Baseball America will announce their choices for the top ten prospects of the Dodgers tomorrow, and I'm sure Phil Gurnee will have plenty to say about that, but in the meantime editor in chief John Manuel gave a glimpse to Sports illustrated as to how each franchise stacked up. Outside of the top five and bottom five farm systems, the other franchises were split into two groups.
The Dodgers were lumped in the 16-25 category, with the following quote from Manuel:
L.A. has spent less on draft picks the last two years than any club, and it shows.
The Dodgers' success the last few years has been fueled largely by their own homegrown talent, and it is understandable that their ranking would drop given all the prospects who have graduated to the big leagues. Still, I can't help but wonder how much better the system might look if it had...
- Likely Indians' top prospect Carlos Santana, sent to Cleveland in lieu of a lesser prospect in order to pay roughly $2 million of Casey Blake's remaining 2008 salary
- Unsigned 2006 draftee Alex White, who went to college instead and became a first round pick of the Indians in 2009
- Unsigned 2007 draftee Kyle Blair, who also went to college and will likely be a first round pick in 2010
Well, at least the Dodgers have four extra picks in the 2010 draft to replenish the system as a result of offering arbitration to Randy Wolf and Orlando Hudson. Oh wait...