Keith Law's Farm System Rankings

[Domeshot17]

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insid...ith&id=3848691

Sox are number 23. Says what a lot of us felt that after Gordon our draft was really suspect. He went so far to say we would have been bottom 5 before picking up Flowers and signing Dayan (although he thinks Dayan is too heavy).

Atleast we moved up some, but our farm is still incredibly sub par overall.

[DirtySox]

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=24671

In Callis' chat today he mentioned that he had us at #14.

[oeo]

Originally Posted by Domeshot17

Says what a lot of us felt that after Gordon our draft was really suspect.

Who?

He went so far to say we would have been bottom 5 before picking up Flowers and signing Dayan (although he thinks Dayan is too heavy).

Oooh, so we hopped up 3 spots in his meaningless rankings? He thinks Dayan is too heavy, . In other words, 'I haven't seen him play, I hear he's a big boy, and he's a member of the White Sox organization...not a keeper.'

Originally Posted by DirtySox

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=24671

In Callis' chat today he mentioned that he had us at #14.

Unless that's a typo, which is possible, that's like the ultimate Sox-farm-system-hater's nightmare. 1)They're not rated in the bottom half of the league and 2)The best in talent evaluation, the almighty Twins, are behind them. No, no, it can't be true. Aren't the Twins the unanimous #1?

[DirtySox]

For those who don't want to wade through all the questions in the chat, he ranked the AL Central Farm Systems as follows:

Indians - 7
Royals - 9
White Sox - 14
Twins - 22
Tigers - 25

[dickallen15]

Farm system rankings mean nothing. The White Sox were once ranked #1 and most of their big prospects turned into average at best major leaguers or insurance salesman. I would rather have my prospects see they are ranked fairly low. Maybe they will think they have something to prove.

[voodoochile]

Originally Posted by oeo

Unless that's a typo, which is possible, that's like the ultimate Sox-farm-system-hater's nightmare. 1)They're not rated in the bottom half of the league and 2)The best in talent evaluation, the almighty Twins, are behind them. No, no, it can't be true. Aren't the Twins the unanimous #1?

Two thoughts... First, they've pretty much brought their entire system up in the last 5 years and second, it's amazing how hard it is to draft good talent when you are winning the division 4 times in 6 years and just missing a 5th time and thus drafting bottom 7 slots on a consistent basis.

[EMachine10]

Originally Posted by voodoochile

Two thoughts... First, they've pretty much brought their entire system up in the last 5 years and second, it's amazing how hard it is to draft good talent when you are winning the division 4 times in 6 years and just missing a 5th time and thus drafting bottom 7 slots on a consistent basis.

True. I've always thought that contributed to our willingness to trade away prospects. If we continued winning the division, our draft choices were not going to be any good and our chances of building a top system becomes so much more difficult.

[oeo]

Originally Posted by voodoochile

Two thoughts... First, they've pretty much brought their entire system up in the last 5 years and second, it's amazing how hard it is to draft good talent when you are winning the division 4 times in 6 years and just missing a 5th time and thus drafting bottom 7 slots on a consistent basis.

I've always thought the Twins have been best at developing players, not necessarily finding the best talent. They can get the best out of fringe players, which is what they do year in and year out. That's how they always stay respectable...they always have that annoying ****er in AAA who comes up and doesn't try to do too much (i.e., hit the ball straight into the turf and run your ass off). They develop good, sound ballplayers, but the talent isn't great (most of the time).

Seems like a lot of people here like to believe the Twins just have unbelievable draft after unbelievable draft, and their farm is just crawling with talent.

[Randar68]

Originally Posted by oeo

I've always thought the Twins have been best at developing players, not necessarily finding the best talent. They can get the best out of fringe players, which is what they do year in and year out. That's how they always stay respectable...they always have that annoying ****er in AAA who comes up and doesn't try to do too much. They develop good, sound ballplayers, but the talent isn't great (most of the time).

Seems like a lot of people here like to believe the Twins just have unbelievable draft after unbelievable draft, and their farm is just crawling with talent.

Uhhh, the Twins didn't exactly "develop" Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Joe Mauer, Liriano, or Justin Mourneau...

their secondary players? that do a good job of stressing fundamentals and the like with those guys so they don't have a lot of gaping holes in their games, but they have had a lot of impact players that were either very high draft picks or just great talents.

