Keith Law ranks the Phillies farm system 5th in MLB

Top Prospect Lists

Head over to espn.com and check out Keith’s writeup (insider only) of the 30 farm systems. He highlights the Phillies ridiculously stocked Lakewood team in 2010, and also highlights that we’ve stocked our system, despite all the trades, on a relatively tight budget. Imagine if we equipped our scouts, some of the best in the game, with the budgets of the big spending teams. Also, that sound you hear is Mets fans screaming that life just isn’t fair. The Mets found themselves ranked 26th. Better luck next year!

71 thoughts on “Keith Law ranks the Phillies farm system 5th in MLB”

    1. I was waiting for this haha. So happy it was the first comment.

      Maybe this can put an end to the “KLaw hates the Phillies” stuff(when said seriously).

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  2. Another interesting bit on the Mets…they have ZERO prospects in MLB.coms Top 50. Only Wilmer Flores comes in at #58 in the “Just Missed” portion of the article. The near future is grim for them.

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    1. As always the Mets are an overrated farm system by most people simply because they have 18 year old latino kids in AA overmatched but have shown + power or a plus fastball in 2007 when they were signed.

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      1. 26th doesn’t seem overrated to me. Plus Davis and Mejia are not on this list, I think its much greater though that every mets fan was hanging there hat on the fact that we gave so much talent away in trades. They said “they are mortgaging their future in a few years they are screwed.” Now they are saying this is obviously completely wrong about the Phils farm and Keith Law has a bias against the Mets. Lol keith hates everyone

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    1. Well, lots of those guys will be in Clearwater this time around so it might not be as fun. Still, there’s still gonna be a lot of young talent so its probably worth it.

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      1. My trip to Lakewood to see Trevor May pitch was the highlight of last baseball season for me, at least in terms of in-person viewing.

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  4. Its interesting to note that the Royals have by far the best farm system in baseball only a couple years after Mike Arbuckle jumped ship to go there and head up their scouting dept. Seems like he has a pretty decent track record in that area at this point.

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      1. Arbuckle did a great job drafting high up for us too. It should be noted that not all of the Royals prospects or even our guys were 1st round picks. Rollins and Howard are good examples on our end and Lamb, Montgomery and Dwyer (on the Royals) were sandwich, 4th or 5th round guys respectively. Clearly Arbuckle is adept at running a scouting dept.

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        1. How do we know they were Arbuckle’s picks? I love Arbuckle and don’t know why we let him go, but let’s not go pretending he is responsible for 100% of the Royals talent. Also, they’re the Royals.

          I like to think the Phillies can still draft well. I don’t know if they can to be honest, but I like to think that.

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        2. umm fifth ranked farm system seems to say we can draft juuussstt fine. Now to pump some more money into the draft please ruben.

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        3. Arbuckle quit because they chose Rube over him for the GM spot. Its just business. Dont get me wrong, I dont regret that one bit but I was just making a quick comment that clearly he’s been in charge of scouting for both us and now the Royals and both clubs did quite well while he was there.

          Wolever has continued to do a great job in Arbuckle’s absence so its obviously not a bad thing for us that he left.

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    2. Most of these guys were there before Arbuckle, he’s a good scouting kinda guy but he’s not the reason they’re up there. They’re up their because they have dumped $$ into the draft the past 5 years & pick top every year.

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      1. Some were, some weren’t. They’ve done a good job of acquiring prospects via trades the last few years too and the scouting dept comes into that too.

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        1. Fwiw on Arbuckles drafts there, he looks like he may have missed on Aaron Crow, hit on Wil Myers & Chris Dwyer.

          Too early to say anything about 2010’s draft. But the vast majority of these guys are pre-Arbuckle.

          Hosmer, Lamb, Montgomery were all 08, Moustakas & Duffy in 07.

          Not sure you can really credit him towards the farm system all that much, as they were clearly churning out prospects in drafts before him.

