NFT: Keith Law MLB Farm System Rankings

But... But.... TDA graduated? Syndergaard took a step back???

Sandy was brought in to rebuild this team the right way I think this is fairly important. We only need another bat or two in the offseason and we will get them. I'd be shocked if we didn't have a top 5-10 system permanently going forward under this regime as well.

need to get Thor out of Vegas. It's not good for anyone.

You know Law loves Conforto, Domo is hitting .300 in A ball (no power yet, but he's just 19), and Herrera looks great, to name a few newer names.

Cubs were no surprise (though a few years ago they were not as well-regarded), the Mets also seem to be really well-regarded; though their position prospects could stand some beefing up their pitchers are about as good as it gets.

I'll see if I can see some tweets about it.

I don't have Insider access and only saw this from Rubin's tweet.

My guess is the Red Sox are in the top 5 with the Cubs and Mets.

though not sure this counts any of the INTL free agents they loaded up on this off-season. I'd say probably not.

Quote:

NY Yankee News ‏@Yankees_News_NY Jan 28 [SweetSpot: Its About The Money] - Keith Law Puts Yanks Farm System 20th Overall.. http://q.gs/5UDwi #Yankees #MLB

or at least it seems to be. Thanks though.

for Flexen, that sucks. Law didn't mention Herrera in his Mets blurb, I found that to be a bit weird given the fact he recently said his upside was a "good" starting MLB 2b,

you're right.

believe it was only a top 5 list and not all 30 teams ranked

mentions Thor, Nimmo, Plawecki, Rosario, Conforto in a positive light, Cecchini seemingly in a negative one.

I'm guessing low 20's.

is so fucking stupid...

this is just top 5 systems as of mid-season, not a ranking of all 30. He absolutely RAVES about the Cubs system with a blurb 4 times longer than the other 4 teams.

nothing new or special. Mets being up there is a bit of surprise but the top 3 are no doubters.

for the most part, prolly why he didnt mention herrara. He didnt even mention Smith and he seems very high on Smith.

blurb who he has ranked 5th

Quote:

There's a gap between the top four systems and the rest of the pack

Pretty sweet to see the mets up in the top 4 with a "gap" before you even get to #5

yeah but he mentions Cecchini in a "negative" way. Seems like that little mention would have been better served mentioning Herrera (again because he very recently called his upside a "good" starting 2b, hate to put words in his mouth but I'm assuming that means roughly Murphy caliber).

can touch the Cubs (I suspect they are going to make a deal for a major player/players within the next 6+ months). David Price has been rumored, Stanton obviously possible too.

saw something positive about Herrara instead of that Gavin comment, but i think he was just tying it into his Rosaria comment.

asked him on twitter what "good" starting 2b upside equates to in his eyes.

you?

yet but he usually does respond. He doesn't like "comparing" players so his answer may not be all that telling. I asked if "good" means league average? Better than average? In MY mind, Daniel Murphy would be a "good" starting MLB 2b, not sure what Law views good as though.

Robbie Cano/Dustin Pedroia is beyond good? LOL.

Oh well.

He's hitting .350 in AA with a .940 OPS (with an admittedly very small sample).

Seems like he plays good D too (but I really just assume that).

Cano and Pedroia are potential HOF 2b so I think that would be a "beyond good" upside lol

I think Pedroia has peaked unless you just want stellar defense. I don't think he has HoF potential any longer. Not sure if it's injuries or early aging or what but I think he will be a poor offensive performer going forward. Just IMO

That Thor is pitching well this year in AAA?

point was more that Pedroia and Cano will likely have the HOF discussed when they retire which makes them better than "good" MLB 2b. He may or may not be in decline but he was worth 5.5 WAR just last season, Dave Cameron still has him top 40 players in terms of trade value in all of baseball and only 17 2b in baseball have been more valuable than Dustin Pedroia since 1960 and barring a shocking decline/injury he will retire top 11 2b since 1960. Probably not a HOF but obviously better than "good".

is pitching pretty well all things considered 4.10 FIP, 9.25 K vs. 2.76 BB, .383 BABIP has killed him. Hasn't been great by any stretch but much better than the ERA would suggest.

If Bobby Grich and Lou Whitaker aren't in the Hall, which they aren't, then that sonofabitch had better buy a ticket if he wants to go to Cooperstown.

In comment 11776417 Dunedin81 said:

Quote:

Cubs were no surprise (though a few years ago they were not as well-regarded), the Mets also seem to be really well-regarded; though their position prospects could stand some beefing up their pitchers are about as good as it gets.

