Cubs Farm System Ranked 4th By ESPN's Keith Law

ESPN's Keith Law is releasing his prospect rankings this week and it started today with his ranking of all 30 farm systems. (Insider Only. Sorry.) While the Cubs have fallen from last season's rank of number one, the talent left in the Cubs farm system is still good enough for Law to declare it the 4th best in all of baseball. He also reveals that six Cubs will make his top 100 prospect list when it comes out tomorrow.

The Braves, benefitting from several great trades of major league talent for prospects, have moved up to number one in Law's listing. The Dodgers and the Twins are the only other systems that he thinks rank above the Cubs.

In his short writeup of the Cubs system, Law does note that while there is a lot of talent in the Cubs system, little of it is likely to see the majors before 2017. He also notes that there are finally some talented arms coming up in the Cubs organization, although all of it is far away. (I wonder whom Law could be referring to?)

The only bad news is that most of the other farm systems for teams in the NL Central are also ranked highly, with one very nice exception.

5. Milwaukee Brewers

8. Pittsburgh Pirates

12. Cincinnati Reds

19. St. Louis Cardinals

The Angels were ranked last in Law's estimation (and pretty much everyone else's) and the Marlins were second-to-last.

We'll have more on Law's top 100 prospects tomorrow and where the six Cubs on the list end up ranking.