Prospect Pipeline

The goal of every Major League Baseball team is to draft and develop All-Stars. These players are the very best talents and will be the faces of the sport for a long time to come. 

Despite having All-Star goals for every prospect drafted or, in the case of international players, signed, it's not as simple as saying that a player who has All-Star potential will reach that ceiling. 

If you're a fan of young, high-ceiling pitching prospects, then it doesn't get much better than the Toronto Blue Jays' system.

Right-hander Marcus Stroman is poised to make an impact in the major leagues next season, and he may have opened the year in the starting rotation if not for a 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in early 2013. Regardless, the 22-year-old's aggressive approach and command of three plus pitches will make him a fixture in the starting rotation for years to come.

While the Phillies system is thin on projectable talent and ranks in the bottom tier among all organizations, things are starting to look up thanks to the emergence of slugger Maikel Franco and shortstop J.P. Crawford.

The Chicago Cubs' collection of top prospects is among the best in baseball, with four players who will rank in next week’s top 50 prospects update and a few more who would land in the top 100.

Leading the pack is shortstop Javier Baez, who is arguably the most exciting offensive prospect in the game. Last season, the now-21-year-old posted a .920 OPS with 37 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 537 plate appearances between High-A Daytona and Double-A Tennessee.

In 2012, Boston’s dismal season and last-place finish in the American League East obscured the enormous progress made by their top prospects down on the farm.

Last season, though, everything clicked for the organization from top to bottom.

While it was a down year for San Francisco Giants pitchers, the same can’t be said for the organization’s promising young arms in the minor leagues.

With four World Series appearances in the last decade, the St. Louis Cardinals are baseball’s closest thing to a dynasty. 

However, rather than procuring talent during the offseason like most large-market franchises, the Cardinals continue to produce winning teams the old-fashioned way: by developing players.

That being said, a strong case can be made that the Cardinals would not have reached the postseason—let alone the World Series—if not for their impressive young arms.

The Los Angeles Dodgers system took a hit last season with the graduation of top prospect Yasiel Puig to the major leagues. However, the organization had a slew of other promising young players step up in his place.

The New York Yankees were decimated by injuries this year, though it did allow them to set a new franchise record by using 56 different players.

Things went just as poorly for the Yankees' top prospects down on the farm. Two of the organization’s more promising young arms, Manny Banuelos and Ty Hensley, didn’t throw a pitch and missed the entire year with respective injuries.

While there haven’t been many trades this offseason that involved high-profile prospects, teams have been quietly filling holes on their respective 25- and 40-man rosters with under-the-radar deals for displaced prospects.