Monday Night Open Thread

Over the weekend Andrew Simon posted a study looking at how well MLB.com’s top 100 prospects lists have correlated to future big league success over the years. Generally speaking, teams with top farm systems experience much more MLB success in the following years. We’re talking an average increase of 9.4 wins (!) just one year after having a top system.

Simon’s method, which determines farm system status by awarding 100 points for the No. 1 prospect on the top 100, 99 points for the No. 2 prospect, etc., says the Yankees have the best farm system in the game per MLB.com’s rankings. There are no guarantees with prospects and Simon’s method isn’t perfect. (Prospect value isn’t linear.) We all know that. History has shown a great farm system tends to result in better MLB teams in subsequent years though, and boy do I like the sound of that.

Anyway, this is tonight’s open thread. The Knicks, Islanders, and Devils are all in action tonight, and there are some college basketball games on the schedule as well. Talk about those games, Simon’s study, or anything else here as long as it’s not religion or politics.