Look, we need to talk about Colorado.
The Rockies are sitting pretty at 58-34, their farm system is ranked first in baseball, and somewhere in their front office, someone's probably staring at a spreadsheet trying to figure out if they should mortgage tomorrow for today. Because here's the thing about having baseball's best farm system while you're also winning: it's like having a blank check and trying to decide if you should actually cash it.
Their system is, frankly, ridiculous:
Code:
SS Andy Owens (#2 overall) is doing SS things in Triple-A (.250, 20 HR)
SP James Layton (#10) has 102 strikeouts in 100 innings
SP P.E. Horta (#11) is ready whenever they call
RP David La Casa (#25) is making A-ball hitters look silly
And they're already winning. This isn't fair.
Meanwhile, in the Windy City...
The Cubs' second-ranked system feels like a time bomb waiting to go off. 2B Roger Grimmett (#5) is hitting .337 in Triple-A, which is absurd. SP Calvin Perkins (#15) has a 2.25 ERA in A-ball, and CF Ryder Collom (#78) is the type of prospect who'd be top-40 in most systems. They're 10 games back of St. Louis, but 2063 might be terrifying for the rest of the NL Central
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The Most Interesting System Nobody's Talking About
Indianapolis might be my favorite farm system to watch right now. RF Raymond Nadeau (#24) is already in the show, LF Charlie Mueller (#39) looks like a future star, and they're loaded with the kind of prospects that make trade deadline discussions fascinating. They're probably not competing this year at 42-51, but they could absolutely wreck the trade market if they decided to sell.
The "What If" Teams
Seattle's system is sneaky-loaded. 2B Danny-David Dailey (#6) has 32 bombs in Triple-A, which is just silly for a middle infielder. SP Sameli Jokinen (#20) could be in their rotation tomorrow if they wanted. At 45-47, they're just hanging around enough to make the next few weeks interesting.
Minnesota's sitting on a gold mine too. SS Justin Yan (#12) is exactly the type of prospect that gets dangled at the deadline then comes back to haunt you for a decade. And they're leading the AL Central, which means their phone lines are probably already burning up.
So Here's The Thing About Colorado
Six years after their last title, the Rockies are facing the best kind of problem. They're winning now. They have arguably baseball's best farm system. And the NL isn't exactly running away from them.
Think about it this way: If you're Colorado, and you're looking at SS Andy Owens raking in Triple-A, you have to ask yourself - is he more valuable as your shortstop of the future, or as the centerpiece of a package that brings back the kind of veteran who puts you over the top in October?
These are the decisions that keep GMs up at night. And with the deadline coming up, someone in Colorado's front office is probably not sleeping much.
Because here's the truth about baseball's best farm system: Sometimes the best thing about having valuable prospects is using them to win now. And if Colorado decides to go shopping, they've got more to spend than anyone else.
The rest of the NL Mountain Division probably doesn't want to think about that too much.