Earlier this week, Baseball America ranked the Phillies as having the league's eighth best farm system in the league. They followed up their impressive ranking of the team's farm system yesterday evening, when their annual top 100 prospects list featured five names in the Phillies' system.
Catcher Andrew Knapp checked in at No. 96, outfielder Cornelius Randolph at No. 88, pitcher Jake Thompson at No. 75, outfielder Nick Williams at No. 27 and shortstop J.P. Crawford at No. 6.
This list is slightly less kind to the Phillies than MLB Pipeline's was, which featured seven Phillies on their list. Their initial list featured outfielder Roman Quinn, pitcher Mark Appel and catcher Jorge Alfaro, none of whom were featured on this list. Baseball America's list, however, featured Knapp, who wasn't on MLB Pipeline's list.
Baseball America's list also featured quite a few drastic differences in rankings from that of MLB Pipeline. MLB Pipeline ranked Nick Williams as the 64th best prospect, a far cry for the 27th best on Baseball America's list. Jake Thompson, acquired along with Williams in the package of prospects for Cole Hamels, was ranked as the 55th best prospect on MLB Pipeline's countdown, but wasn't shown as much love by the experts as Baseball America, as he was ranked 20 spots lower at 75.
Regardless of the differences in these countdowns, it's evident that the Phillies' farm system is in a much better place than it has been in a long time. That's pretty impressive when you consider the Phillies own the No. 1 pick in the 2016 MLB Draft and figure to have another top 10 — if not top five — pick in the 2017 draft.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