Dunedin, this was the narrative regarding the Mets a couple years but I'd argue it's almost the opposite at this point. Sure Syndergaard, Matz, and Montero are all in the top 15 or so prospects but the rest are all position players and we just spent ANOTHER draft going heavily on position players early. Law has Conforto, Nimmo, Smith, and Plawecki ALL in the top 50. He likely has Herrera in the top 100.

a couple years ago.

my point isn't that Dustin Pedroia belongs in the HOF. My point is "good 2b" from Law 99.9% doesn't refer to Pedroia/Robinson Cano types c'mon. If that's the case then who is better than "good"? One day 10-15 years from now there WILL be a "Is Pedroia a HOFer?" "Is Cano a HOFer?" discussion. Can't say that about most players.

.300/.367/.446 career for Pedroia, that's pretty special stuff when you include his above average defense. How many 2b of the last 20 years are better than Pedroia? He won't likely get near 3,000 hits and doesn't do anything "great" so he's not a HOFer (likely not) but he's been more than "good".

I'm not looking at his era. That doesn't concern me when he's working on certain things and his peripherals are better than the raw numbers. But to say he is pitching "well" is rather odd. Saying he is learning. Fighting injuries. Battling through adversity for the first time. All understood.

I think Law overstated his case because of how short each blurb is. He's still missing bats, he's been BABIP'ed to death, has he dominated? no. Has he pitched really well? no. But he's held his own, pitched reasonably well and remember he'll be 22 years old for 95% of the 2015 season. Harvey didn't even debut till 23, same with Wheeler (and I'd argue only recently has Wheeler looked like a consistently solid/good pitcher in what is now his age 24 season).

"excellent" regarding Thor which is a bit much but Im not really worried about it. I mean he is still unanimously regarded as one of the top right-handed prospects in the game. I kind of like that he's hitting some adversity in Vegas. If he masters his craft there he'll be that much more prepared when he hits the big stage. He's still very young.

agreed. The actual quote is a bit silly (by any standards he hasn't been "excellent", even HE has admitted as much) but he's been fine and there are encouraging numbers there as well.

is more of a thrower than a pitcher at this point. He has been able to overpower hitters up to this year with his FB. He is relying in his FB in hitter's counts and is getting hit.he has a "drop dead" CB and a developing Change. He is learning not to be predictable and how to set hitter's up. In other words the 21 year old is learning how to become a pitcher. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being bust to 10 being an ace, I give him a 9

He even seems to have a big blow up inning followed by 4/5 innings of good ball(not always) so I think thats encouraging too. He seems to have pitched well in spurts at least.

we lose track of how long it generally takes good pitchers to be good. Clayton Kershaw is a freak, Felix Hernandez is a freak... REALLY good, even GREAT pitchers generally aren't that at 21 years old. Jon Lester debuted at 22 with a 1.65 whip over 15 starts. If we are sitting here in 2016 and he's still struggling then I'll worry.

Shecky, I agree the actual quote is hyperbolic.

has gone through something similar but Im not too particularly alarmed about it. Montero seemed to undue everything that got him to the majors and his pinpoint control kind of fell out the window. Growing pains. I don't expect him to stay lost. He'll regain what made him successful in the first place. These guys weren't going to be ready made aces day one although deGrom seems to be flying in the face of that. Absolutely thrilled with the state of our system.

suggest he'll be fine, his hr/9 is actually down from last season although his bb/9 is slightly up and his k/9 is down.

to be in each others head a bit today. lol

needed a break from the Mets. Went on vacation and cleared my head lol

for Thor is a relief ace or a closer down the road. Obviously that would be disappointing but that still value.

Hitting on just two of thor, degrom, or montero would be huge.

dan, ppl started to wonder where you were for a while. lol

if Thor isn't at least a very good backend starter. More likely a number 2/3. He's years and years of failure away from being converted to a reliever at this point. 6'8 starters throwing 98 with a very good curve do not grow on trees. He's freaking 21.

at least in some compacity. Speaking of hitting on highly rated prospects isn't the ratio supposed to be like 50/50 or something like that? We've certainly hit on Harvey, Wheeler, and deGrom. TDA seems to be legit after the last few weeks. Mejia, Familia, and Black were all highly rated prospects. Lagares was at least a top 25 guy. Almost all of our top rated prospects are performing at high levels throughout our system save for maybe Cechinni. I guess Puello is another I guess but even he seems to be coming out of it lately. How many of our top prospects have bust out? Any?

It's been a year and I still can't get over it. Herrera is a solid defensive 2b who can't hit for average with some pop and will steal some bases. Black has proven himself in the pen having been more than solid for us.

If there is one thing Alderson followed through with - it was the changes to the minor league development. And credit to Collins early on with that as well. There are some great teachers and mentors throughout the system. You don't need every player to reach their ceiling, but raising their floor to a capable role player is important.