Baseball prospect rankings are always fascinating, but often unsatisfying. Once all of the exciting projecting and future lineup construction has been completed, you are left to wait for the player to develop and reach the bigs. But youthful players more generally — as distinguished from prospects — can and often are a thing of the present. So, which teams have the best assemblage of young talent, prospects or otherwise? According to Jason Parks and the Baseball Prospectus staff, the Cardinals lead the way in a top five that belongs to the National League. The Pirates (#4) also land in that grouping, but the rest is occupied by National League East clubs: the Nationals (#2), Braves (#3), and Marlins (#5).
Here's more from the N.L. East:
- The Mets land at 12th on that list, led of course by a trio of young pitchers. One of those – 21-year-old Mets hurler Noah Syndergaard — has always wowed scouts with his stuff, but Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes that he has increasingly revealed a competitive personality as he's come out of his shell in New York. Mets brass is reportedly excited not only about Syndergaard's MLB-ready fastball, but also his attitude toward the role of being a starter. Of course, he does not figure to be much of a factor on the big league level this year, though scouts tell Martino that he could retire MLB batters at his current stage of development.
- Speaking of prospects, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America compiled a list of the players who received some consideration for inclusion in the outlet's Top 100. The two most notable names, perhaps, were A.J. Cole and Brian Goodwin of the Nationals, who appeared somewhere on every writer's list of the top 150 prospects and peaked at 49th and 51st, respectively. It is worth checking through the names for "just-missed" prospects from other teams.
- Freddy Garcia of the Braves is at quite the opposite side of his career at age 37. As MLB.com's Mark Bowman reports, Garcia has started the spring with a strong case for a rotation or pen slot, having now kept opponents off the basepaths entirely in his first five innings. If he ends up not receiving a big league spot, however, Garcia says that he will retire rather than spending time in the minors waiting for another shot.
Three NL East teams in the top five, and the Phils in the bottom five. Sounds like there could be a tough future in store in Philly.
mets are stockpiling a ton of talent too.
For whatever reason, the Mets system is being really underrated right now. It should change this year, now that more of their top players are going to be in AA and above.
I think they will be graduating their top 3 guys (syndergaard, Montero and d’arnead I think) so wouldn’t they be ready to move down in the rankings after this year?
I don’t think they will move down, no. People really underestimate the depth they have in pitching right now. Most of the good players in the mets system aren’t even considered when talking about the Mets system. Everyone always talks about Montero, Syndergaard, and d’Arnaud. Nobody ever mentions Fulmer, Matz, Ynoa, Mateo, Rosario, Mazzoni, Tapia, Cessa, Molina, or Peullo. Some people mention Nimmo, Plawecki and Smith. Yeah, I think their pitching depth is underrated, but it should be corrected for after this season.
Not to mention Vic Black who i think is going to be a good reliever.
Vic Black is a walking candidate for arm problems.
Underrated? Law had them at 6 and BP at 8
They lack a major impact bat, especially with D’Arnaud and probably Flores being in the majors this season. It should be interesting watching the development of a few players, though, especially Dominic Smith, who’s already ranked as the #2 1B prospect by mlb dot com
The Mets should be ahead of the Marlins. The Marlins I think are close,but I still think the Mets have a minor edge.
by midseason
Murphy,Flores,Wheeler,Lagares, D’arnaud,Syndergaard,Montero.
Marlins
Stanton,Heaney(if called up now, should be up by midseason or september),Fernandez,Masernick,Yellich
You could add Moran to that list in 2015.
Why is Jesus Montero ranked as the Mariners’ #5 under 25 player? He shouldn’t even be considered top 20 at this point.
at this pace he’s heading for retirement soon
Garcia should come back to the White Sox if you don’t get a MLB job.
Future is bright in NatsTown. No wonder Rizzo feels comfortable dealing from depth to stay out of the FA market.
still can’t believe he pulled off that fister trade.
If Syndergaard is one of the top 5 starters for the Mets this spring, they should keep him on the roster. Mets fans care about 2014, not 2020
It’s about service time. He’ll most likely come up in late June or early July, just like Wheeler last year. Starting his service clock at the start of the season would be silly.
but the Mets might be in the playoffs in 2020, they won’t be in 2014, regardless of what the 25 man roster looks like opening day.
Whatever he produces in 2014 on a bad mets team is likely to be half the value he will produce for a complete 2020 season…on what is likely to be a better team.
If they were competitive, it would make sense, but they aren’t.
He’ll be up mid season, ala Harvey and Wheeler. Montero is a little more experienced, he’ll be up before Syndergaard. their young pitching is very impressive.
The Mets have a contending team possibly for 2015. Anyone who says later is jumping the gun. They are filled with talent,and may have the best young pitching depth of any team in the NL by 2015. Nats are there too.
’15 is probably too soon, but I could see them being one of those teams that’s all of a sudden relevant. Like, you blink and all of a sudden, they’re contending. They still need to get a lot of pieces in place and working correctly, so I’d say ’16 just because of the sheer number of variables in play, but they’re definitely moving in a good direction.
SeanE : before making a comment like that you need to see what the Pirates have for pitching prospects.
I disagree i think they are playing it smart. They aren’t a championship team in 14, and the service time would save them a lot of money and they would have control over him for the next 3-4 years. I love what Sandy is doing. Also in 2016 if everything pans out with Harvey, Wheeler and Synderguard aka Thor they could be the 2009 version of the Giants
Phillies lower levels are rich with talent. They aren’t as far behind as many people think.
Every team has a lot of potential talent in the low minors. They are all just recently drafted or signed so obviously the team is still high on them. That isn’t nearly as important when assessing a teams future as young players on the ML roster or top talent that’s getting close to the majors. The gap is pretty big.
Good thing, Amaro will need access to that talent when Pujols hits the trade market in 2016. Or maybe he’ll go after Sabathia? Plenty of tread left on those 35 year old tires…
The Mets rotation in 2015 is going to be sick. I love the job that Sandy is doing.