surprised me to hear Keith Law say during the Futures game that the Padres had the best minor league system, but it appears they have built a lot of depth in their system combined with the strong draft Tedaldtada mentioned. It still seems hard to argue the Padres system will have more overall impact at the MLB level then the guys the Rangers have at the top of their system.