Baseball Musings: Farm Systems

July 25, 2005

Farm Systems

Dan Agonistes quotes from an interview with Kevin Goldstein on the farm systems of the Red Sox, Braves and Dodgers:

KG: Sure. The Red Sox system has certainly taken a step forward, particularly in terms of pitching, with Jon Lester, Jon Papelbon and Anibal Sanchez all having seasons one could categorize as breakout. So while it’s an improving system and they have every reason to happy, they’re still not in the same league as the Dodgers or Braves. The Dodgers have one of the best systems in baseball and the Braves, well, we’ve seen most of their prospects at the major league level recently. They also do a remarkable job of scouting and development – it seems like they’re always loaded with prospects."

I've heard this about the Dodgers before. When DePodesta took over, he praised the Dodgers' great farm system. What I'm wondering now is why I'm not seeing any evidence of that great farm system at the major league level.

If the farm system was so great, why did the Dodgers trade for a Yankees prospect at catcher? Why did they sign Jeff Kent instead of playing Antonio Perez? Why haven't they brought up someone decent to replace Drew? Why do they have Lowe and Weaver in the rotation? Why did they give eight starts to Scott Erickson?

The Braves got in trouble, and they actually had prospects in their farm system that could play. DePodesta's old boss keeps finding people in his minor league system that can play at the major league level. Why not the Dodgers? If it's such a great system, why aren't we seeing a good, young team?

Posted by David Pinto at 04:38 PM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)

Comments

The Dodgers get a lot of press about their farm system - and it in fact is a very good one. Unfortunately one thing I've noticed is a dearth of good OF prospects lately, and not a whole lot at catcher (which is why Navarro should be a good pickup for them). If you check out John Sickel's top 20 prospects for the Dodgers, there is one OF and one C - a ton of IF's and pitchers.

http://www.minorleagueball.com/story/2005/3/2/95018/95680

They have a great SS in Joel Guzman, and they did get Brazoban from the Yankees. Joe Thurston never panned out, and Edwin Jackson is still a work in progress. Chad Billingsley projects to be a #2 starter, and Andy LaRoche also projects to be a star 3B (never seen a picture of him - does he have a unibrow like his brother?) - his numbers are ridiculous, iirc.

So they have plenty of talent in-system - unfortunately, they insist on sticking by their established arms and bats. We should definitely see a lot of the talent by 2007 though... the Dodgers, the Braves and the Indians are stockpiling some good talent, and it will be interesting to see how the division dynamics change in a couple of years

Posted by: Will at July 25, 2005 05:13 PM

Maybe their best prospects are too far down in A and AA ball, but I admit that I was thinking the same thing when I read that quote.

The point remains for Boston too, however. If Dustin Pedroia is so great (and I think he is) then why did Theo just trade for Tony Graffanino? If John Lester and Jon Papelbon are so terrific why aren't they helping to fix the Red Sox's titanic-of-a-bullpen?

Posted by: mattymatty at July 25, 2005 05:15 PM

Well, Pedroia is only 21, so Graffanino is not a bad short term solution.

I'm not sure why Papelbon isn't up yet.

My question is why they signed Edgar Renteria when they knew Han Ram could be ready as soon as 2006. That's a much more puzzling situation than Pedroia/Graffanino.

Posted by: Will at July 25, 2005 05:22 PM

There's an argument -- and I confess, I haven't much studied it -- that says the Dodgers' best draftees are at single-A and AA. The problems I have with that argument are named Edwin Jackson, Joel Hanrahan, Greg Miller, and James Loney, all of whom were supposed to be upper-tier prospects, and all of whom have either stalled or regressed since their announcement as top prospects. Others claim that the huge majority of the 2002-2005 draft classes are on their way on schedule. (Read the whole catfight here.) In short, I'm getting impatient with the calls for patience; the Logan White drafts started three years ago. Surely, somebody ought to be ready by now, some super-duper-prospect ought to have blown through the system. I mean, sure, it's great to be "on schedule", but so are a lot of disappointments.

Posted by: Rob McMillin at July 25, 2005 05:28 PM

Pedroia has struggled since getting hit by a pitch on the hand a few weeks ago. Likely no Graffanino signing if that didn't happen.

Posted by: Sox Fan at July 25, 2005 06:48 PM