Baseball America's Farm System Strength Based on League Top 20 Rankings

[Mass Haas]

When ESPN shows "30 on 30", wonder if this Baseball America list is what they have in mind, Brewers fans.

 

30. BREWERS

 

Little in the way of impact talent or prospects close to the majors anchor Milwaukee to the bottom of the heap. They did just graduate a fairly robust 2013 rookie class that included Wily Peralta, Logan Schafer, Scooter Gennett and Khris Davis.

[nate82]

That is one horrible list. I don't see how you can rank the Yankees farm system so high. The Tigers also have a far worse farm system than the Brewers do.

[paul253]

The Brewers really need big years in 2014 from Clint Coulter and Devin Williams.

 

I've been puzzled by the Brewers treatment of Coulter so far. Despite dominating Arizona in 2012 he was never promoted to Helena. Then to start the year this year he skips Helena completely and goes to Wisconsin, where he struggles. Then he goes back down. Didn't seem to play all that regularly. Had some injuries. I'm not nearly as optimistic on him as I was at the beginning of the season, partly because of his rough year and partly because, as usual, the Brewers have seemed to mishandled his development so far.

 

The Brewers also have to absolutely hit a home run with their 2014 first round pick. Whoever they pick needs to be their top overall prospect, or at the very worst second behind Jimmy Nelson. And additional hits with their comp pick and second round pick would be a huge plus too.

[nate82]

I've been puzzled by the Brewers treatment of Coulter so far. Despite dominating Arizona in 2012 he was never promoted to Helena. Then to start the year this year he skips Helena completely and goes to Wisconsin, where he struggles. Then he goes back down. Didn't seem to play all that regularly. Had some injuries. I'm not nearly as optimistic on him as I was at the beginning of the season, partly because of his rough year and partly because, as usual, the Brewers have seemed to mishandled his development so far.

 

 

I don't see how Coulter was mishandled. It was the injuries that derailed him this year and he may ultimately have to move off of the catcher position which I believe would be the correct move but he is still fairly young yet so it is hard to tell where he is development wise.

[jerichoholicninja]

That is one horrible list. I don't see how you can rank the Yankees farm system so high. The Tigers also have a far worse farm system than the Brewers do.

 

The way they ranked the teams was pretty dumb. It was based off of a point system given to certain prospects.

[JohnBriggs12]

That is one horrible list. I don't see how you can rank the Yankees farm system so high. The Tigers also have a far worse farm system than the Brewers do.

 

 

Baseball America is a commercial enterprise. What fan base has the biggest following? Hint. It's not the Brewers. Anyone can concoct a formula that produces a result they are looking for whether or not that formula has any validity or not.

[paul253]

I don't see how Coulter was mishandled

 

He should have seen Helena his first season when he was dominating the Arizona League. If he held his own there I would have been fine with an immediate promotion to Wisconsin this past season. Since he never saw Helena last season I think that should have been his first stop this season with instructionals or extended spring training or whatever it is they do until the Helena season starts before that. Instead they ship him off to Wisconsin where he plays sparingly and struggles when he does play. I know he's still young and all and hopefully he can put 2013 behind him.

 

Regarding the list, I feel sorry for any franchise that has a worse system than us, especially with Davis, Gindl Schafer and Gennett no longer consider prospects. The Milwaukee Brewers need to get their act together.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't see how Coulter was mishandled

 

He should have seen Helena his first season when he was dominating the Arizona League. If he held his own there I would have been fine with an immediate promotion to Wisconsin this past season. Since he never saw Helena last season I think that should have been his first stop this season with instructionals or extended spring training or whatever it is they do until the Helena season starts before that. Instead they ship him off to Wisconsin where he plays sparingly and struggles when he does play. I know he's still young and all and hopefully he can put 2013 behind him.

Iirc, the plan this season with Coulter was to get him to Wisconsin so he'd play a full season, & then drop him back to Helena once that season started. Seems like the main goal was to get him more coaching & also let him experience a full season of pro ball.

[nate82]

 

Regarding the list, I feel sorry for any franchise that has a worse system than us, especially with Davis, Gindl Schafer and Gennett no longer consider prospects. The Milwaukee Brewers need to get their act together.

 

The Brewers already have prospects better than or on the same level as Davis, Gindl, Schafer and Gennett. I am not sure what they have to do with the Brewers getting their act together unless you are talking about the Brewers drafting players that are actually impact talents unlike Davis, Gindl, Schafer and Gennett who are not impact talents.

[dacbrewers]

That is one horrible list. I don't see how you can rank the Yankees farm system so high. The Tigers also have a far worse farm system than the Brewers do.

 

 

Baseball America is a commercial enterprise. What fan base has the biggest following? Hint. It's not the Brewers. Anyone can concoct a formula that produces a result they are looking for whether or not that formula has any validity or not.

 

Our farm system isn't as bad as Baseball America makes it out to be. We won the Pioneer League a while back and then a Midwest League title a couple years ago and came very close to making the playoffs in the FSL last year. Are any of those players going to make it? Who knows, but I do see some definite improvement from quite a few brewers minor league players. Baseball America is a joke in my opinion, probably owned by agents of high profile prospects.

