MLB.com's Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo were tasked with answering the question of which of the worst three teams in baseball (Houston, Miami, Chicago Cubs) has the best chance to reverse their fortune.
Mayo said Miami, because he likes fraud. Callis said the Cubs are in the best position to contend more quickly, but that Houston has the best farm system in baseball.
Jim Callis says Carlos Correa has "the Alex Rodriguez starter set of tools," and Mark Appel has "the stuff and polish to headline a rotation."
And Carlos Rodon is "If Cy Young and Clayton Kershaw had a baby, it would be Carlos Rodon*."
* - He did not say this.
This is still impressive, given that the Baseball Analysts said the Astros had the worst farm system in baseball in 2010. Keith Law had the Astros ranked #30 in January 2009, and said:
Houston's farm system looks like
General Sherman marched through it, then turned around and marched
through it again just to be sure the job was done. The Astros' 2007
draft class might turn out to be one of the worst in history...
In March 2012, the Astros' own Kevin Goldstein (who was not the Astros' own then, he was Baseball Prospectus' own Kevin Goldstein) ranked the Astros as the 26th-best farm system.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
