Pittsburgh Pirate Farm System is #1. The NL Central's future is seriously talented.

The Pittsburgh Pirates' farm system is ranked #1 by Baseball America.
Last year, it was the St. Louis Cardinals with the Cubs coming in at number 12.
You gotta think the Cubs have moved up some this year, right?
I don't pay THAT much attention to rankings (unless the Cubs are up top somewhere), but man this seems like the future of the NL Central is gonna be where alot of the best pro action will be happening.
Just so the Pirates and Cardinals understand that, you know, it's kind of a foregone conclusion that the Cubs win the World Series in 2015.
Or '16 or '17. 
One of those years.
OKAY.
Maybe '18 - that way you could buy t-shirts with the nice rounded off number - 11 decades since the Cubs won the WS.
"THE CUBS WILL PARADE IN THE 11TH DECADE" or something.
Anyway, when I read this about the Pirates it got me thinking about how they'll go about their business.
Maybe they're the latest small market iteration of the model Theo and Jed are creating here.
They grow top talent, sign 'em to a smart contract for as long as they can - maybe get a prime year or three - and then sell 'em to the Yankees.
Whatever, it'll be interesting to watch.
One thing I'm pretty sure about, their GM, Neal Huntington, has got to be a bit more saavy than the guy they had in 2003, Dave Littlefield.
Here's a phone call I'm totally making up that might have happened about July 21st, 2003:

Jim Hendry is JH, Dave Littlefield is DL.
RING RING.
DL: Hello?
JH: Do you have Prince Albert in a can?
DL: Ha ha ha. Jimbo the Jokester. What's going on?
JH: Listen Dave, you know Corey Patterson's out for the year now with the knee. I just GOTTA have Kenny Lofton. 
DL: Well, we're not going anywhere and it's almost the trade deadline. Who will you give me?
JH: How's about a guy to replace Aramis Ramirez?
DL: Huh?
JH: Sure, we'll take that guy off your hands - he's gonna cost you about $6 mil next year, right?
DL: Yeah.
JH: How about we give you Jose Hernandez who's only making $1 mil? In return, we'll take that big Ramirez salary off your hands, and Kenny Lofton.
DL: I don't know...
JH: What if I promised you a scouting job with the Cubs after they throw you out?
DL: Really?
JH: Promise.
DL: Done.

Okay, an oversimplification and there were more players involved but honestly, I still do not understand how that trade ever happened.
But at the time I sure did love Jim Hendry, and it made 2003 alot more interesting.

And btw, Dave Littlefield actually IS a scout for the Cubs.

Comments

[Rich Beckman]

I love the idea that the Division is going to be tough. There are some great seasons coming up!

Seems like there were two or three trades with Pittsburgh that amounted to the Cubs stealing from them. It always seemed like they just did not care.

Great cowbucs!

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

I know.
Whoda thunk?
ALEast might meet it's match...

[Bud]

Here's a real STRETCH analogy:

There are always 100 robins living within 1/2 mile of your home (the robins are the best ballplayers). There are 30 trees in your neighborhood (the trees are MLB teams). You have one tree in your backyard (that tree is the Cubs). In order for your tree to be the best tree in the neighborhood, you need 25 robins to land in it at the same time.

So how do you make your tree most attractive to a bunch of birds that can go almost anywhere they want?

You can't glue their feet to the branches. You can't put any more bird seed (money) in your tree than the others. You can't tell the birds that the weather is better in your backyard (they all fly south for the winter).

The only answer is to make sure that the best robins hatch from the nests in your familiar tree and that they stick around for a while before they get wanderlust (until you can add some new hatchlings).

It's all about having the tree with the most nests with the right eggs...