MLB prospects have become an ever-popular phenomenon over the past decade or so. Now, more eyes than ever are focused on prospects rather than the young players in an organization being a faceless commodity.
Accordingly, Jim Callis of MLB.com’s MLB Pipeline examines the Top-10 Farm Systems of the decade. Obviously, the Dodgers made the list; which should come as no surprise.
Here’s @jimcallisMLB’s look at #MLB’s 10 best farm systems of the decade: https://t.co/xt0GbLTF0d pic.twitter.com/c7AbA8grnp
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) December 26, 2019
However, what is somewhat surprising is where Callis ranks the Dodgers. He ranks Los Angeles 8th out of 10.
At any rate, here’s how Callis views LA’s farm work over the past decade.
Dodgers
Los Angeles keeps seamlessly integrating Top 100 Prospects into its perennial National League West championship clubs: Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Walker Buehler, Alex Verdugo, Julío Urias and Will Smith. The Dodgers’ most prolific 2010s graduates so far have been international products Carlos Santana and Yasiel Puig, with Kenley Jansen not far behind.
It’s nice to see the Dodgers as a top-10 team on this list. Still, you wonder how they could have come off ranked a little bit higher — especially with the names listed alone.
As you comb through the list, the only team that didn’t come away with immense success in the last decade who are on it are the Miami Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Indeed, having a great product on the field starts with stocking the cupboard at the minor league level.
Without question, the Dodgers found a way to do this during the days of Ned Colletti leading the way. Then, this trend has continued with Andrew Friedman and his team of scouts through the present day.
While the MLB Draft has become known as a relative ‘crapshoot’ in terms of who pans out and who doesn’t, the Dodgers have found a way to maximize success with their talent identification at the prospect level.
Finally – with a new decade beginning in a few days – it will be interesting to see who gets high marks for their farm in the first few years. By the end of the decade, those teams will be the teams we see experiencing a lot of success, if history is any indication.
NEXT: Ranking the Dodgers Most Likely 2020 All-Stars
