With the minor league baseball season coming to an end, it's time for an updated look at how all 30 farm systems stack up around the league.
The following factors helped determine the rankings of players and teams:
- Potential (Player): Potential trumps production a lot of the time, especially in the lower levels of the minors and with recent draft picks. Skill set and overall tools are often a better indication of what kind of player a guy will be in the future.
- Talent (Player): As for guys in the higher levels of the minors who are close to breaking through at the big league level, production and current talent level are the determining factors, as they are viewed as a more complete product.
- Overall Depth (Team): Having one or two elite prospects is great, but having a deep farm system from top to bottom is the way to build a sustainable contender. The overall depth and level of talent was the biggest factor in ranking each team.
- High-End Talent (Team): That being said, there is a difference between a prospect who has a chance of making an impact at the big league level and a prospect who could be a star. Elite prospects served as a tiebreaker of sorts when two teams were close in the rankings.
An updated list of the top 10 prospects for each team has been provided, as well as some general analysis on top prospects, recent draft picks and the outlook of each farm system as a whole.
It should be noted that players on the big league roster who have not yet used up their rookie status (130 AB, 50 IP, 45 days on roster) were included as prospects, though players on pace to surpass those marks before the season ends were not included.
Note: MLB.com's Prospect Watch served as the baseline for each team's list of top 10 prospects and each prospect's ETA, though changes were made to both along the way to reflect my own personal opinion.
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