Baseball America's Top 10 Organizations

Lets me know that people on this board either don't know or simply don't like the Braves system. We traded off a ton of our prospects and still have a better system than 22 other teams. We have tremendous depth which is why we're ranked where we are. As for our prospects looking mediocre did you really check their stats? All I have to say is don't hate on our system because you thought it was depleted.

Right now, he looks like Ellsbury with more pop. I think with two years of mlb experience, he should be a great leadoff guy/CF.

I read BA's Top 10 Yankees' profiles when they first came out, which was before Jim Callis made it known in an ESPN chat that BA ranked the Yankees system #5. When I had finished reading through the profiles, my immediate reaction was, "Wow, half these guys don't even belong in a very average farm system's team's Top 10." Let's take them one by one:

(01). Joba Chamberlain, RHP -- I'm fine with Chamberlain over Kershaw. Not sure that Kershaw won't be better in the long run, and bonus points for being a southpaw, but Joba looks like an ace in the making himself, and is three years ahead of Kershaw on the development curve, so fine, Yankees win this match up.

(02). Austin Jackson, OF -- He was lousy last year in low A, and wasn't much better for half a season on the exact same team this year, then he goes up to the next level and starts looking like Ken Griffey, Jr., for 258 AB's? I'm sorry, I will wait till next year to see which is the REAL Austin Jackson. His Tampa performance means SOMETHING, certainly. I just don't know how much measured against his low A, Sally League futility.

(03). Jose Tabata, OF -- So young for his levels his stats are hard to interpret, but questions about his work ethic make him remind me of one-time Dodger prospect Joel Guzman, which is NOT a good thing. For now, I still like him.

(04). Ian Kennedy, RHP -- Mid-rotation MLB starter, no worse and no better. I would take RHP James McDonald of the Dodgers ahead of Kennedy, since McDonald has a curve that is a plus pitch in ADDITION to a change-up that Logan White calls "outstanding," but which BA inexplicably says is "average" (sorry BA, I think I will trust Logan White over you guys). Two plus pitches beats Kennedy's one plus pitch. And McDonald's long, skinny frame at least gives his 88-93 MPH fastball potential for improvement that Kennedy's 88-92 MPH fastball doesn't have.

(05). Alan Horne, RHP -- This is the first guy I questioned even being in a Top 10. In my book, pitchers in a team's Top 10 shouldn't be pitching in Double A at the (relative) grey old age of 24. Not a Top 10 guy. And on top of that, BA says Horne has a mechanical flaw that even Yankee coaches call "incorrectable." Horne wouldn't make my Dodger Top 15.

(06). Jesus Montero, C -- He won't stay at catcher, and he won't play a more premium position than 1B, in the end. Nice prospect, and I don't object to him being in the Top 10, but I doubt I would take him over the Dodgers' Andrew Lambo, who was more impressive in the GCL in 2007, and Lambo, though possibly a 1B in the end, at least has a shot at being an outfielder.

(07). Jeff Marquez, RHP -- Only 95 K's in 155 IP and more hits given up than innings pitched? A pitcher would have to be REALLY young for his league for me to over-look that in a Top 10 prospect, and at age 22 in Double A, Marquez isn't getting any slack cut for him by me.

(08). Brett Gardner, OF -- Zero power from a 23-year-old Double A OF with a weak arm. On my MLB team he's 5th outfielder material, but Ned Colletti would probably give him a $44 million contract. Shouldn't make a team's Top 10.

(09). Ross Ohlendorf, RHP -- 24-year-old AAA starter-turned-reliever with a 5.02 ERA and 48 K's in 66 IP. A Top 10 prospect? BA's kidding, right?

(10). Andrew Brackman, RHP -- Worst pick by any team in the first round of the 2007 draft. Has pitched less than 150 innings total in three college seasons, and NEVER put up numbers expected from a top college pitcher. But because he's tall enough to touch the moon and throws a fastball a zillion miles per hour, he is called a potential MLB ace. HA! Has had Tommy John surgery, so now he will not throw a profesional pitch till he is 23-years-old. As Yankees' prospects compare, this guy is going to make Drew Henson look like a big success.

When you put together your own Top 10 out of Yankee and Dodger prospects, you didn't use BA's Top 10 Yankees order, but I assume your own ranking of Yankee prospects, so I, as well, will use my own ranking of Dodger prospects, and not BA's:

(01). Joba Chamberlain,RHP
(02). Clayton Kershaw, LHP
(03). Andy LaRoche, 3B
(04). Chin-Lung Hu, SS
(05). Austin Jackson, OF
(06). Jose Tabata, OF
(07). James McDonald, RHP
(08). Ian Kennedy, RHP
(09). Jonathan Meloan, RHP
(10). Blake DeWitt,3B

Like you, I think BA should have penalized Elbert for having shoulder surgery. I am looking forward to seeing if he makes a come-back in 2008, but we'll see.  On talent alone I'd rank him in front of Hu.

...that I disagree with the proposition that "The Yankees have significantly more guys with a good chance of making a positive major league impact..." It has been literally YEARS since you and I have had a discussion like this, but I have had it, or its like, with a lot of prospects fans over time. Non-Dodgers fans have been telling me for years that Dodger prospects are "high risk" and that very few will ever make it to the majors relative to all the better players who will make it from the systems of teams like Oakland and Toronto that draft "safer players," players from colleges with proven statistical profiles, and I have always denied it. (And the Yankees are another team that drafts heavily from colleges, and a lot of this vaunted Yankee depth consists of college players.) To say that history has proven my side of the argument would be, I think, an understatement.