Dodgers Named to Top-10 Farm System of Decade List, But Are They Too Low?
MLB prospects have become an ever-popular phenomenon over the past decade or so. Now, more eyes than ever are focused on prospects rather than the young players in an organization being a faceless commodity.
Accordingly, Jim Callis of MLB.com’s MLB Pipeline examines the Top-10 Farm Systems of the decade. Obviously, the Dodgers made the list; which should come as no surprise.
Here’s @jimcallisMLB’s look at #MLB’s 10 best farm systems of the decade: https://t.co/xt0GbLTF0d pic.twitter.com/c7AbA8grnp
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) December 26, 2019
However, what is somewhat surprising is where Callis ranks the Dodgers. He ranks Los Angeles 8th out of 10.
[adace-ad id=”117991″]At any rate, here’s how Callis views LA’s farm work over the past decade.
Dodgers
Los Angeles keeps seamlessly integrating Top 100 Prospects into its perennial National League West championship clubs: Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Walker Buehler, Alex Verdugo, Julío Urias and Will Smith. The Dodgers’ most prolific 2010s graduates so far have been international products Carlos Santana and Yasiel Puig, with Kenley Jansen not far behind.
It’s nice to see the Dodgers as a top-10 team on this list. Still, you wonder how they could have come off ranked a little bit higher — especially with the names listed alone.
As you comb through the list, the only team that didn’t come away with immense success in the last decade who are on it are the Miami Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Indeed, having a great product on the field starts with stocking the cupboard at the minor league level.
Without question, the Dodgers found a way to do this during the days of Ned Colletti leading the way. Then, this trend has continued with Andrew Friedman and his team of scouts through the present day.
While the MLB Draft has become known as a relative ‘crapshoot’ in terms of who pans out and who doesn’t, the Dodgers have found a way to maximize success with their talent identification at the prospect level.
Finally – with a new decade beginning in a few days – it will be interesting to see who gets high marks for their farm in the first few years. By the end of the decade, those teams will be the teams we see experiencing a lot of success, if history is any indication.
NEXT: Ranking the Dodgers Most Likely 2020 All-Stars
The success of a Farm System is witnessed by the success of the players that make the Majors and more so by the number of those players that remain with the team and succeed over a team whose Farm System produced a player that went elsewhere and succeeded on a losing team or stayed and that team still loses.
Yes, it isn’t about one player but the number of players the Dodgers groom and keep while winning yearly and those who have had success elsewhere is a testament to the Farm System of the Dodgers.
This is a reason why the Dodgers should get more in return for their prospects then getting less in return for them. Lindor would be a very nice addition but not at the expense Cleveland wants in prospects. That would hurt the Dodgers far more than any good Lindor would add. Even trading for Betts has a deep effect on the Dodgers depth from the Farm to aid the team when needed and unless Betts signs a long term deal, any deal for him should be considered moot.
The only thing I would say is flags fly forever, and if 2-3 prospects could make that happen; I would sign up for it rather than the chance to maybe win 2 or 3 or contend an extra 2 or 3 years. It will always be a catch-22 in sports but hoarding prospects can come back to bite. They are like stocks.
I’m not saying hoard them. Giving 3-4 top prospects which can equal 6years of solid play by each compared to two since that player becomes a FA. The question is would Lindor be the guaranteed WS winning piece or just a piece that moves another to a different position…JT to 1st and Seager yo 3rd. Is his switch hitter ability really all we need and worth giving up a pitcher or two that we know we need…May and Gonsolin plus two other apparent starters.
I don’t think Lindor will make that much a difference over a health Seager and the contributions of Lux at 2nd and SS. It’s a lot to give up to get player who bats right half the time. We need a right hand hitter but selling the farm for one better be a huge hitter.
Also, losing the WS is tough but we got there. Why we lost is debatable but you don’t play to win 100 plus games with intentions to lose. We can get there again with this team. We need to figure out how they figure us out when we do….other than one of those losses coming from cheating.
Lindor isn’t worth any top level prospect. Certianly not Lux. Pitching is really the issue and could be ok with a good pen. I would be looking more at some kind of deal for Hader. Offer Ruiz, Downs and 1 more mid level guy. Should be enough. It’s clear, Jansen is not reliable any more.
I just rate the prospects numbers in Oct. What’s their batting avg. On base avg and E.R.A. ? Blown saves, strike outs.! How they perform when it counts. But that judgement doesn’t really favor any of these guys except Buehler! Walker has been the quin essential Dodger!!! Maybe someday the rest of this group will rise to the big moments!