Detroit Tigers: Why Keith Law is wrong about the farm system

Keith Law ranked the Detroit Tigers' farm system as the worst in baseball—here's why he's wrong

The Detroit Tigers' farm system has been a hot topic of conversation pretty much since the rebuild started. It has especially become a hot button issue over the past week or so, with baseball media outlets have released their top prospects lists, with the Tigers having no more than three prospects on any list. One article released today is really stirring the pot, and for good reason.

Keith Law of The Athletic released his farm system rankings (subscription required) today, and he has the Detroit Tigers farm system ranked 30th in the league—that's dead last. That's also not a fair ranking whatsoever. Allow me to explain.

Previously, the Detroit Tigers farm system had been pretty top heavy, with the likes of Case Mize, Tarik Skubal, Riley Greene, and Spencer Torkelson headlining on otherwise pretty thin minor league system. Now, all of those guys are big leaguers, so naturally—if you're naive—you'd think the Detroit Tigers have nothing left in their farm system. That's where you're wrong.

It may not be a very deep farm system, but the Detroit Tigers have a lot more than meets the eye coming down the pipeline. A five player group of Colt Keith, Wilmer Flores, Jackson Jobe, Cristian Santana, and Justyn-Henry Malloy alone will likely all be big-league regulars. That's a nice potential core.

Beyond that, you have some guys that could be decent role players like Parker Meadows, Wenceel Perez, and Andre Lipcius. The first two even have a shot at becoming regulars as well with the seasons they both had last year.

Then you have high upside guys like Izaac Pacheco and Roberto Campos that could be stars if the Tigers new player development team can mold them correctly. This is a farm system is much better than people give it credit for.

There may not be any blue chippers, at least for now. But there are future big league contributors in this organization's pipeline. You just have to look a little bit harder.

If Law had ranked them in the bottom third, say in the 22-25 range, that would have been more fair. Again, it's not a very deep farm system at all. Once you get further down a Tigers prospects list, things become pretty barren pretty quick. But the top half has some serious potential.

I have a hard time believing some of the teams ranked ahead of the Tigers have a better farm system. The White Sox, for example have SS Colson Montgomery and OF Oscar Colas...and that's pretty much it. The Angels have Zach Neto and a few interesting arms but not much else. The Braves don't have anything left since all of their farm talent has reached the big leagues.

I feel like Law didn't do his homework on the Tigers farm system. There's definitely much more here than he and others say there is. Give it a year or two and I think he'll be proven wrong.