Callis Says BAL 8th Best System in Baseball

[billwine76]

You don't have an understanding of my point of view, which is fine except that you make assessments of it. My point of view is that the Orioles do not have a consistent approach in how they utilize their resources. Realistically, the Orioles do need to have a top 5 system every single year regardless of their payroll capabilities.[/QUO

I think until MacPhail came they didnt have a consistent approach. The farm needs to say ranked that high over a longer period of time though.

[Sports Guy]

How much of this is due to Matusz still being eligible?

[allstar1579]

How much of this is due to Matusz still being eligible?

I'm sure that is a good chunk, but not as much as you might think. It's more about having a good quantity of good prospects on these lists.

[Lucky Jim]

How much of this is due to Matusz still being eligible?

I think a good amount. You subtract Matusz and we're somewhere around 15th probably. In my opinion.

[Moose Milligan]

How much of this is due to Matusz still being eligible?

In other words, we should stop kidding ourselves because Matusz is 6 innings from making us rank way lower, right?

[Stotle]

In other words, we should stop kidding ourselves because Matusz is 6 innings from making us rank way lower, right?

[amateurfan]

If I've misinterpreted your opinion or misrepresented it here, I am sorry.

I have two issues with your post above. First, while I disagree 100% that the Os do not have a consistent approach to utilizing their resources, I'll pretend to defer to your opinion here and ask - what organization DOES have a farm system that does this?

Second, your belief that ANY TEAM IN BASEBALL could have a top five system every year is entirely unreasonable and unrealistic and, I'm pretty sure, without precedent.

I'll try to be more clear. The fault is in no small measure due to me.

When I talk about utilizing resources I don't mean for the minor leagues alone. I'm talking about the whole organization. I'm not interested in rehashing that conversation.

Second, my original post was a conditional. If the Orioles continue to spend money at the big level as they have, they must have the best scouting and development system year in and year out. The part I left out and conflated with a different conversation I was having in another thread was "if they want to compete every single year."

For me, having the best system does not mean getting ranked #1 by various baseball media every year. That's ridiculous. I don't think it's realistic that an organization can have so many top tier prospects that it's ranked #1 every year without graduating those prospects to the big leagues. So, I agree with you. I do think, however, that for the Orioles to compete at any time is going to require them to have either the best system in baseball for a small period of time, or a drastic increase in payroll.

Second, I hope the Os payroll will increase, which would then remove the dependency on player development alone.

Third, while the Os have improved their minor leagues, I was posting in response to what I felt was the noise of over-effusive praise for our system. I think they've done well, but not well enough. Furthermore, I wonder if the Orioles ranking here by Callis is a product of the Os having better prospects than other teams, or having really good prospects. That's an important distinction. There are things I'd like to see improved, and there are positions for which we have no prospects. I was posting in my own context and did not make that clear.

[amateurfan]

What's interesting from that chat is that Callis doesn't think Pie is going to be a successful everyday player. I wonder if the board collectively has put too much stock in his second half performance.

[Tony-OH]

What's interesting from that chat is that Callis doesn't think Pie is going to be a successful everyday player. I wonder if the board collectively has put too much stock in his second half performance.

Absolutely, but that's for another thread...

[Sports Guy]

In other words, we should stop kidding ourselves because Matusz is 6 innings from making us rank way lower, right?

I think we are middle of the pack personally and having a guy with Matusz's ability at the top could really jumo you up...I mean really, what is the difference between the 8th and 13th system? Its not much and many different people will probably have those teams in different spots...But Matusz could tip the scales for us.

[allstar1579]

I think we are middle of the pack personally and having a guy with Matusz's ability at the top could really jumo you up...I mean really, what is the difference between the 8th and 13th system? Its not much and many different people will probably have those teams in different spots...But Matusz could tip the scales for us.

Yeah, I was going to say I'd see them around 12 without Matusz. We do have a good stock of other talented kids starting to come up so it doesn't shock me that we are top half. That being said, I think if we had taken Matzek last year and signed him I'd have put us in the top 4. All just my opinion without much thought though.

[hoosiers]

IMO, Callis' view may be clouded by seeing Pie not work out for the Cubs - Callis is based in Chicago.

[SteveA]

Taking this off on a bit of a tangent....given the almost total absence of international players in our farm system due to our not devoting enough resources to international scouting in the past -- I think it's pretty amazing we have managed to get up to #9 last year and perhaps #8 this year if that's what the ranking turns out to be.

Putting aside the open question of whether we have moved fast enough in correcting the shortfall in our international scouting & spending -- it speaks volumes about recent drafting that we have been able to climb into the top 3rd of farm systems almost solely on the backs of US high school and college players.

[Stotle]

Taking this off on a bit of a tangent....given the almost total absence of international players in our farm system due to our not devoting enough resources to international scouting in the past -- I think it's pretty amazing we have managed to get up to #9 last year and perhaps #8 this year if that's what the ranking turns out to be.

Putting aside the open question of whether we have moved fast enough in correcting the shortfall in our international scouting & spending -- it speaks volumes about recent drafting that we have been able to climb into the top 3rd of farm systems almost solely on the backs of US high school and college players.

Welcome to the world of the Florida Marlins.

[armyofdarkness]

At the end of the day, this is all just one person's opinion of where are system is compared to the other organizations. Checking in with last year's number--no one really had graduates such as Bergy, Reimold or Hernandez high on any list but their level of performance in the show seemingly outweighed correlating value at the minor league level. Now granted, this is a small sample size from last year's rookies and this could implode at a moment's notice but so far, so good in my book!

I'm more than willing to take a chance on our sophmores and incoming freshman to right this ship.