is MiLB Organization ranking really that important? if the yankees are #1, do the yankees get a banner to hang at yankee stadium?

all other things equal, i’m not sure of the correlation of a high milb ranking with winning a world series.

it would however be interesting to see the correlation if anyone does knows it.

Right now the Yankees have several high end pitchers in the high minors (AA and AAA) but few if any potential impact position players. Some have come up in the last few years (Cabrera and Cano) but there aren’t any more we will see in pinstripes before 2010. Pitchers can be used to acquire other players so that is a valuable commodity. Cashman has done well but he also had good pieces to work with when he took over. He didn’t build the current Yankees team from scratch.

Under Cashman, the Yankees’ MiLB Organization ranking went from a around 22nd to 5th in a little over two years. I would say its working fairly well, considering that the Yankees have ALSO made the Post Season each year for 13 seasons, made it to the World Series 6 times and brought home 4 World Championships.
For the first time since maybe the Late 50s and Early 60s, you can look to the Farm System and get excited with the “blue chippers” that have a good chance to excel with the Yankees.

Player Development takes time…and patience.

scranton, trenton, and charleston are all in first place (or within a game)

as a yankee fan, i can’t tell you how much that excites me.

we all know how well minor league stats translate to the majors.

kei igawa has a 3.6 era at scranton.

cool- really cool

cashman is the best minor league thinker ever

cool- really cool

Tenth in walks. Ninth in OBP. Tenth in runs per game.

They’re near the top in slugging and stuff, but they’ve been tops in the AL in OBP the last two years and have scored a LOT. It’s no coincidence that they’re not scoring any runs, given that they’re a team built on OBP.

Whether it’s guys trying to make up for Jorge and Alex, or make up for being put in early holes by the pitching staff, it doesn’t matter. Point is that they’re not getting on base, particularly at the top of the lineup, and so their offense is stalling.

He didn’t that the Yankees can’t score as many runs as the Rays. He meant they can’t score runs in the same way as the Rays do, because the team is built differently. They’re faster. The Yanks are more patient, which is supposed to generate more baserunners, leading to more opportunities to score runs. The problem is they haven’t been getting on base this year as much as they should. Jeter and Bobby especially. It’s not that they’re designed to wait for homers, but they ARE designed to push guys forward by getting on base themselves. Their problem isn’t a lack of stealing bases. Their problem is a lack of timely and situational hitting. And you don’t need to be a speedy team to hit sac flies with men on third, or singles up the middle with Damon on 2B.