Keith Law’s Prospect Rankings Are Right On

Keith Law of the Atheltic ranks the Detroit Tigers farm system 19th overall.  He is spot on. Plenty of room for improvement for a farm system that has made some progress.

Keith Law, now with The Athletic, published his ranking of the farms systems across baseball, ranking the Tigers 19th. Here’s the main part to take away from the paragraph he wrote about their farm system. (Subscription required) which was the system is top-heavy.

Most recently, he had four Tigers prospects in his top 100 list that came out last week. Last year, he had three in his mid-season top 50. It is of the opinion of anyone who has followed the Detroit Tigers and their farm system closely, Keith Law to some fans has come across rather harshly. Whether its a story in message boards in responses to Tigers fans when they email him questions to his 2015 rankings in which he ranked Detroit’s system dead last, most Tigers fans are not a fan of Law.

But Keith Law is spot on with this assessment.

Most recently, the Toledo Mud Hens were ranked the second-best minor league team by Baseball America and it is filled essentially all the best talent in the Tigers system. Keith Law’s Top 100 list has three of the potential starters in Toledo with Casey Mize (20th), Tarik Skubal (24th) and Matt Manning (32nd). Riley Greene, the only position player representative for the Tigers, is ranked 41st and more than likely, will start at West Michigan.

These lists are subjective and each one, like Bless You Boys, Tigers Minor League Report , Tigers Hangout, and Baseball America all have their own unique ways to look at prospects.  But look across the Tigers depth system in the infield alone to see Keith Law is not too far off.

C-Jake Rogers, Kade Scivicque, Brady Policelli*, Joey Morgan*, Sam McMillian*, Cooper Johnson*

1B-Frank Schwindel, Kennys Vargas, Josh Lester*, Nick Ames, Reynaldo Rivera* Jake Holton*

2B-Kody Clemens* Jack Kenley* Jose King

3B- Isaac Paredes (legit beef, he should be on the list), Brandon Dixon, Brian Schales, Nick Quintana*, Andre Lipcius*.

SS-Willi Castro, Sergio Alcantara, Cole Peterson*, Wenceel Perez*, Ryan Kreidler*, Adinso Reyes*

(The * means the Tigers drafted or signed the player internationally. The depth chart courtesy of Fangraphs) 

The Tigers have not been able to produce a regular in the infield for quite some time. You may not agree with Keith Law’s assessment but until proven otherwise, he is accurate. Look around the team currently and see what the farm system has produced in the past few seasons. The debating can continue with Keith Law, don’t get me wrong but I think Kenon Carter said it best. Try to argue with facts before you angry tweet at him.