ESPN did it’s first future power rankings and established where each team stands going forward for the next five years (subscription required). They used five categories for ranking the teams: majors, minors, finances, management, and mobility (of contracts) and gave a number grade to each category. They then averaged the five numbers together based on a weighted system: full weight was placed on the majors and minors, finances and management received 2/3 weight, and mobility received 1/3 weight.
When it was all said and done the Mets came in at No. 26, below the Pittsburgh Pirates…
My first problem with this system is that it’s putting equal weight on the majors and minors. Understandably, when talking about the future a good system is extremely important, but the odds of those guys developing as expected and being contributing major leaguers is extremely low. Due to the fact that players in the bigs are much more of a sure thing, full weight should be given to the majors with the minors getting 3/4 weight and then adjusting the rest of the categories accordingly.
It was the heavily weighted farm system that got the Pirates and Oakland Athletics the nudge over the Mets, despite the A’s dismantling their major league team this off-season and the Pirates not having a winning season in my lifetime. That just sits wrong with me.
The subject of trading David Wright is a discussion for another day, but if Jim Bowden is advocating trading him then I am going to believe we should keep him.
