We have reached the point of the offseason where prospect lists abound. We continue our top 10 prospects for every team with the Oakland Athletics!
Our team top 10 prospect lists at Call to the Pen are spearheaded by Benjamin Chase. Today, he gives us the top ten prospects for the Oakland Athletics.
This season, we will be going through teams by division, in order of 2017 record. The AL East will be first, followed by the AL Central and AL West. Then the focus will shift to the National League in the same order.
The format will be as it was last season for the same lists, with a system review, which will include last season’s list. The top 10 will follow in reverse order, two players per page in order to give adequate space to each player. Major trades or international signings will lead to an updated top 10!
Finally, don’t go away after #1 is revealed as each list will also contain a player either signed in the 2017 international free agent class or drafted in 2017 that isn’t part of the top 10 and should be tracked. Last season’s mentions in that area made over half of the top 10s this season, so this is a great way to get to know a player who could be making a big splash in the organization.
System overview
The Oakland Athletics have had to play on the margins of salary structure for many years, which often means a run at competitiveness, and then multiple seasons of building up the farm system again.
Multiple times the system has been very, very good, but it’s rarely, if ever, been quite this deep with raw talent. Now, should A’s fans expect to see a future Hudson/Zito/Mulder trio come out of this farm system or another Tejada/Chavez infield? No, that’s not realistic. However, there could be a handful of players in total that are even better than those mentioned, certainly with higher overall ceilings!
How the Oakland Athletics use this deep and talented system over the next few years will be very interesting to watch as there are a handful of players I considered for this list that will play enough at the big league level in 2018 to not be eligible for next year’s list. There are also players that are in their teens and 3-5 seasons away from the major leagues. Handled well, the A’s could be sitting on a system that will provide waves of talent for years to come.
Let’s take a look at that system….
Next: #9 and #10