Dispelling The Mets "Weak Farm" Myth

Written by Benny B. | 20 January 2010

Over the last couple of years, all I keep hearing is how the Mets can't trade for such and such a player because they don't have "the chips"...Then we get Johan Santana, and now we really cleaned out our farm system right?  Wrong.

Doug Grey over at redsminorleagues.com comprised a ranking of franchise farm valuations using John Sickles preliminary prospect rankings, research by Victor Wang & surplus value calculations by Erik Manning from Beyond the Boxscore.  Here's what he found:

The Mets rank right in the middle of the pack coming in at #13 sandwiched in between the Royals and Reds.  Not great, but certainly not the stereotype of doom and gloom that is pushed by the media and right here on this site.

On the other hand, what I find most interesting (and satisfying) is how shitty the Phillies farm system is.  Yup the Phillies rank #27 out of 30 teams with a combined valuation of 58.58.  That's nearly half as much value as the Mets farm system.  In other words, according to this statistical analysis, the Mets farm system is twice as good as the Phillies....Let that sink in a little bit more:  TWICE AS GOOD.

So when Mike says the mets should go about fixing "all cracks in the [Mets] foundation (farm system)", it would appear it is not the Mets whose farm is in a dyer situation.  Many Phillie fans like to puff their chest out and give their front office a pass when they sign a 40 year old left field more suited to a DH role, trade one of the best pitchers in baseball for an older more injury prone best pitcher in baseball and needlessly sign aging back up players to multi-year deal all because "The Phillies are a championship caliber team".  Well, so were the Mets in 2006-2008.  Injuries and a lack of MLB ready talent is what did them in during that time period.  As unlucky as the Mets were last year with injuries, the Phillies had very few.  The tide turns very quickly in the MLB and luck and injuries play a significant part.  It will be interesting to see how the Phillies farm system produces when they are inevitably forced to use it...and that could be the beginning of the end of this Phillies team.

So Phillie fans, discuss amongst yourselves.  I am sure I will see well thought out statistical rebuttals in the face of such damning evidence with no emotional homer-ism going on...ah, who am I kidding, these are Phillie Phans we are talking about!  Bring on the comments about misspellings in this post.  Enjoy.