I understand that we aren’t even remotely as well-acquainted with other farm systems as the Cubs, and I also understand that every fan is a huge homer for his own club’s farm system.
But even granting those two things, this seems like a vestige of years gone by, and not an accurate reflection of how the Cubs have rebuilt things down in the minors:
The bottom 5 farm systems in baseball:
26. Rockies
27. Rangers
28. Mets
29. Cubs
30. Brewershttps://t.co/OA6AVrsYAA— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) August 19, 2019
Consider for a moment in the abstract that the Cubs have four clear top-100-type prospects, perhaps all of whom will actually *be* consensus top 100s when the offseason cycle concludes (Nico Hoerner, Miguel Amaya, Brennen Davis, and Brailyn Marquez), and they also have one of the deeper pools of yeah-could-be prospects in the game (that’s not just our homerism – see, for example, FanGraphs’s rankings that see the Cubs with the 11th most yeah-could-be-prospects in baseball).
I really don’t see how you square those things and think the Cubs have the second worst farm system in all of baseball.
Are the Cubs lacking in near-term impact talent? Absolutely. That was true two years ago, and it’s still true today. And, fair enough, that’s something of a reasonable indictment of the Cubs’ ability to develop diamonds-in-the-rough into stars. Then again, that’s not exactly a standard skill. For the most part, the Cubs have been very good at turning their talent-acquisition years into big league talent, by way of development or trades. After that period, you’re necessarily going to have some leaner years down on the farm.
But I’m just saying, when I look up and down the org, it’s in a much better spot than it was two years ago – by leaps and bounds – and I cannot conceive of an org with four-ish top 100 guys, and plenty of depth, being worse than 28 other farm systems. Moreover, the Cubs did not meaningfully deplete their talent this trade cycle. Sure, they didn’t *add* to it during trade season like some clubs, but they aren’t really in that top tier of farm systems anyway.
I guess we’ll just have to see what next year looks like after the scouting reports get updated, and fall ball plays out.
Gut level? I think we’ll find late in the offseason that the Cubs are ranked by most as right around that 20-22 range. Just feels right.
For more prospect ranking, check out Bryan’s latest on the top prospects in the system.