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    3. There was an interesting question in ask BA asking them to rank two sets of Royals prospects: those acquired since the start of 2010 and those acquired before 2010. The pre-2010 group would still rank #1, and just those prospects acquired through the draft and trades since the start of 2010 would still be in the 16-20 range. Pretty amazing.

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  5. I didn’t realize KLaw was as high on our specs as this. How many do you think are in his top 100? 4? 5?

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    1. If Cosart is #51, you gotta assume that Colvin is right up there too and even Trevor May could be in the Top 100.

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      1. Sorry, you’re referring to KLaw’s Top 100, not the MLB.com list. Yeah, I agree that this is probably a big foreshadowing for us tomorrow with his Top 100.

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  7. I hope the recent major league spending spree does not make the club more hesitant to spend on the farm system. For the right players, it is certainly worth the investment.

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  8. But, man, to be ranked 5th after all of those trades is amazing and I only expect the farm to become stronger now that our trade needs are clearly much less pronounced. Unless we get a string of injuries, I predict only one significant trade will occur during the year – it will be a trade for a corner outfielder who will replace Ibanez next year and will provide added hitting and depth for a postseason run. Bank on it.

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    2. I honestly think theyre done dealing the prospects. The biggest slight on the organization right now is age. If anything does go down in the season that could involve significant prospects would be a deal for someone like Heath Bell if the back end of the bullpen falters… which could easily happen again.

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  9. 5 Phillies prospects make KLAW’s top 100. 2 or 3 in top 25 (forget if Cosart was in top 50 or top 25).

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        1. im trying to find it… hes not bullshitting though. I saw a mets article stating they had 2 prospects in the top 100 and gave the numbers.

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  10. Oh yeah, Drabek and D’Arnaud are in top 25 and top 50 respectively, as well. No one from any Cliff Lee trade shows up anywhere (The Curse of Cliff Lee?)

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        3. Yeah, his K/9 ratio is just sick. I’m guessing his arm bounced back from the surgery with no issues. I’m guessing he moves fast this year if he stays healthy.

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        4. Thats good to hear about Knapp, I wish him the best. For as much as people say the Phillies didn’t give anything up in that trade, if healthy Knapp is a very good prospect and even Carrasco had some success in the majors last year.

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  11. Carrasco looks like he’s going to be a good MLB pitcher as well, probably won’t be an ace but he seems like a decent middle of the rotation starter who can dominant on his best days.

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    1. Carrasco was pretty solid down the stretch for the Indians. He had something like 6 QS in 7 GS for them in the final 5 weeks of the season with good peripherals.

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  12. Number 5 is great, though it seems based on tools and projection, not upper level talent, outside of Brown. That’s fine, of course, but it means we have to see how these kids ripen.

    Where do folks think this system could be if it hadn’t made any trades over the last few years: Cardenas, Outman, Knapp, Carrasco, Taylor, Drabek, DeArnaud, Gose, and Villar? I bet Drabek and DeArnaud push us above the Braves, but I wonder if they get us over the Rays or the Royals.

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    1. The Royals have perhaps the best farm system of the last 30 years. No ranking above them. D’Arnaud and Drabek would be nice pieces to have. But when Roy Halladay gave us two of the great games in Phillies history in one season, I’m hardly going to sweat that trade.

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      1. Oh, I’m not saying we should take any trade back for the sake of having a great farm system. All I’m wondering is – really as a thought experiment – where would we rank if we hadn’t been dolling out talent for the last three years+.

        I agree, not above the Royals, and perhaps not above the Rays either. But I’d say pretty close to the Rays, with D’Arnaud (thanks for the correct spelling) and Drabek.

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    3. It is the price for success. Kansas City always has had a strong system since 92 when Johnny Damon was playing cf for the Wilmington Blue Rocks. But their big leaague squad is small market. It is the balancing act of a strong minor league system and a strong big league team. We all talk about the young names here in the minor league system and it would be great to see someday Cosart, Colvin, May, Biddle, Singleton, Valle, etc all wear a Phillies uniform. But most likely that won’t happen. You sometime have to take that strength from your minor leagues to improve your big league team. Ruben Amaro does a great job with that. Guys like Drabek, Carrasco, D’Arnaud, Gose, and Villar could have good careers. Halladay, Lee, and Oswalt we know can contribute

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      1. KC may have had a strong farm system in the ’90s. But they were awful early in this century. It also doesn’t help when you trade Jermaine Dye for Oakland’s version of Freddy Galvis.

