Instead of a ranking I wanted to look at the farm system from a tier perspective. I am splitting this into two posts, one for pitchers and one for position players. I created my own tiers, and players are binned based on my own subjective projection (fully ready to be torn to bits by you guys). As you'll see my method gives young guys a much bigger benefit of the doubt.

 

Here are the pitchers, let the debate begin:

 

Tier 1: Ace

Carlos Rodon

 

Tier 2: 2-3 Starter

Tyler Danish

Spencer Adams

Francellis Montas

 

Tier 3: 4-5 Starter / Top Reliever

Jace Fry

Chris Beck

JB Wendelken

Victor Done

Andre Wheeler

Tony Bucciferro

James Dykstra

Luis Martinez

Jordan Guerrero

Ben Brewster

 

Luis Martinex from the AZL team could be something special for the White Sox and he's only 19. He should up there with Adam's, Danish, and Montas.

I'm not sure about the guys on the "#2-#3" starter list. Those guys seem to me to be "guy who might very well be an ace but might also never sniff the big leagues" guys, and they seem like they're winding up as 2-3 starters because hey, it's in the middle.

I'm not sure about the guys on the "#2-#3" starter list. Those guys seem to me to be "guy who might very well be an ace but might also never sniff the big leagues" guys, and they seem like they're winding up as 2-3 starters because hey, it's in the middle.

 

I don't know if you know this but those guys on that second tier have been spectacular this year on the farm.

Mike Recchia should be in tier 3.

I don't know if you know this but those guys on that second tier have been spectacular this year on the farm.

It's not that simple.

 

I can't do this tiering because if Spencer Adams realizes his full potential (and avoids injury) he's a top of the rotation starter. But even if he falls a little short of that he's a fantastic arm to have in the rotation. Or maybe he's better suited for the pen. Or maybe his arm blows up. Who knows.

 

It's one thing to rank them against each other, a whole new can of worms when you're projecting them against roles defined by the current state of Major League Baseball.

Add Andre Wheeler to group 3.

 

Also hoping that Snodgress turns into a good reliever.

I changed the tiers a bit

 

Tier 1: Top of the rotation

Carlos Rodon

Spencer Adams

Francellis Montas

 

Tier 2: Mid-rotation

Chris Beck

Jace Fry

Adam Lopez

Tyler Danish

 

Tier 3: Back-end stater

Scott Snodgress

Mike Recchia

Chris Freudenberg

James Dykstra

Luis Martinez

Jordan Guerrero

Zach Thompson

 

Tier 4: High Leverage Reliever

Andrew Mitchell

Brad Goldberg

JB Wendelken

Myles Jaye

Kyle Hansen

Chris Bassit

Terance Marin

It's not that simple.

 

I can't do this tiering because if Spencer Adams realizes his full potential (and avoids injury) he's a top of the rotation starter. But even if he falls a little short of that he's a fantastic arm to have in the rotation. Or maybe he's better suited for the pen. Or maybe his arm blows up. Who knows.

 

It's one thing to rank them against each other, a whole new can of worms when you're projecting them against roles defined by the current state of Major League Baseball.

 

I agree, and that's why it's difficult for me to tier them out like this. You have guys with fantastic arms like Joe Nathan who are absolute garbage in the rotation. You move him to the bullpen and suddenly that plus stuff becomes better and he can put more on it and you have one of the best relievers in the league.

 

I appreciate the idea and it provides interesting discussion, but given the differences in learning curves, it's hard for me to come up with a list like this.