J.J. Cooper filled you in on the Astros' dramatic turnaround in terms of minor league winning percentage. In this post, we'll take things a step further and call attention to the various minor league champions and the most successful parent organizations.

The standings table below ranks all 30 organizations by the cumulative winning percentage of their domestic farm clubs. The +/- category indicates the difference between wins and losses—games above or below .500. A + indicates an organization with seven affiliates instead of six.

We also have 2011, 2010 and 2009 organizational standings with league champions. [...] Continue Reading »

Because postseason minor league all-star teams are selected by league managers, coaches, broadcasters and media they typically contain a good mix of top performers and top prospects. On this page we'll collect all the all-star teams in one place as they're announced.

Most of the abbreviations are self-explanatory, but a few are unique. Pitch is short for pitcher of the year (if the league awards one), Rook is rookie of the year (if applicable), Mgr is manager of the year, and Pros is prospect of the year (as awarded in the low Class A leagues). Many leagues select a righthanded and lefthanded all-star selection, and some also select a relief pitcher (or two). We've simply listed an asterisk (*) following the name of any lefthanded pitcher.

• According to a league press release, a host of prospects received votes for the PCL rookie of the year award, including Wil Myers (Omaha), Adeiny Hechavarria (Las Vegas), Jedd Gyorko (Tucson), Kole Calhoun (Salt Lake), Jake Elmore (Reno) and Grant Green (Sacramento). Adam Eaton's win gives Reno back-to-back PCL ROY award winners after Collin Cowgill won it last year.

• Ernesto Mejia became the third consecutive Gwinnett player to win the IL rookie of the year, following Julio Teheran last year and Freddie Freeman in 2010. [...] Continue Reading »

Just two minor league teams repeated as league champions in 2011, one at the Triple-A level and one at the Rookie-level classification. As a point of comparison, four teams repeated as champions in 2010 after winning their leagues in ’09. 

Columbus repeated as champion of the International League, winning six of seven playoff games while dispatching Durham and Lehigh Valley to win the Governors' Cup. During the regular season, the Clippers led the IL in runs per game (4.97), home runs (152), walks (570), on-base percentage (.347) and OPS (.770). To top it off, Columbus won its second consecutive Triple-A National Championship game, this time knocking off Omaha by an 8-3 score.

Johnson City averaged more than six runs per game in Appalachian League regular season on its way to a league-best 45 wins. They rolled through Danville and Bluefield in the playoffs, winning four of five games.

The standings table below ranks all 30 organizations by the cumulative winning percentage of their domestic farm clubs. The +/- category indicates the difference between wins and losses—games above or below .500, if you will. We also have 2010 and 2009 organizational standings with league champions. [...] Continue Reading »

The major league batting average dipped to .255 this season, the lowest figure since 1989. Similarly, runs scored per nine innings (4.30) and home runs per nine (0.94) at the team level reached their lowest points since 1992, as offensive levels continued their descent from the high-octane 1994-2004 period. In fact, run scoring declined for the sixth consecutive season in 2011, falling more than half a run per nine innings since registering at 4.91 R/9 in 2006.

That drop has not carried over to the high minors. The average Pacific Coast League team in 2011 scored 5.68 runs per nine innings, the highest average for a full-season league in the past five seasons. This year's California League finished two ticks behind at 5.66 R/9, trailing only the ’07 version of the Cal League (5.67 R/9). This ought to come as no surprise because those two leagues annually rank as the most hitter-friendly circuits in the full-season minors.

However, if we turn our attention to the short-season minor leagues, the average Pioneer League team this season scored 6.02 runs per nine innings, blowing away the Pacific Coast and California leagues. This year's Arizona League featured the second-highest scoring average (5.90 R/G) of the past five seasons (if we consider short-season leagues).

On the flip side, this year's Carolina League ranked as the third-lowest run-scoring environment of the past five seasons (full-season leagues only), featuring just an average of 4.35 runs per nine innings per team. This year's International League ranked eighth-lowest at 4.46 R/9. But neither could touch the ’09 Florida State League (4.24 R/9) for run scarcity.

[...] Continue Reading »

To give a better look at just how exceptional 2011 Minor League Player of the Year Mike Trout's 2011 season was, here's a look back at modern-era players who have posted 300+ at-bats in Double-A or above during the season where they turned 20.
 

More home runs are struck in the two Triple-A leagues than at any lower classification. The high Class A California League enjoyed a razor-thin advantage over the International in terms of extra bases per at-bat—or isolated power—but generally speaking, one can expect to see the most extra-base hits per capita at the Triple-A level.

But bubbling below the surface, we find the continuation of recent trends at Double-A and at both low and high Class A. More detail follow the chart. Brush up on last year's minor league averages here.

League context is crucial to the process of ranking prospects. So as you digest our various league Top 20 Prospects lists, you can consult the chart below to see how players compare with the league averages.

[...] Continue Reading »

Columbus mauled Tacoma 12-6 in this year's Triple-A National Championship Game, bringing the International League its second straight victory in the five-year-old showdown. Similarly, the Clippers blitzed through the IL playoffs with a core of Indians prospects promoted from last year's Double-A Eastern League winners, the Akron Aeros. Does this mean we can pencil the Indians in as American League champs in 2011?

