In continuation of my division by division series, it's now the AL Central's turn. Here again are Victor's surplus values for the different categories of prospects:
| Top 10 hitting prospects | $32.5M |
| Top 11-25 hitters | $22.3 |
| Top 26-50 hitters | $20.8 |
| Top 51-75 hitters | $12.6 |
| Top 76-100 hitters | $11.1 |
| Top 10 pitching prospects | $13.5 |
| Top 11-25 pitchers | $14.2 |
| Top 26-50 pitchers | $14.2 |
| Top 51-75 pitchers | $10.8 |
| Top 76-100 pitchers | $8.7 |
| Grade B pitchers (as graded by Sickels) |
$6.5 |
| Grade B hitters | $4.9 |
| Grade C pitchers 22 or younger | $1.9 |
| Grade C pitchers 23 or older | $1.3 |
| Grade C hitters 22 or younger | $0.62 |
| Grade C hitters 23 or older | $0.45 |
Yes it is odd, but top ten pitchers were shown to have less value than top 11-50 pitchers. It's probably a sample size issue, but the more important truth is that pitchers as a group have rather high rates of attrition. We all would rather have David Price than Jhoulys Chacin on our team, yes, I know, but there is still the chance they produce equal value for a number of different reasons.
via www.editgrid.com
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Detroit Tigers, $45.07M surplus value. Move over Astros, this is the least valuable system in all of baseball. Rick Porcello makes up 31.5% of the Tigers' farm system surplus value, and he signed a 4-year/$7.285M contract with options for his '11-'12 seasons worth a little over a million apiece. Therefore, I don't know how much true surplus value you can actually say he has. After Porcello, the only players of much value left are Ryan Perry and Brett Jacobson, a couple of college relievers from last year's draft.
- Chicago White Sox, $72.06M. Gordon Beckham is good at baseball. Dayan Viciedo signed a 4 year/$10M major league contract, making his true surplus value sketchy. Here's a look at surplus value in action: The ChiSox received Tyler Flowers ($11.1M), Santos Rodriguez ($1.9M), Jon Gilmore ($.62M) and Brent Lillibridge ($.45M) for a total surplus value of $14.07M. The Braves got Javy Vazquez and Boone Logan. Vazquez will be getting paid $23M the next two season, but CHONE projects he'll pitch like he's worth $37M. Logan has only 2 years of service time and projects to be worth 1.8 WAR over the next four seasons, worth $8.1M. Even using more conservative projections for both Logan and Vazquez, this trade looks good for Atlanta.
- Minnesota Twins, $94.31M. According to the surplus values, the Twins made the right choice making Aaron Hicks an outfielder, even if he would have made a great pitching prospect. Top 50 hitter > Top 50 pitcher. Ben Revere was universally panned as a first round draft pick by the experts, but went on to hit for a .436 wOBA as a 20 year old in the Midwest League. About 1/3 of the Twins' farm system value comes from five grade B pitchers, including 2008 draft picks Carlos Gutierrez and Shooter Hunt.
Graph time for the two top systems in the division-
Total val.: $105.74M. 43% of Cleveland's value comes on players they acquired in mid-season trades. You can't really blame Milwaukee for giving up LaPorta and others to acquire Sabathia, but Carlos Santana for Casey Blake is a dumb and inexcusable move on the part of Ned Colletti. Blake contributed 0 WSAB for the Dodgers, whereas Santana and Jon Meloan account for $22.1M in surplus value.
Total val.: $107.5M. The Royals have one of the more underrated farm systems in baseball. Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer are a nifty 1-2 punch at the top of the system. After that, there's not much star talent, but they have a very nice collection of B grade arms.
In summary, this division has a couple of underrated farm systems in the Twins and Royals, and one of the more overrated systems in the White Sox. Well, they're not really a highly rated system to begin with - most rankings have them in the middle of the pack - but I think they're worse than that.
Next up: The AL East.