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MLB Minor League System Rankings – The Middle

By Benjamin Chase

Dec 7, 2016; National Harbor, MD, USA; A general view of stage microphones on day three of the 2016 Baseball Winter Meetings at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 7, 2016; National Harbor, MD, USA; A general view of stage microphones on day three of the 2016 Baseball Winter Meetings at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /

23. Oakland Athletics

The A’s have been known for having their own quirky preferences for players, but their current roster and system may be the most perfect way to see the mix of their quirks.

The Athletics have guys with elite tools and age-relative-to-level. They have guys who are much older than their levels that are putting up major numbers due to hitting leagues. They have pitchers with big stuff. They have pitchers who are more a result of their “pitchability” than their raw stuff. It’s a very weird mix of players that really don’t seem to fit one direction.

While the team has produced some big players like Josh Donaldson recently, they’ve also struggled to bring the best out of big prospects they’ve had in their own system.

Elite prospects – I did consider quite a few Athletics for the top 125 list, however, only one really factored into the top 50. A few factored in from 50-100 and a couple more will be from 100-125, but it seems after #7-8 in their system, it drops off extremely fast in quality.

System depth in legit prospects – As mentioned above, the quality of player drops off extremely fast in the A’s system from a guy who could be a legit major league contributing player to suddenly a guy who would struggle to even be a bench or bullpen piece for a floor.

Proximity to majors of legit prospects – The A’s do have six of their top 10 that had reached at least AA in 2016, and two even reached the majors. I think they’ll likely see at least four of them with some extended time in the big leagues in 2017.

System reputation – The Athletics do have a reputation in the business as working very well with the guy like a Max Schrock – a guy who has just enough baseball skills to get by, but has a ton of baseball instinct and “grit”, but they also have a reputation for struggling to get the most out of a guy with truly elite talent.

In their defense, the A’s really haven’t had many guys like that in their system as of late, and the ones they’ve had have moved through their system quickly. Right now, they have big talent bats like Barreto and Lazarito along with big talent arms like Puk, Holmes, and Montas, so it should be interesting to see how this reputation works out.

Top 5 Born 1991 or since (age 25 season this year)
1. Sean Manaea
2. Franklin Barreto
3. Ryon Healy
4. A.J. Puk
5. Grant Holmes

Next: #22

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