[TheCrew07]

That is one horrible list. I don't see how you can rank the Yankees farm system so high. The Tigers also have a far worse farm system than the Brewers do.

 

I think you missed the point...

 

They tried to be objective by assigning point values to players in each leagues top 20 prospects, then the league with AAA weighting more heavily than A ball, then turn those numerical numbers into a list of near term MLB impact by total points.

 

A list like this is going to be more about production than projection, as to be a top 20 prospect in any league you have to be productive first.

 

It's not that Gennett and Davis were irreplaceable prospects, it's that they were regularly placing on top 20 league prospect lists and were in triple AAA, this list was about potential near term major league impact and nothing else. Jimmy Nelson is the only player who made a list in full season ball, all of the rest of the players were in Rookie ball... where's the near term MLB impact from those 5 players?

 

We have many position players who are very intriguing from a projection standpoint, guys like Arcia, Taylor, Coulter, Roache, and Haniger who were in full season ball last year, but none of those guys hammered out a great season. They all had their moments, but they need to be more much consistent from a production standpoint as they progress. Our pitching as an organization is simply awful, and I've been beating this drum for longer than I care to mention. If you have no top tier talent, you aren't going to get pitchers ranked very high on any prospect list, so your organization will have a pathetic ranking via this methodology.

 

I don't see any market bias in the methodology of this list, it was just a different way to rank the farm systems than what they have traditionally done, by potential near term MLB impact. I actually found it somewhat informative and intriguing. I would argue that the only bias is coming from posters on this site who refuse to believe the system is as bad as it really is. Again there are many players I like and/or am intrigued by, but for example I'm not going to argue that at this point Tyrone Taylor compares to Albert Almora or even Billy Hamilton. That could very well change in the future, but based on 2013 he just doesn't stack up to the better CF prospects in baseball. I do have high hopes that as he progresses offensively and defensively those will be more apt comparisons moving forward.

 

Do the Pirates have the 14th best farm system in baseball? Absolutely not, but on near term MLB impact the only guy who sticks out to me is Jameson Taillon though I also like Gregory Polanco, that's a pretty fair ranking considering most of their best talent completed the seasons in A+ or A and Gerrit Cole finished the season at MLB. Are the Brewers the worst farm system in baseball? Clearly not, but what impact talent do we have anywhere near MLB? In this case the context (or framing) of the argument dictated where the Brewers ended up, I don't know how they could have done a list like this anymore objectively than they did.

[paul253]

The Brewers already have prospects better than or on the same level as Davis, Gindl, Schafer and Gennett.

 

What I was getting at is that the Brewers system was already weak before those 4 graduated off the list. Regardless of how you feel about those 4 they were all top 15 prospects in the Brewers system no matter whose list you were looking at. You graduate 4 of your top 15 prospects from an already weak system so anyone who checks in with a worse system than Milwaukee is really in terrible shape.

[reillymcshane]

The truth hurts.

 

I'm not going to argue about their list. They set up a methodology and it's how we came out. That simple. It's about showing what teams have impact talent coming down the pipe in the next two years.

 

And even if it's wrong in some fashion, that means we're what - ranked 25th. 25th or 30th, we don't have premium talent at AA or AAA.

[sveumrules]

Agree with Reilly here. Sure we may not be 30th, but ultimately we're a bottom 5 farm system in all of MLB that as of recently has really only proven adept at developing players fit for the back end of competitive major league rosters. Not good for a team that needs to rely on cost controlled talent to have even the slightest chance at postseason baseball.

[fondybrewfan]

This listing could change quite a bit in 2014. Most of our high upside guys were in R and A ball last year. More than a couple have a very nice skill set that could turn them into legitimate prospects. Granted I still don't think there are any superstars in the waiting down there; but we probably would at least be closer to 15th than 30th. They need to knock em dead in the 2014 draft; thats for sure.

[nate82]

That is one horrible list. I don't see how you can rank the Yankees farm system so high. The Tigers also have a far worse farm system than the Brewers do.

 

I think you missed the point...

 

They tried to be objective by assigning point values to players in each leagues top 20 prospects, then the league with AAA weighting more heavily than A ball, then turn those numerical numbers into a list of near term MLB impact by total points.

 

 

Nope check out the prospects they listed for the Yankees all of them are AA or below and the majority of them are A+ or below. If it were near term MLB impact the Yankees should have a lower score but they do not.

 

This list is garbage and is not at all objective. It is a rather poor way to judge a teams farm system strength. I am not arguing about how good or bad the Brewers system is I am arguing that what they are using to judge a teams farm system strength is rather dumb and the farthest thing from being objective. The Dodgers still have Puig as a prospect in this list and the Rangers have Profar listed both of those players bypassed the prospect stage a long time ago and now are rookies. There is a difference between being a prospect and a rookie. If you take Puig away from the Dodgers their ranking slips and it puts them more in line of where they should be. The Rangers don't change all that much and would be a few spots lower. I just can not get behind this list as it is a very subjective list.

[Mass Haas]

This more encouraging report offsets the way that the initial rankings here were classified.

 

The Brewers had productive rookie value in 2013, certainly circumstances warranted more playing time than most contending teams, but the fact is the 2013 crop came through, and you can imagine what the value would have been if Jean Segura didn't just miss rookie status.