Printer-friendly

Contact Author

February 8, 2013

Pebble Hunting

What it Means to Have the Best Farm System in Baseball

by Sam Miller

In three weeks or so, Jason Parks is going to publish his organizational rankings. Rankings like these, prospect writers will remind you, are a snapshot. They capture reality at a particular moment, the publication upon which that reality immediately shifts into something slightly different or significantly different. There’s no permanent truth for prospects.

But there is the snapshot, and snapshots can be powerful. We weren't ranking organizations yet in 2004, but just before that season Baseball America ranked the Brewers the best farm system in baseball. The Brewers were otherwise in a lousy place: They hadn’t had a winning record in 11 seasons, tied for the longest streak in baseball at the time. The team president predicted Milwaukee would snap that streak in 2004, but when ownership instead chose to cut payroll to $28 million—lowest in baseball, and $35 million below the league median—the Brewers fired the team president (and traded Richie Sexson). But at least the Brewers had the snapshot of that farm system. When GM Doug Melvin wrote a letter to Brewers fans that offseason and had it published in Milwaukee newspapers, the farm system was something to feel good about:


With Manny Parra signing this week with Cincinnati, every player on Baseball America’s top 30 for the 2004 Brewers has left the organization, or had the opportunity to leave the organization, or been evicted from the organization. In one sense, the book on that class is now closed, but in another it’s still going.

In three weeks or so, Parks will declare that some team has the best farm system in baseball. This is a look at the 2004 Brewers to see what that means, exactly.

2004
29 of 30 prospects remain in the system, eight of 30 prospects on 25-man