Yankees Are Still Producing Players

By Matt Eddy
March 30, 2007

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See also: 40-man roster analysis by the numbers
See also: Blue Jays lead the way in player production

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The Yankees’ farm system is justly given the lion’s share of the credit for the club’s championship run of the late-90s, when stars like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada formed the core of four World Series winners. But with their second straight Division Series bouncing last season, the Yankees’ World Series “drought” stands at six years and counting.

Many cite a weakened farm system as the chief culprit for the lack of results, but a closer examination reveals this is not the case. Because while the quantity of players the Yankees have churned out since 2000 has been just average, the quality of such players has been better than all but five organizations. While much of that advantage is purely fiscal, with many of the club’s prospects arriving as finished international products (think Orlando Hernandez, Jose Contreras and Hideki Matsui), the Yankees also have developed Eric Milton, Mike Lowell, Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera, all of whom they cashed in for big league help. And were it not for Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez would not be in pinstripes.

Plenty of 40-man roster studies have detailed the raw number of players developed by each of the 30 organizations, but we wanted to look at it from a different angle. Specifically, we sought to find out just how successful the developed players have been, looking for quality and quantity. To do so, we quantified success in terms of playing time—plate appearances for hitters and innings pitched for pitchers—because a player has to display a level of competence to keep his job. After all, it’s easy to replace incompetence with less-experienced, and thus cheaper, incompetence.

Players on 40-man rosters as of mid-March were considered, with each credited to his signing organization. But there’s a twist: Only players signed since 1995 were considered, to better illustrate the teams’ recent player development acumen. For example, we didn’t think the Pirates should still be getting credit for nabbing Barry Bonds in the 1985 draft.

In order to combine the contributions of batters and pitchers, we credited a player with a "season" for each batting (502 PA) or ERA (162 IP) title he qualified for.

In case you’re wondering, the Blue Jays also came out on top when considering all 1,185 players on rosters, thanks largely to seven grizzled veterans signed in the 1980s: Jose Mesa, David Wells, Mike Timlin, Dave Weathers, Woody Williams, Carlos Delgado and Jeff Kent.

Total Player Seasons Produced By Organizations Since 1995
No.	Team	Players	Hitters	Seasons	Pitchers	Seasons	Total
1	Blue Jays	42	21	65.4	21	24.1	89.5
2	Athletics	37	17	38.7	20	43.5	82.2
3	Rockies	38	19	46.6	19	31.0	77.5
4	Phillies	31	12	41.1	19	32.8	74.0
5	Cubs	39	10	13.7	29	55.5	69.2
6	Yankees	35	17	40.2	18	27.4	67.6
7	Angels	34	19	27.2	15	38.5	65.7
8	Diamondbacks	47	22	24.2	25	40.1	64.3
9	Astros	36	14	30.8	22	32.2	63.0
10	Marlins	29	11	29.8	18	31.0	60.8
11	Cardinals	26	16	41.8	10	18.7	60.6
12	Rangers	25	10	32.8	15	25.5	58.3
13	Mariners	39	19	36.8	20	21.5	58.3
14	Red Sox	37	14	29.7	23	26.2	55.9
15	Expos/Nationals	28	14	36.3	14	11.3	47.6
16	Pirates	40	16	15.0	24	32.1	47.2
17	White Sox	36	18	18.3	18	27.9	46.2
18	Braves	40	21	30.7	19	15.0	45.7
19	Indians	32	17	27.4	15	17.6	45.0
20	Reds	20	9	25.9	11	17.7	43.6
21	Mets	30	15	25.1	15	16.9	42.0
22	Devil Rays	31	16	28.5	15	13.5	42.0
23	Twins	34	13	33.1	21	8.9	42.0
24	Padres	25	9	8.7	16	25.2	33.9
25	Royals	27	11	19.2	16	14.6	33.9
26	Giants	34	8	3.1	26	30.5	33.6
27	Tigers	24	12	15.0	12	15.3	30.3
28	Orioles	23	7	14.6	16	13.2	27.8
29	Dodgers	34	15	13.5	19	14.2	27.7
30	Brewers	21	11	17.6	10	8.8	26.4

