19. Washington Nationals
This represents a ton of progress since Mike Rizzo took over as GM. He inherited a farm system that couldn't begin to fill the major league team's needs. Ownership opened its wallets beyond the first pick in August, adding three more players in the team's Top 10.
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/news/story?page=2011MLBOrgRanksI'm hoping the trend of ownership actually spending on the draft continues. Still disappointing to me that the ownership has talked about a plan to develop the farm system for 5 years and they failed to spend the necessary amount until last year's draft. The farm should be ranked higher if the ownership/front office actually put the necessary resources. Look at KC. Dayton Moore came on board around the same time as the Lerners. He has taken a farm system widely considered as one of the worst (just like the Nats) and turned it into arguably the best in baseball history. The crazy thing about that is the Royals had some of the fewest picks in the draft in that time span.
Team Picks in top 3 rounds since '07
Blue Jays 25
Padres 21
Rangers 20
Angels 20
Red Sox 17
Cardinals 17
Royals 12*
* Only Orioles and Indians had fewer
Team First-round
picks since '07
Blue Jays 12
Rangers 12
Angels 11
D-backs 11
Padres 11
Giants 9
Red Sox 8
Royals 5#
# Only Orioles, Marlins and Indians had fewer
Though it's not all negative. Here is an interesting excerpt from an ESPN.com article on the Royals farm system:
The Royals' talent surge is particularly impressive because of how quickly things have coalesced.
That's a product of two astute drafts by former scouting director Deric Ladnier, who now works for the Washington Nationals
