Yankees 11th In Preliminary Baseball America Farm System Rankings

The official Baseball America organizational farm system rankings don't come out until March, but BA writer Jim Callis released his personal top 10 earlier in the week.  The Yankees weren't included in that top 10, but Callis did confirm via Twitter that he and his fellow BA contributors all had the Yankees ranked 11th in their preliminary rankings.

This comes as a bit of a surprise after such a down year for the Yankee MiL organization.  A lot of their top prospects were hindered by injuries or poor performance, many of them at the higher levels of the system, and the trading away of former top prospect Jesus Montero left the upper levels very light on impact talent.  But there is a lot of low-level strength in the organization, both on the mound and on the field, and those players, guys like Gary Sanchez, Tyler Austin, Slade Heathcott, and Mason Williams, all had very good years.  They're starting to rise, and that crew plus the high amount of mid-tier prospect depth in the system probably worked to get the Yankees that 11th-place ranking.

If the new crop of top prospects continues to progress on the pace they're presently on, if Jose Campos stays healthy in 2013, if Rafael DePaula turns out to be the real deal, and if the Yankees make a big splash with their multiple 1st-round picks in this year's draft, we could be looking at a top 5 farm system this time in 2014.

This would probably be a good time to mention that we're just 4 days away from the start of 2013 Prospect Week at AB4AR, highlighted by the unveiling of the 2012-2013 edition of the AB4AR Top 30.  Mark your calendars, set your watches, and double check your alarms, people, because it's going to be a good time.