Clubs' Five Most Experienced Players Signed Since 1995
No.	Team	Five Most Experienced Players Signed Since 1995
1	Blue Jays	RHP Roy Halladay, SS Michael Young, CF Vernon Wells, RF Jay Gibbons, SS Cesar Izturis
2	Athletics	RHP Tim Hudson, 3B Eric Chavez, LHP Barry Zito, LHP Mark Mulder, SS Angel Berroa
3	Rockies	1B Todd Helton, CF Juan Pierre, RHP Jason Jennings, SS Juan Uribe, RHP Jake Westbrook
4	Phillies	SS Jimmy Rollins, LF Pat Burrell, LHP Randy Wolf, 2B Marlon Anderson, RHP Adam Eaton
5	Cubs	RHP Jon Garland, RHP Kerry Wood, RHP Carlos Zambrano, RHP Kyle Lohse, CF Corey Patterson
6	Yankees	LHP Eric Milton, 3B Mike Lowell, 2B Alfonso Soriano, RHP Orlando Hernandez, 1B Nick Johnson
7	Angels	1B Darin Erstad, 3B Troy Glaus, LHP Jarrod Washburn, RHP Ramon Ortiz, RHP John Lackey
8	Diamondbacks	RHP Brad Penny, RHP Vicente Padilla, RHP Brandon Webb, RHP Byung-Hyun Kim, 1B Lyle Overbay
9	Astros	LF/1B Lance Berkman, SS Julio Lugo, RHP Roy Oswalt, LHP Johan Santana, RHP Wade Miller
10	Marlins	RHP Livan Hernandez, CF Mark Kotsay, CF Randy Winn, RHP Josh Beckett, LF Miguel Cabrera
11	Cardinals	RHP Matt Morris, 1B Albert Pujols, 2B Adam Kennedy, RF J.D. Drew, SS Jack Wilson
12	Rangers	RHP Ryan Dempster, LHP Doug Davis, 3B Hank Blalock, 1B Mark Teixeira, RHP Aaron Harang
13	Mariners	RF Jose Cruz, RF Ichiro Suzuki, C Jason Varitek, RHP Joel Pineiro, RHP Gil Meche
14	Red Sox	SS David Eckstein, 3B Shea Hillenbrand, RHP Tomo Ohka, LHP Mike Maroth, SS Adam Everett
15	Expos/Nationals	C Michael Barrett, LF Brad Wilkerson, CF Milton Bradley, C Brian Schneider, LHP Cliff Lee
16	Pirates	RHP Kris Benson, RHP Bronson Arroyo, RF Rob Mackowiak, 2B Jose Castillo, LHP Ricardo Rincon
17	White Sox	LHP Mark Buehrle, RHP Kip Wells, RHP Josh Fogg, 3B Joe Crede, CF Aaron Rowand
18	Braves	SS Rafael Furcal, 2B Marcus Giles, RHP Jason Marquis, 3B Mark DeRosa, LHP Horacio Ramirez
19	Indians	1B Sean Casey, LHP C.C. Sabathia, C Victor Martinez, RHP Danys Baez, SS Jhonny Peralta
20	Reds	RHP Brett Tomko, LF Adam Dunn, C Jason LaRue, CF Brady Clark, RF Austin Kearns
21	Mets	RHP A.J. Burnett, 3B Ty Wigginton, SS Jose Reyes, CF Endy Chavez, RHP Jae Seo
22	Devil Rays	3B Aubrey Huff, LF Carl Crawford, LHP Joe Kennedy, C Toby Hall, CF Rocco Baldelli
23	Twins	LF Jacque Jones, 1B Doug Mientkiewicz, RF Bobby Kielty, RF Mike Cuddyer, 1B Justin Morneau
24	Padres	RHP Rodrigo Lopez, RHP Brian Lawrence, RHP Jake Peavy, LHP Oliver Perez, SS Khalil Greene
25	Royals	CF Carlos Beltran, 2B Mark Ellis, CF David DeJesus, LHP Jeremy Affeldt, LHP Jimmy Gobble
26	Giants	RHP Russ Ortiz, RHP Joe Nathan, LHP Noah Lowry, RHP Jerome Williams, RHP Scott Linebrink
27	Tigers	RHP Jeff Weaver, 3B Brandon Inge, 2B Omar Infante, SS Ramon Santiago, CF Curtis Granderson
28	Orioles	2B Brian Roberts, OF David Dellucci, LHP Erik Bedard, RHP Daniel Cabrera, RHP Rick Bauer
29	Dodgers	SS Alex Cora, RHP Eric Gagne, C David Ross, CF Shane Victorino, RHP Scott Proctor
30	Brewers	LF Geoff Jenkins, RHP Ben Sheets, SS Bill Hall, 2B Rickie Weeks, 1B Prince Fielder