There's always a fine line between having a great minor-league system and having a good team at the big-league level, and it's pretty rare when an organization has both.
The Rangers' farm system had slid in recent years while guys like Jurickson Profar and Rougned Odor were being forced to the big leagues earlier than they probably should have. Now, it's starting to make a rebound, and the Rangers hope the big-league club can follow suit after a disastrous 2014 season that helped nab one of the club's top prospects.
Keith Law, of ESPN, released his list of the top 100 prospects in baseball last week, and it featured six Rangers, which is a good number to have in the top 100.
It all starts, of course, with slugging prospect Joey Gallo, whose prodigious pop has been a thing of legend for the past year or so, highlighted by his showing at the MLB Futures Game and the preceding batting practice display he put on. Gallo ranked No. 11 on Law's list. He was followed by outfielder Nomar Mazara, who is ranked as the club's No. 2 prospect and was No. 31 on the Law's overall list.
Following those two were catcher Jorge Alfaro (No. 35), starting pitcher Jake Thompson (No. 52), who the Rangers got from Detroit in July for Joakim Soria, starting pitcher Chi-Chi Gonzalez (No. 86) and finally starter Luis Ortiz, who checked in at No. 96 after being the Rangers' No. 1 pick as a high school pitcher last year.
