BP's Goldstein: Sox's Farm System Ranks Last Options

[Jeremy]

Obviously not a surprise.

The link is below but it's subscriber content only.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7188

[LVSoxFan]

You know what's funny? I was talking to my hardcore Sox fan mom yesterday and telling her what I thought this year's team's chances were. Then I said, if we have another 2007-type season we might as well dump 'em all (well not Buehrle!) and rebuild with our young guys.

And then I remembered: what young guys? What farm system?

Oof.

[iamshack]

You know what's funny? I was talking to my hardcore Sox fan mom yesterday and telling her what I thought this year's team's chances were. Then I said, if we have another 2007-type season we might as well dump 'em all (well not Buehrle!) and rebuild with our young guys.

And then I remembered: what young guys? What farm system?

Oof.

Once again, and I am tired of having to remind people of this. You'd deal all the quality veterans you have for young kids, and you could have one of the best systems in baseball. As Kenny has said, he could build a great farm system in 2 weeks if that was the goal.

[Vance Law]

And then I remembered: what young guys?

Swisher
Quentin
Fields
Danks
Richar
Ramirez
Jenks
Floyd
maybe others. Plus whomever we'd get from "dumping" everyone else.

[Vance Law]

Obviously not a surprise.

The link is below but it's subscriber content only.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7188

I'm not a subscriber, but does he consider there to really be much of a difference between the Sox, Tigers, and Astros.

[StrangeSox]

Once again, and I am tired of having to remind people of this. You'd deal all the quality veterans you have for young kids, and you could have one of the best systems in baseball. As Kenny has said, he could build a great farm system in 2 weeks if that was the goal.

You can build a decent farm system while still having a top-tier ball club with the payroll KW has. Right now it looks like we have neither.

This post has been edited by StrangeSox: Mar 5, 2008 -> 12:44 PM

[IceCreamPants]

No shock,but still very discouraging every time I hear it.

[Vance Law]

You can build a decent farm system while still having a top-tier ball club with the payroll KW has.

Not totally disagreeing with you. But interesting to look at. Which teams have managed to do this, and how did they go about it?
Yankees and Red Sox have infinity dollars to buy free agents and sign all of their own free agents- have less need to trade lots of prospects for MLB players.
Tigers went through several years as a horrendous team while they built their farm system, brought people up, and now have traded away the remainder of their system to try to win it all immediately. Indians, Rays, DBacks, Rockies all go through several years of being very bad while they bing up a mostly in-house young team.

Other people know farm systems better than me. What percentage of teams have managed to be consistently good major league teams all while having a good farm system (excluding fake teams the Yankees and Red Sox)?

This post has been edited by Vance Law: Mar 5, 2008 -> 12:44 PM

[StrangeSox]

Not totally disagreeing with you. But interesting to look at. Which teams have managed to do this, and how did they go about it?
Yankees and Red Sox have infinity dollars to buy free agents and sign all of their own free agents- have less need to trade lots of prospects for MLB players.
Tigers went through several years as a horrendous team while they built their farm system, brought people up, and now have traded away the remainder of their system to try to win it all immediately. Indians, Rays, DBacks, Rockies all go through several years of being very bad while they bing up a mostly in-house young team.

Other people know farm systems better than me. What percentage of teams have managed to be consistently good major league teams all while having a good farm system (excluding fake teams the Yankees and Red Sox)?

Before trading the farm for Cabrera, the Tigers were still a top AL contender. You're going to go through cycles, sure, but it doesn't have to be only one or the other.

[Jeremy]

Once again, and I am tired of having to remind people of this. You'd deal all the quality veterans you have for young kids, and you could have one of the best systems in baseball. As Kenny has said, he could build a great farm system in 2 weeks if that was the goal.

If we had an all out fire sale we could move into the top 10, maybe a bit higher. I don't really think that's something to hang your hat on though. Boston is four in Goldstein's rankings and they won the World Series last season. The Dodgers are five and they're playoff contenders. Atlanta, Colorado, and the Yanks are also in the top ten. We wouldn't have as much talent at the major or minor league level as the D-Rays (baseball's best system) and few envy them.

In sum, most teams in the league have a good farm system or a competitive major league team. The fact that a few teams don't (San Fran, Houston, KC, Pittsburg) and thus we don't have the worst combination of major and minor league talent in the majors doesn't thrill me.

[LVSoxFan]

If KW said he can do this in two weeks I hope that IS the goal if we have another bad season.

[gosox41]

Once again, and I am tired of having to remind people of this. You'd deal all the quality veterans you have for young kids, and you could have one of the best systems in baseball. As Kenny has said, he could build a great farm system in 2 weeks if that was the goal.

How about we start with an average ranking farm system built by good drafts.


Bob

[CWSGuy406]

Once again, and I am tired of having to remind people of this. You'd deal all the quality veterans you have for young kids, and you could have one of the best systems in baseball. As Kenny has said, he could build a great farm system in 2 weeks if that was the goal.

Sort of like last summer, when the best offer the Sox could get for Jermaine Dye was Wily Mo Pena straight up?

[Tony82087]

Sort of like last summer, when the best offer the Sox could get for Jermaine Dye was Wily Mo Pena straight up?

What are you really trying to even get at with this post? Are you insuating that Dye would be one of Sox best trading chips? I could think of probably 10 others before Dye, those of which could infact re-stock a system.

[IowaSoxFan]

What are you really trying to even get at with this post? Are you insuating that Dye would be one of Sox best trading chips? I could think of probably 10 others before Dye, those of which could infact re-stock a system.

You can move OCab, Konerko, Thome, AJ, Vazquez and Dye and probably finish no further down in the standings than we will by keeping them. The problem is that we have to find someone who has a whole at these positions in order to make deals and then try to get some quality talent back.

A lineup of

LF Owens
SS Ramirez
1B Swisher
DH Fields
RF Quentin
3B Crede
CF Anderson
C Lucy
2B Richar

Would be frustrating, but good enough to finish fourth or fifth in the division, and would have potential to grow into something, and hopefully the players that you would get back would provide some depth in the farm system and pick up some additional pitching as well to go along with MB and Danks.