Boston Farm System Will Keep Sox on Top for Years to Come

The 2011 Red Sox roster is loaded with talent.  Most fans think first of the two big offseason additions: Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzales.  Next in line are Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, John Lester, Clay Buchholz and Johnathon Papelbon.  If you continue to ponder the roster, you will come up with Daniel Bard, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jed Lowrie and more.

What do all of the above, except Crawford, have in common?  They are all former Red Sox farmhands or were traded for Boston prospects.

A strong farm system is the foundation for a consistent major league team. Boston General Manager Theo Epstein once stated that he wanted to turn the Boston farm system into a $100 million dollar player development machine.  

In the injury plagued 2010 season, Boston lost Ellsbury, Youkilis, Pedroia, Buchholz, Varitek, Beckett, Victor Martinez and Mike Cameron for large parts of the season.  They still won 89 games—a feat not possible without minor league depth.

Contributions from minor league players such as Darnell McDonald, Daniel Nava, Yamaico Navarro and Ryan Kalish, among others, kept the Red Sox in contention for almost the entire season.  They didn't make the playoffs, but with a host of replacements, they nearly did just that. 

Many MLB teams can only dream of developing players like Youkilis, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester and Buchholz, while still having enough ammo to trade for the likes of Gonzalez. 

Many of the prospects traded away have gone on to productive major league careers.  Hanley Ramirez was part of the Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell trade.  Justin Masterson was part of the Victor Martinez deal.

Being one of the better teams in baseball every year also means picking later in the draft.  This is further proof that the Boston talent evaluators are some of the best in the business.  Continually drafting and developing major league starters with some of the lowest picks in the draft proves that Epstein has made good on his promise. 

Boston has their $100 million dollar player development machine.