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  13. I remember Michael Schwimer saying beforethe season started that Jarred Cosart would be a top 25 prospect in all of baseball. At that time, I don’t think that I ever heard of Cosart. A year later, Cosart is at #51. Schwim wasn’t to far off.

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  14. Schwim actually said, if he stays healthy, as well. Cosart didn’t, and he’s still almost a top 50 spec. I bet without the health concerns, Cosart would be Top 25.

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  16. “What an a– hole. Can someone who has insider, say who is the 5th player on the list?”

    Stay anonymous you D.B. Buy a subscription to ESPN cheap SOB.

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  17. In his heart – KLaw still hates the Phillies. We should have been #1 and it isn’t even close. It’s just not fair…

    Yeah, just kidding. Wow, #5, I thought most folks would have us pegged closer to the 10-12 spots.

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  18. The fact that Philly can place 5th in Law’s estimation, which is basically a synopsis of ratings he has gleaned from scouts he regularly talks with and such, despite being impeded by having a late draft pick in most rounds (theoretically), indicates the scouting department is financed well enough to get around and get the rights to enough of promising players to do well enough to replenish the system and give MLB benefits given the draft positions they have. I say that the “give the scouts more money please ” crowd is really saying “Overspend on highly touted “name” picks promoted by INTERNET wannabes with INTERNET mock drafts, so Philly will draft some of the 100 or so draft prospects I heard of, so’s I can go on the INTERNET and impress folks with how much I think I know”.
    And, by the way, the great bulk of the promising Kansas City players were acquired B.F. (before Arbuckle).

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    1. I tend to take a balanced approach on this issue – not beating the team up, but still wishing they spent more money. As does PP. And, for that matter, Law, who, despite the ranking and other kind things he has said about the system, has criticized them for not spending more.

      And your “Overspend on highly touted “name” comment is just silly. A team that spends a moderate amount of money wisely (as does the Phillies) would (likely) spend more money wisely as well. Some players are worth the extra money.

      (Last year the total spent on the draft really was shockingly low, though I will give the team the benefit of the doubt and believe that they intended to spend more but were thwarted in doing so by a couple of picks who had highly unreasonable demands.)

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    2. “… go on the internet and impress folks with how much I think I know.
      Isn’t that exactly what you do, in your typically condescending posts.

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  19. “Buy a subscription to ESPN cheap SOB.”

    Yeah the Disney corporation needs all our money.

    Google: “homeless camden new jersey”

    Click “images”

    Be nice if someone would post all of Laws top 100 with comments to a free blog and post the link.

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    1. Not sure the homeless in Camden NJ have internet access so they could see the top-100 list even if posted free.

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      1. The Disney corporation and other corporations like it own the congress. They pick who runs in the elections. If Disney didn’t want those Americans existing like that then they would be in apartments.

        The Fortune 500 want them on the streets.

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        1. It’s not Disney’s job to house people- or the congresses for that matter.

          Can you keep your delusional, psychotic conspiracy nonsense in your own crackpot blog. We don’t need your crazy here, troll.

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        2. Hey Skunky, buy these two books:

          “Without Conscience” by Dr. Robert Hare

          and

          “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work” also by Dr. Hare.

          Have your mom read them to you before bed.

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        3. I read without conscience in grad school. You can act all pretentious and name-drop a world renowned psychologists but that still doesn’t:

          A. Explain why Disney is responsible for homelessness in Camden
          B. Explain why YOU should have free access to copyrighted material.
          C. Have ANYTHING to do with minor league baseball.

          Maybe you should read “Elementary Lessons in Logic; Deductive and Inductive Reasoning” by W. Stanley Jevons. Or just go away.

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