Organizational Rankings

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

I would rank them behind Oakland, easily, as Oakland has a fantastic front office and one of the best farm systems in the game, and would probably also rank them behind the White Sox because of their GM....but Seattle and Baltimore? I can't think of any reason to rank them ahead of Minnesota (and St. Louis).

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Matt Weiters

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

He is...I've tried not to bring that up though, because from what I've seen, he's able to have rational thoughts not blinded by his rooting interests (unlike some other posters here ;)).

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That's what I thought. I think he's placing way too much emphasis on handing out big money to "stars."

I mean, MacPhail still has to prove that all of his prospects can make it in the major leagues and contribute. Stocking the farm system is great, but the major league roster is still awful even if you put Weiters there now. Having a bunch of nice pitching prospects doesn't change the fact that the Twins and Cardinals are in much better shape to compete. I wonder if Cameron is just weighting the major league roster very low in his rating.

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Originally Posted by filihok

Matt Weiters

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You are correct, sir. I cannot believe I forgot Matt Wieters.

Seattle is still dodging the bullet eh.

White Sox are 17 right next to Minnesota which I think is appropriate. They're in similar positions.

The Orioles come in at 16. I think he's significantly overrating their major league talent, though. While they have a great, young outfield, and overall, their position players aren't that bad...that pitching staff is just atrocious.

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

The Orioles come in at 16. I think he's significantly overrating their major league talent, though. While they have a great, young outfield, and overall, their position players aren't that bad...that pitching staff is just atrocious.

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What about Tillman, Matusz, and Arrieta? That's one of the best trio of pitching prospects in baseball and if this is a forward looking exercise then...

Also : Weiters, Jones, Markakis, Roberts, Felix Pie? I can definitely see them being 16.

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Originally Posted by 200tang

What about Tillman, Matusz, and Arrieta? That's one of the best trio of pitching prospects in baseball and if this is a forward looking exercise then...

Also : Weiters, Jones, Markakis, Roberts, Felix Pie? I can definitely see them being 16.

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I was speaking of his MLB talent rating, of B-. I'd give their POSITION PLAYERS maybe a B....but their pitching an F or D-, which add's up to maybe a D+ or a C, not a B-. He gave them A- on their minor league talent, which I agree with, and that is where that trio of pitchers and Wieters go.

Anyway, Seattle's at 15. Still not seeing how they get that high. Compared to the Cardinals, he lists Seattle's minor and major league talent worse, which is absolutely true. He has Seattle's ownership slightly better, which I'll give...I don't know that much about either team's owners. So the difference comes down to him rating Seattle's front office with a B and St. Louis's a C, and considering both GMs are fairly new, I'm not ready to definitively state that one is a full letter grade better than the other, AND that that difference makes up for the advantage in on-field talent.

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

So the difference comes down to him rating Seattle's front office with a B and St. Louis's a C, and considering both GMs are fairly new, I'm not ready to definitively state that one is a full letter grade better than the other, AND that that difference makes up for the advantage in on-field talent.

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Well he has to give the front office some sort of grade so he has to go by what he knows and between the 2, Z has done more (although he unfairly also has lots more to fix).

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Originally Posted by Dave

Since the new administration took over, the M’s have hired Tom Tango (inventor of half of the cool stuff here on FanGraphs), created a Department of Baseball Research to be staffed by sabermetricians, replaced their advance scouting with a video database, and then showed how to put the new found intelligence in the organization to use, collecting significant undervalued assets, hiring an analytical coaching staff, and building a depth of talent that should allow the Mariners to surprise most people this season while simultaneously building for the future.

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mixing the best of both worlds can't be bad...hopefully :)

I think Seattle's front office will turn over very well, but I'd like to see more before giving them so much credit (while not giving similar credit to St. Louis's). And even so, I don't think a slightly better front office outweighs a much better collection of talent.

I think the author of this thing is just giving WAYYYYY too much weight on whether or not he likes the GM's methods of getting things done and whether or not he likes the owner. He seems to evaluate the talent well enough for the most part..but then just seems to give a much different overall grade than you'd expect...like with the Mariners..there is no chance in hell their organization is "healthier" than over half the franchises in MLB as of this very moment.

This is what I mean when I say fangraphs gets a little too deep into their stats and graphs and whatnot. I think they have a lot of interesting info on that site, but I think they have gotten too deep into it and have lost sight of the big picture. That's why I greatly prefer BP to pretty much anywhere else..they use the stats and all that, but they mix in some factors that statisticaly analysis sometimes can't account for.

Seattle hired Tom Tango...of course they had to be on the plus side of average

The dark is afraid of Tom Tango

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Originally Posted by filihok

Seattle hired Tom Tango...of course they had to be on the plus side of average

The dark is afraid of Tom Tango

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I think you misspelled "Matt Wieters."

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

I think you misspelled "Matt Wieters."

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off-topic, but man, watching how this kid does this year is going to be one of the things everyone is going to have an eye on. If he really does do as well as everyone thinks then it would be hard to see him be anything other than MVP and ROTY (pending other players performance of course). I don't know how good his arm is, but they might as well just convert him to a pitcher/catcher and let him take the ball every fifth day so he can take the Cy Young as well.

EDIT : you know what's really sad? If he could actually pitch at least average he would be Baltimore's best pitcher xD