The authoritative
FanGraphs website has come out with a ranking of the 30 MLB farm systems—and
the news for Red Sox fans is not good. Boston's minor-league prospects rank next-to-last (#29 ) on the list—ahead of only Seattle. We won't get into the arcane nature of the analysis (maybe
Bill James can explain it to us), but it looks pretty realistic in its assessments. For example, the Padres and Braves top the list—and that is certainly the general consensus (even among non-geeks). Thankfully,
FanGraphs does make a nod to the obvious—that it's kind of OK to have a crap farm system
if you're winning world championships. To wit:
"Winning games and making the playoffs is more important than farm-system rankings, and the latter doesn’t account for young players in the majors or the overall health and strength of a farm system." Of course, they went on to say:
"That said, Boston and Seattle look pretty barren when it comes to prospects." Oh, well.
