Farm System Breakdown – #12: Tom Cat’s

For an explanation on the distinction between the “Exponential” and “Linear” rankings given below, please refer to my earlier post “Farm System Primer”. I know it’s tedious, but I had just enough details that I felt needed to review, that I didn’t want to start off each Farm System Breakdown post with 4 paragraphs of jargon. And of course, any questions, feel free to inquire within.

Top 30 Rank (Exponential/Linear): 12/11
Total Rank (Exp/Lin): 12/12
Average of Total Rank (Exp/Lin): 11/9
Average Prospect Grade/Risk (Exp/Lin): 49.3/High / 40.4/High
Total Prospects: 41

Groups of 15 Rankings

Organization Prospect Rankings

MPTK = “More Players to Know” section of Handbook, DC = Depth Chart of Handbook, 21IFA = IFA signed and drafted in 2021, NL = Not listed in handbook under any sections

Summary

I’ll start off this summary by saying I really don’t like writing about myself. If any CPL managers out there want to take on the responsibility of doing Tom Cat’s write ups for any of my future series, please let me know and I’ll happily pay your retainer. But, for now, I’ll do my best to remain impartial.

As we progress beyond the bottom four farms of the CPL, we start to see some healthier looking systems. The Tom Cat’s has recent revelation Arozarena leading the way, with Varsho, recently drafted Max Meyer, Noelvi and Tyler Stephenson all rounding out the top names of the system. Unfortunately for the Tom Cat’s, three of these names are set to graduate in 2021, and sifting through the layer of “guys” you run out of interesting names very quickly. While the Morel’s, Cavaco’s and Duran’s of the world are always nice to have, there’s just simply not much else. What we see here is a top heavy, yet shallow farm system, rounded out with role players and lottery tickets.

Maybe one or two of the lottery tickets hit, but with how close the top portions of the system are to graduating, I would expect this system to drop in the rankings going forward. Unless there’s an unexpected and massive injection of talent from a generous outside source.

For the record, I do find it hilarious that the flyer I took in the supplementals because they had an opportunity to pitch in the Baltimore rotation is a top 11 prospect in this system. I think that says a lot about the complete lack of depth.