Cubs have second youngest farm system

[cheapseats]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5765

 

Interesting article for those with a BP subscription.

 

The Cubs have the second-youngest farm system (going by average age compared to level average) in baseball. That's got to be reason for some kind of optimism.

[rawaction]

Young for your league usually means you are toolsy. So, it's not ironic that the Cubs are the 2nd toolsiest....er, youngest farm system.

[cheapseats]

Young for your league usually means you are toolsy. So, it's not ironic that the Cubs are the 2nd toolsiest....er, youngest farm system.

 

Yeah, but the eternal optimist in me says that one or two prospects will break out because of all the high ceilings.

[goonys evil twin]

Young for your league usually means you are toolsy. So, it's not ironic that the Cubs are the 2nd toolsiest....er, youngest farm system.

 

Yeah, but the eternal optimist in me says that one or two prospects will break out because of all the high ceilings.

 

That's been this regime's theory for quite a while. It worked with the pitchers, not so much with the bats.

[Balsa]

Young for your league usually means you are toolsy. So, it's not ironic that the Cubs are the 2nd toolsiest....er, youngest farm system.

 

Yeah, but the eternal optimist in me says that one or two prospects will break out because of all the high ceilings.

Like Cedeno?

[Post Count Padder]

Young for your league usually means you are toolsy. So, it's not ironic that the Cubs are the 2nd toolsiest....er, youngest farm system.

Gotta have those toolsy guys. Hopefully some of them can reach their potential. I'm looking at you, Ryan Harvey.

[craig]

Young for your league usually means you are toolsy. So, it's not ironic that the Cubs are the 2nd toolsiest....er, youngest farm system.

 

I don't think this really means anything significant. Certainly not that they are one of the toolsiest org (they are not.)

 

Averages involve everybody, real prospects and roster fillers. The average age for most orgs is heavily influenced by a small population of high-age roster-fillers at AAA and AA. New Orleans has a 33-year-old reliever where we've got 23-year-old Pigs. They might have ten guys in A-ball that are a year younger than ours, but the average is the same.

 

What I'm suggesting is that a lot of teams have a bunch of late-20's/early-30's roster fill non-prospects in AAA and AA, who are so much older than average that they have a huge impact on the organization average.

 

The Cubs this year had relatively few old roster-filler guys in the high minors. Pie, real young-per-league, real toolsy, and real good for average. But, Coats, McGehee, and Pignatiello were also very young for AAA. Doesn't mean they are "toolsy", or that they are very significant prospects.

[UK1679666180]

The Peoria Chiefs had the 5th oldest team in the MWL at 22.0 at the start of the '06 season.

[the splendid splinter]

Thats the key word, at the start of the season, I think they ended up a little bit younger at the end, especially with their key players on that Peoria club.