[dickallen15]

Originally Posted by voodoochile

Two thoughts... First, they've pretty much brought their entire system up in the last 5 years and second, it's amazing how hard it is to draft good talent when you are winning the division 4 times in 6 years and just missing a 5th time and thus drafting bottom 7 slots on a consistent basis.

The Sox draft position is very overblown as an excuse as to why they haven't developed players. The only 2 players on the 2005 world championship team the White Sox didn't have the opportunity to draft because they were off the board before they selected, were Konerko who went to LA with the 13th pick in 1994. The Sox picked 26th that year and picked Mark Johnson, and Jon Garland who was picked 10th in 1997. The Sox had the 15th pick that year and chose Jason Dellaro, one spot in front of Houston selecting Lance Berkman. There has always been good players available when their turn to select has come up, and for years they made bad decisions.

[oeo]

Originally Posted by Randar68

Uhhh, the Twins didn't exactly "develop" Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Joe Mauer, Liriano, or Justin Mourneau...

their secondary players? that do a good job of stressing fundamentals and the like with those guys so they don't have a lot of gaping holes in their games, but they have had a lot of impact players that were either very high draft picks or just great talents.

Uhhh, this is exactly what I said.

I said, for the most part, the guys that help them a lot are good, fundamentally sound players. The key words being, 'for the most part.' Johan, Nathan, and Liriano are not even products of the Twins' system. If you want to go this route, the Sox have been successful at nabbing other teams' top players, too (Danks, Floyd, Quentin, Jenks). The Sox also had a guy named Magglio Ordonez go through their system years ago (like Hunter).

Mauer and Morneau are just great talents. One of them was from being so awful they got a top pick, the other was just a great snag. Let's not act like everyone that comes through their system is a Justin Morneau, though. It's more likely you will find a Buscher, a Casilla, a Kubel, etc.

[FedEx227]

Originally Posted by Randar68

Uhhh, the Twins didn't exactly "develop" Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Joe Mauer, Liriano, or Justin Mourneau...

their secondary players? that do a good job of stressing fundamentals and the like with those guys so they don't have a lot of gaping holes in their games, but they have had a lot of impact players that were either very high draft picks or just great talents.

Well first off, half of those guys didn't even come through their system. Santana, Nathan and Liriano all came through other systems. Nathan wasn't even a prospect when they acquired him, Santana was a Rule 5 pickup and Liriano was a thrown-in to the AJ deal.

They are great at teaching, through all their levels of developement they learn all the same things. It's not like they go to A and are told to drive the ball out of the park, then go to AA and told, put it on the ground and steal bases, it's a very fluid, well coached, well managed minor league system.

[FedEx227]

Originally Posted by dickallen15

The Sox draft position is very overblown as an excuse as to why they haven't developed players. The only 2 players on the 2005 world championship team the White Sox didn't pass on during the draft were Konerko who went to LA with the 13th pick in 1994. The Sox picked 26th that year and picked Mark Johnson, and Jon Garland who was picked 10th in 1997. The Sox had the 15th pick that year and chose Jason Dellaro, one spot in front of Houston selecting Lance Berkman. There has always been good players available when their turn to select has come up, and for years they made bad decisions.

I hate the draft position argument, you can look all across baseball and find top-tier players that 30 teams passed on multiple times. It's less about drafting and more about how you develop those guys, in my mind. There is going to be talent no matter what round you pick, it's about finding what you want and knowing how to develop them into what you want.

Originally Posted by FedEx227

I hate the draft position argument, you can look all across baseball and find top-tier players that 30 teams passed on multiple times. It's less about drafting and more about how you develop those guys, in my mind. There is going to be talent no matter what round you pick, it's about finding what you want and knowing how to develop them into what you want.

Agreed. Boston has done well with their minor league system despite being competitive every year (Papelbon, Ellsbury, Pedroia, Lowrie, Lester, Bowden, Buchholz, Lars Anderson).

[Bucky F. Dent]

Originally Posted by DirtySox

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=24671

In Callis' chat today he mentioned that he had us at #14.

Also, when asked to chose the best Sox prospect amongst a group that included Beckham, Danks, and Quentin, he selected Beckham.

Now, he may have dismissed Danks and Quentin from the list because he no longer considered them prospects, but if not, that is quite an endorsement of Beckham!