The Chicago Cubs farm system is kinda sorta pulling off a clean sweep.
Having already been named the top pool of prospects in all of baseball by Keith Law, by the Sporting News/Perfect Game, by Baseball America, and by Baseball Prospectus, the Chicago Cubs have also been pegged as the top system by MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis.
We can’t quite call it a clean sweep, though, because MLB.com set up their Pipeline piece as a “dueling perspectives” kind of thing, with Callis picking the Cubs, and Jonathan Mayo picking the Twins. But that’s close enough, right? (And, reading Mayo, he doesn’t sound completely convinced that the Twins are actually on top, as opposed to him having to pick a different organization for the purposes of the discussion.)
So, yeah, read Callis’ article for your afternoon dose of Cubs love. A particularly enjoyable quote:
But Chicago outpaces both Minnesota and Boston. I’ve been covering prospects for more than 25 years, and I’ve never seen a better collection of young hitting talent in one organization than the Cubs have right now. They graduated Javier Baez and Arismendy Alcantara from the Top 100 to the big leagues in 2014, the beginning of a tidal wave of position players about to crash on Wrigley Field.
Bring it on.
Not that we would have expected otherwise coming into the offseason, but it looks like the general consensus is that the Cubs have the top farm system in baseball. Full stop.
Even better, if you thought the recent Yoan Moncada signing would put the Red Sox back over the top? Nope:
No. 2 behind @Cubs. @Twins are close 3rd. @lasershowsports: where would you rank the @RedSox farm system now that they signed Moncada?
— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) February 24, 2015
No. RT @jazzmasters: @keithlaw Are they the best farm system now with Moncada?
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) February 23, 2015