Three Dodgers Among ESPN’s Top 25 Prospects

I have to be honest: I don’t really look at the standings until July. All that matters is how the Dodgers do, because they have no control (other than head-to-head meetings) against what the other NL teams are doing. So yeah, it’s a bummer that they’re 7.5 games out in the West, but the Giants can’t play like this forever (um, probably) and either way, they’re tied for a wild card spot right now. The standings matter less than this team taking care of business, and they really haven’t: they’re 5-5 in their last 10, 10-10 in their last 20, 15-15 in their last 30.

But anyway, the point here isn’t to talk about the disappointments of the big league Dodgers. It’s to focus on the fact that there really is hope in the minors, and that’s illustrated best by ESPN’s Keith Law, who did an updated Top 25 prospect list in advance of June’s draft. Byron Buxton, as expected, is still No. 1, and the Twins, Astros, Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Cubs all had two players on the list.

The only team with three? Your Los Angeles Dodgers with Corey Seager at No. 11,  Julio Urias at No. 15, and Joc Pederson at No. 21. Seager is up 7 spots from Law’s preseason lists, Urias down one, and Pederson up 20. This is, of course, only one man’s opinion, and being a top prospect doesn’t always mean that that being a top player is guaranteed, as Greg Miller, Chuck Tiffany, Andy LaRoche, Joel Guzman and so many others will remind you, and this doesn’t mean the Dodgers have the best overall farm system in baseball. (They don’t.) But it does mean that as the major league team continues to frustrate, this isn’t an organization that is entirely invested in the expensive major league roster. No other team has as many top 25 prospects. It’s a nice thing to say.