Organizational Rankings

[HoustonGM]

But mostly I just think while you can question releasing Hill, it wasn't THAT big of a deal, certainly not worthy of "We're going to promote the North Carolina TarHeels to the 30 spot." I'll take my Nats against the North Carolina Tar Heels in a 162 game season. All day long.

That comment was in jest. I don't think anybody seriously believes that any college team has a legitimate chance against any major league team.

[200tang]

I hope the Cabrera thing works out, but I'm not holding my breath. Cabrera has some nice stuff, but he wouldn't know the strike zone if you formally introduced him to it prior to each inning. The thing with him is, he's had ample time now to see if he would learn command, and he hasn't.

Command is definitely something to be worried about with Cabrera, but command can be fixed (not saying it's likely, but it's definitely a possibility) and after this off season his stuff should hopefully return to normal after his MPH dropped off toward the end of last year.

At the very least though I applaud the Nationals for taking a chance on him. I don't know what his salary is or what they gave up for him (if anything), but at least they seem to understand they need to take some risks.

[OldFatGuy]

So what do you guys think about Kearns???

Am I the only one that thinks he's really not much. Maybe a solid fourth OF at best, or would you guys rate him higher than that, and if so, why?

Sorry, guess it's turning into a Nats thread. Didn't mean to do that. I'll stop here.

[200tang]

So what do you guys think about Kearns???

Am I the only one that thinks he's really not much. Maybe a solid fourth OF at best, or would you guys rate him higher than that, and if so, why?

Sorry, guess it's turning into a Nats thread. Didn't mean to do that. I'll stop here.

solid 4th OF. He could be a pretty decent trade chip once his salary comes down.

[filihok]

So what do you guys think about Kearns???

Great defensive outfielder. Has the tools to be better but hasn't 'figured it out'

Am I the only one that thinks he's really not much. Maybe a solid fourth OF at best, or would you guys rate him higher than that, and if so, why?

A very good 4th OFer

Sorry, guess it's turning into a Nats thread. Didn't mean to do that. I'll stop here.

Nats Thread!

[haveacigar]

Ned Colletti got killed in the latest one, Dodgers at 13. Rangers at 12.

I think he underrated the Dodgers farm system quite a bit.

[HoustonGM]

Ned Colletti got killed in the latest one, Dodgers at 13. Rangers at 12.

I think he underrated the Dodgers farm system quite a bit.

I don't. Baseball America ranked them 23rd. Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus ranked them 21st. The Hardball Times system, using a combination of Top 100 Prospect lists, ranked them 22nd. Keith Law ranked them 20th.

That's a pretty strong consensus, which I think warrants Cameron's C+ rating of them. If anything, that might be a slight overrate. The thing with the Dodgers is that most of their high-upside, young guys are already in the majors. As Cameron says, "The young core of Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, James Loney, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, and Jonathan Broxton is an enviable one to build around."

[haveacigar]

I don't. Baseball America ranked them 23rd. Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus ranked them 21st. The Hardball Times system, using a combination of Top 100 Prospect lists, ranked them 22nd. Keith Law ranked them 20th.

That's a pretty strong consensus, which I think warrants Cameron's C+ rating of them. If anything, that might be a slight overrate. The thing with the Dodgers is that most of their high-upside, young guys are already in the majors. As Cameron says, "The young core of Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, James Loney, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, and Jonathan Broxton is an enviable one to build around."

Yeah, I guess I need to get used to the fact that all of the Dan Evans guys are finally on the team.

[haveacigar]

Oh, and am I the only one who doesn't think Elvis Andrus will develop into a decent hitter?

[200tang]

Uh oh, The Diamondbacks released Jailen Peguero. Here come the Mariners to sweep him up!

Actually that's just total speculation on my part, but I actually think it might come true.

[200tang]

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.

Let me first apologize now for my grammar, it's 6:40ish AM here and I've been up all night

On-field talent in 5-6 years is almost moot (depending on the team of course, I'm looking at you Tampa). Sure St. Louis has a great team now, but without Pujols they look a lot less shiny. I'm not saying they won't be able to keep him, but it's definitely a strong possibility. And even if they do every team in the majors is going to be jumbled up.

As far as minor league talent goes, Seattle has one of, if not the best, talent evaluators in the league running things right now and he has 4 top 50 picks at his disposal this year. One of which being second overall. Assuming that he at least gets 2 right, and that's being pessimistic in my opinion, our minor leagues will be filled with the following.

Aumont
Truinfel
Saunders
Halman
2 of the top 50 picks from next year

And those are just the guys at the top, Seattle also has some nice mid upside guys in the minors (Carp, Tui, Moore, etc...). I wouldn't put a top 10 minor league system out of reach for Seattle in 2010.

Also, as far as ' AND that that difference makes up for the advantage in on-field talent' goes, I think I'll have to disagree. There have been many teams with on-field talent that were completely squandered by their new front office. While we're on the Seattle topic go back to 2001. Seemed like a good team but now look at us . Creating the 100-100 club. How about Tampa 5 years ago? Or look at the Florida Marlins, they win stuff and then they go on a crazy fire sale and then come back to compete a few years down the road because of smart managing. I'm not trying to say that Seattle HAS a better GM than St. Louis, just that a good GM is much more important than on-field talent.

[HoustonGM]

I'm not trying to say that Seattle HAS a better GM than St. Louis, just that a good GM is much more important than on-field talent.

I think it depends entirely on who that GM is and what the on-field talent is. When referring to "on-field talent", I was referring to both the major league talent and the farm system. St. Louis is a consensus top-10 farm system, usually ranked around #8, with the opinions on Seattle being more various, but still a consensus in the lower half, around the 17-22 area. But, my main point of concern was that I don't think we know enough about the two GMs to put the distance between them great enough to overcome the edge in talent, minor and major league, that St. Louis has. If this was Billy Beane vs. Ned Colletti, yes, but it's two new GMs...and I understand that we know about their previous work, like Jack Z with Milwaukee, but I'd still like to see more from both him and Mozeliak as an MLB GM before putting the gap between them so large.

[200tang]

Well I also believe front office is more than just the GM and Seattle has put together a lot of talented minds. Still I can definitely see your points.

[HoustonGM]

Well I also believe front office is more than just the GM and Seattle has put together a lot of talented minds. Still I can definitely see your points.

I agree on the Seattle front office...I'd just like to see a bit more first.

[HoustonGM]

Well, we're through 26 teams:

#30: Washington Nationals
#29: Florida Marlins
#28: Houston Astros
#27: Kansas City Royals
#26: Pittsburgh Pirates
#25: San Diego Padres
#24: Cincinnati Reds
#23: Colorado Rockies
#22: Detroit Tigers
#21: St. Louis Cardinals
#20: Toronto Blue Jays
#19: San Francisco Giants
#18: Minnesota Twins
#17: Chicago White Sox
#16: Baltimore Orioles
#15: Seattle Mariners
#14: Philadelphia Phillies
#13: Los Angeles Dodgers
#12: Texas Rangers
#11: Oakland Athletics
#10: Los Angeles Angels
#9: Arizona Diamondbacks
#8: Atlanta Braves
#7: Chicago Cubs
#6: Milwaukee Brewers
#5: New York Mets


That leaves the final four of the tri-headed monster in the AL East (Boston, New York, Tampa Bay) and...Cleveland? Cleveland's better than a lot of people give them credit for, but they still have a shaky pitching staff... They'd probably make my top 10-12 or so, but they're probably going to be ranked 4th by Cameron...hm...