Baseball Prospectus came out with their Organizational Rankings for the bottom 15 farm systems today. You gotta pay to see the bottom. Of course, the Nats were on it. They agree with Keith Law and place Washington at #29 overall. Which is the bottom. Some of the highlights:
- Zimmermann looks great, Marrero and Detwiler might still be good
- Detwiler and Marrero might be bad, same with Burgess
- Selecting Strasburg will help
Ok, so everyone seems to agree that the farm system sucks. But it’s not like having the #1 pick plus the #10 pick is a cure all.
If Strasburg comes in, does great, and moves up to the majors by September, how does the farm system get better? It doesn’t. The easy part for Mike Rizzo is picking Strasburg this spring. The hard part will be what he does with the other picks. In case you’ve forgotten he has a history of presiding over some strong picks in the last decade (Justin Upton, Brandon Webb, Carlos Quentin, Conor Jackson, Mark Reynolds, Chris Snyder, Micah Owings and Max Scherzer). If this franchise is going to turn around, it’s probably gotta start in the farm system. That includes smart trades and good drafts.