Comments on: ESPN.com’s Keith Law rates Padres as top farm system

By: dnc6

dnc6 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:56:26 +0000

It says that the Indians just promoted their top two prospects and traded away 3 and 4 for a front of the rotation pitcher, not much else. With Santana, Cabrera, Masterson, Chisenhall, Kipnis and Jimenez and a wealth of bullpen arms, the Indians have a good deal of young talent on the roster. I’m not sure why you’re hung up on prospect rankings.

By: Ari Collins

Ari Collins — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:55:28 +0000

And #1 in Sickels’ rankings, cur.

Don’t worry, I’m not too baited. Not by a homer who thinks ESPN is biased against the Yankees. It’s really too bad that ESPN doesn’t play Yankee games and talk about how great they are. They should really do that! And maybe more Red Sox games too, while they’re at it. Maybe they could– no, that’s just silly. But maybe… maybe they could play some games where New York plays AGAINST Boston? No, they’re far too biased against New York and Boston and large media markets in general to do that more than once every couple of years.

By: dnc6

dnc6 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:53:49 +0000

If you ever find a way to contribute to society, I’ll make sure to tell people to ignore you until you provide it for free.

By: bigtrav425

bigtrav425 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:27:16 +0000

the Indians being ranked 29th says all you need to know about the inept running of the organization by the Dolans,shapiro and antonetti…..pleaseeeeeeeee for my own insanity leave town!!!

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:12:05 +0000

I hope bozosforall is paying attention. THIS is how you bait a Sox fan, folks!
*says the guy who’s rooting interest’s farm is ranked #3*

By: ame123

ame123 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:02:20 +0000

25th.

By: drmonkeyarmy

drmonkeyarmy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:27:33 +0000

Let’s get down to brass tax, where are the Phillies on the list?

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:25:58 +0000

Because this is some people’s, like Law’s, livelihood, and the man has to feed his family?

By: takingbovadasmoney

takingbovadasmoney — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:26:32 +0000

That is funny since I had Law rated as the 16th rated baseball analyst at The Worldwide Leader.

By: icanspeel

icanspeel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:15:31 +0000

I am a Padres fan, and the future looks bright, but they did trade or not sign free agents to get draft picks of most or all of their current stars for prospects to get to the #1 spot lol

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:57:08 +0000

Ari, Sorry to disagree with you about ESPN. But I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you.

By: Ari Collins

Ari Collins — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:50:49 +0000

ESPN, if anything, has a bias TOWARDS New York (and all big media markets).

Keith Law, however, is an evenhanded and unbiased sabermetrician, in addition to being an excellent scout with many scouting and front office contracts.

Same with Sickels.

By: vanmorrissey

vanmorrissey — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:43:56 +0000

After the debacle Farm system under Towers, with Moorad ownership it’s turned around. Whether it translates to wins at the MLB level is another story. Believe KC was 1st last year and is expected to make a run next year or 2014, same as what to expect in SD.

By: tcostant

tcostant — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:42:33 +0000

Why even post links behind the “pay wall”? Instead of driving business to ESPN, lets ignore these until they are free for everyone, like Al Gore intended the internet to be.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:38:05 +0000

Not that it makes a difference….but Law grew up a Yankee fan.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:25:54 +0000

Ari as I said, It isn’t BA. But for the most part I’ve never found the reporters at ESPN to give the Yankees the benefit of the doubt in their commentary. Most of the time it quiet the opposite. But, that’s just my opinion.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:25:39 +0000

If you’re going to have 1 smart guy, why not have 2 smart guys? I’m guessing Hoyer deals with contracts and daily activities while Theo scopes out big picture, drafting and philosophical direction-type work.

Not like this is rare – Boston, Oakland, Miami, etc all have GM’s and Presidents.

By: Ari Collins

Ari Collins — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:08:13 +0000

And Sickels has Boston at #11 and NYY at #16.

We’ll see what Baseball America says, since while I generally like Sickels the best (his track record is better than BA, and that’s with being pretty hard about himself about past misrankings, something BA never honestly owns up to), BA’s considered the more-or-less official source.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:04:02 +0000

Ari, don’t worry. I won’t let the cat out of the bag either.

Although, some fans on this very site doubted me the other week when we were talking about where the Yankees farm system would be rated when the BA rankings came out in March. Well Keith Law’s ESPN ranking isn’t BA but as I thought back then the Yankees would be rated in the top 10.

I don’t want to give out the exact ranking but the Yankees just made it in Law’s ranking coming in between 9 and 11. I won’t give out the number the Red Sox came in at other then to say to between 17 and 19. The operative word there is BETWEEN for both the Yankees and Red Sox rankings.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:58:06 +0000

Some fans on this very site doubted me the other week when we were talking about where the Yankees farm system would be rated when the BA rankings came out in March. Well Keith Law’s ESPN ranking isn’t BA but as I thought back then the Yankees would be rated in the top 10.

Well the Yankees just made it in Law’s ranking at #10. I won’t give out at what number the Red Sox came in at other then to say to between 17 and 19. The operative word there is BETWEEN.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:56:58 +0000

“8. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates’ top tier of prospects is very strong, but there’s surprisingly little depth given how high they’ve drafted and how much they’ve spent on amateur talent.”

By: The Rabbit

The Rabbit — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:44:06 +0000

Where are the Pirates on this list? You’d think that a perennial bottom dweller would have some talent from the draft.

By: b7p19

b7p19 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:43:10 +0000

The Latos trade and their interest in the carribean have a lot to do with it. I liked Hoyer though, he’ll be a good patsy for Theo (why do they need 2 GM’s again?)

By: Matt Adams

Matt Adams — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:42:58 +0000

Rios was clearly a mistake. Dunn, there is no way you see that coming. Kenny hasn’t exactly been any sort of miracle worker but he also hasn’t done as poorly as folks like to make it sound.

By: Ari Collins

Ari Collins — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:39:04 +0000

Keith Law has my Red Sox as an average system (more than that, I won’t say; ESPN Insider is worth it just for Law). Sickels has them at #11. Those and Baseball America are the most well-regarded prospect rankers. Be interesting to see where BA has us.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:32:39 +0000

I’m hoping some of this had to do with Hoyer, as he is now my team’s GM

Good to hear some good news about the Padres. Healthy teams are good for MLB.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:13:49 +0000

Reinsdorf also refuses to spend money on amateur talent. It is hard to build a solid system when your boss refuses to give the the budget to be competitive drafting, signing, and developing talent.

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:08:43 +0000

From what I recall, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is extremely loyal to his people, more so than his players (insert comments about Michael Jordan here).

By: El Bravo

El Bravo — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:58:41 +0000

Ken Williams dropped the ball this off season…I guess it runs in the family. BAM!

By: missthedayswhenwedidnthavetologin

missthedayswhenwedidnthavetologin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:42:35 +0000

Pretty soon his son is going need to get a new job, think Kannapolis has any vacancies?