More notable than the upward mobility in the Indians system, this September we saw four minor league clubs repeat as league champions: Double-A Jacksonville (Southern), low Class A Lakewood (South Atlantic), high Class A San Jose (California) and high Class A Tampa (Florida State). Three other teams finished as runners-up this season after winning it all a year ago: Triple-A Durham (International), Triple-A Memphis (Pacific Coast) and Double-A Midland (Texas). View the entire ’09 champions table here. [...] Continue Reading »

Does anyone follow minor league pennant races? Only a noble few. The same seems to go for minor league category leaders, which featured some drama this weekend as the batting, ERA and home run titles came down to the wire. Here's how they finished:

Batting Average
Top 5 finishers:
John Lindsey, 1b, Albuquerque (Dodgers), .353
Brandon Belt, 1b/of, San Jose/Richmond/Fresno (Giants), .352
Stephen Vogt, c/1b, Charlotte (Rays), .345
Kyle Seager, 2b/3b, High Desert (Mariners), .345
Brandon Guyer, of, Tennessee (Cubs), .344

Lindsey was drafted in the 13th round out of a Mississippi high school in 1995—the same year the Rockies drafted another first baseman, Todd Helton. He didn't get out of Class A in that organization and spent a couple of seasons in independent leagues, and until 2007, the only times he had hit .300 were in indy ball and at Triple-A Las Vegas. Last season, Lindsey hit .251/.331/.433 at Triple-A New Orleans. In other words, nothing indicated the 33-year-old was set for a year like he had, even if he did play half his games in Albuquerque's launching pad. Lindsey hit .353/.400/.657 and earned his first big league promotion over the weekend, so he missed the last two games of the Pacific Coast League season, unlike his chief rival in the batting chase, Giants farmhand Brandon Belt. In his first full pro season, Belt couldn't be more different from Lindsey in terms of his resume and obviously is the bigger prospect, but he wasn't able to cap his season with the minor league batting title as he went 2-for-8 to fall to .352 in the season's final weekend. [...] Continue Reading »

The full-season minor leagues concluded yesterday, so we can unveil our final ranking of the best and worst teams. While we don't have a 94-win juggernaut like last year's Fort Wayne club, it was another Midwest League team that finished with the best record. The Dodgers' low Class A Great Lakes club shot to the front of the line around the all-star break and never relinquished its advantage, finishing with a minors league-leading 90 wins.

DNP = Did Not Play (scheduled games that got canceled)

Best Of The Best: Durham (AAA), Tennessee (AA), Winston-Salem (HiA) and Great Lakes (LoA)

Great Lakes powered its way to the top with the oldest group of position players in the Midwest League, thanks to a lineup overflowing with  college players drafted in 2009. The Loons led the Midwest League in slugging (.431) and finished just eight homers shy of Clinton. They had slugger Jerry Sands long enough for him to hit 18 homers and drive in 46 runs in 69 games. [...] Continue Reading »

We had the final batting leaderboards last week.

Note that players are listed with the teams for which they finished the season. Ages are as of Sept. 1. As always, (*) denotes a lefthanded pitcher. Make use of our Player Finder to learn more about players’ schools or countries of origin. In most cases the Acquired column provides draft year and round, e.g. 2007 (5).

[...] Continue Reading »

Let’s take one last stroll through the minor league batting leaderboards before we say our final goodbyes to the ’09 season. Here you’ll find full-season minor league leaders (to 15 places) in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs, doubles, stolen bases, strikeouts and plate appearances per strikeout, a measure of contact ability. We’ll follow up with the pitching version next week.

Note that players are listed with the teams for which they finished the season. Ages are as of Sept. 1. Primary position is listed. As always, (*) denotes a lefthanded batter and (#) a switch-hitter. Make use of our Player Finder to learn more about players’ schools or countries of origin.

[...] Continue Reading »

Perhaps the most unique aspect of minor league baseball is the wide array of offensive environments. The hitter-friendly California League stands in stark contrast with the Florida State League, where runs are scarce and pitchers generally thrive. Both leagues operate at the high Class A level, but the average Cal League team this year scored nearly a run more per nine innings (0.95) than their FSL counterpart. That works out to 133 runs over the course of a 140-game season.

To put that in further perspective, consider that the FSL’s most productive team, Dunedin, would have ranked dead last in the Cal League with their 610 runs. But if we bolster their attack by that 133-run exchange rate, the Blue Jays would surge to fourth in the Cal League with 743 runs. And that doesn’t even take into account that because of the FSL’s myriad rainouts, Dunedin completed six fewer games than High Desert, the Cal League’s most offensive outfit. Furthermore, that doesn’t take into account the number of seven-inning contests, brought about by doubleheaders, played by Dunedin. We do know that Mavericks pitchers completed more than 90 additional innings (92 2/3 to be exact) than Dunedin hurlers.

League context is crucial to the process of ranking prospects. So as you digest our various league Top 20 Prospects lists, you can consult the chart below to see how players compare with the league averages.

[...] Continue Reading »

Durham ousted Memphis in 11 innings on Tuesday night, winning the Triple-A championship game and drawing to a close the minor league season. To reflect on the season that was, we present the final organizational standings. You’ll find a ranking of all 30 organizations based on their cumulative regular-season records for all domestic clubs, both full-season and short.

As an added bonus, we’ve included cumulative games over/under .500 (DIF) as well as any league champions or runners-up in the organization. And for making you wait, you’ll find a bonus chart detailing the best and worst short-season clubs following this chart. Hey, the Pioneer League season didn’t end until Saturday night.

We ran the full-season version two weeks ago. [...] Continue Reading »

The regular season concluded on Monday for most of the minor leagues, so we present here the 10 best and 10 worst clubs from the 10 full-season leagues. And as for short-season ball, the Pioneer League slate stretches until Friday, leaving time for the Orem Owlz to make a run at No. 1.

The DNP column indicates the number of scheduled games that were canceled. In the case of Brevard County, they lost an astounding 13 Florida State League contests because of rain or wet grounds.

Best Of The Best: Sacramento (AAA), Birmingham (AA), San Jose (HiA), Fort Wayne (LoA). [...] Continue Reading »