7. Detroit Tigers
2021 preseason rank: 2
2020 midseason rank: 2
2020 preseason rank: 5
Top 100 prospects: Spencer Torkelson (No. 4), Riley Greene (No. 7), Jackson Jobe (No. 50)

As I am with COVID, I am cautiously optimistic.

A's farm system is pretty bare, from all reports.

At least Khris Davis is Krushing it in Las Vegas!

So the Cubs firesale slingshot their farm system from 22nd place .... way up to 18th.

3. Miami Marlins
2021 preseason rank: 4
2020 midseason rank: 5
2020 preseason rank: 4
Top 100 Prospects: Kahlil Watson, SS (No. 28); Edward Cabrera, RHP (No. 30); Max Meyer, RHP (No. 31); Sixto Sánchez, RHP (No. 45); J.J. Bleday, OF (No. 77); Jake Eder, LHP (No. 82)

The Marlins went from one of baseball's worst farm systems at the end of 2017 to one of its best by mid-2019, and they've kept adding to it ever since. They stocked up on pitching in the 2020 Draft with a pair of Top 100 Prospects in first-rounder Max Meyer and fourth-rounder Jake Eder, and they bolstered their supply of position prospects this year by signing Cuban shortstop Yiddi Cappe in January and drafting Watson and catcher Joe Mack with their first two picks in July.

The new regime seems to be making some progress.

I had a thought the other day: You know how songwriters like Bruce Springsteen often give names to the characters in their songs? Hazy Davy, Wild Billy, Johnny 99, Mary, etc. I realize that pretty much no one of the younger generation is interested in writing songs like Springsteen, but certainly some of them write/will write songs with people with names, right? Will they give them names like Adley, Grayson, Gunnar, Colton and Kaitlin?

#3 ... bright side is Brennen Davis has jumped up to #14 overall at mlb.com. Alas the injured Brailyn Marquez has dropped to the bottom of the top 100 and Amaya has slipped off the top 100 entirely.

But yeah, despite nice words, mlb.com has decided the guys the Cubs picked up aren't that impressive even by Cub standards.

Rizzo: Alcantara #16, Vizcaino #19
Bryant: Canario #12, Kilian #14
Baez: Crow-Armstong #5 but still injured

So not a big influx of talent. On the bright side, Caissie and Preciado (both Darvish) are doing well in rookie ball, Caissie just promoted to A and have moved up to #9 and #8 respectively. Cristian Hernandez is still just 17 and sits #3 and probably not far outside the top 100. And I'm still not sure what scouts are waiting to see from Kilian -- 10/1.2 K/BB with 0.4 HR/9 at A+/AA. Fine he doesn't have great stuff but seems that should be better than #14 in this system.

I don't know much about those prospects the Cubs acquired. Are any of them remotely likely to be better than Nick Madrigal? Or even Codi Heuer? It really annoys me that Craig Kimbrel probably fetched the best bounty, and that said bounty came from the Sox.

Nice development season for the Reds. India, Stephenson, and Gutierrez should all lose rookie status after this season but they are all going to get some ROY votes. Lodolo and Greene are in AAA. Barrero is currently in the majors, hopefully for good. Hopefully Castellanos doesn't opt out, though, the Reds should have a really good core for next year whether he does or not.

edit: though, i see that Lodolo was just shut down with a shoulder strain, so, TINSTAAPP...

#7 ... nobody really knows much about most of those Cub prospects because they generally targeted very young players. The two main guys from the Padres in the Darvish trade had no pro PAs yet (covid), Crow-Armstrong had something like 50 before he got hurt, etc. Basically the Cubs added extra 2019-20 draft picks and international signings to the ones they already had. The Cubs also didn't shy away from guys currently injured, including Madrigal. Given the quantity, there's a pretty good chance at least one of those guys turns out better than Madrigal but I'm not sure any one of them projects better than Madrigal at this point. Madrigal makes little sense for the Cubs -- if healthy, he'll be a solid player on a bad, rebuilding team for a few years; unless they extend him, he'll probably be gone before these guys come to fruition.

Let's not get too excited about Madrigal. He's an interesting player and his production so far has been good (3-3.5 WAR pace) but his speed and defense haven't shown up at the ML level yet and of course he's currently hurt so we don't know how well he'll recover or how chronic the injury will be. Unless he's going to add power (seems unlikely), he needs to hit around 300 to have positive WAA -- which he might do. Certainly good return in a deadline deal so nice to have Heuer thrown in as well but it's not Bagwell for Anderson or anything.