Baseball America: Rays farm system No. 2

Posted Dec 3, 2009 by Roger Mooney

Updated Dec 3, 2009 at 03:09 PM

Only the Texas Rangers are ranked higher than the Rays, and that’s largely due to the fact Baseball America still considers Rangers right-hander Neftali Feliz a prospect.

The folks at Baseball America who compiled the rankings are high on right-handed pitcher Jeremy Hellickson and five-tool center fielder Desmond Jennings. Like Feliz, Baseball America also considers Wade Davis a prospect even though Davis made six starts in September.

Rays executive vice president of baseball Andrew Friedman said during a pre-Winter Meetings media gathering Tuesday that both prospects have a chance to play at Tropicana Field this summer.

Friedman must also be pleased with Baseball America’s view of his farm system since Friedman loves his prospects.

“(The farm system) is our life blood,” Friedman said. “That is the only way we’re going to sustain success.”

Friedman added the mentality of the Rays brain trust is they never have enough prospects.

“That’s what fuels us,” he said.

Here is Baseball America’s take on the Rays ...

“Talk about top-heavy. Every system would love to have two big league-ready right-handers like Wade Davis and Jeremy Hellickson, who both have stuff, command and success at the upper levels. And neither of them is even the Rays’ top prospect—that honor goes to five-tool center fielder Desmond Jennings, whose only issue is durability. In between Triple-A and low Class A, the Rays are a bit thin, but they have a bevy of power arms at the lower levels, led by left-hander Matt Moore.”

For more on this, go to http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/12/01/farm.systems/index.html