I'm a big fan of following the children of the corn farm. I enjoy watching the youngsters rise through the ranks, and now that the Yankees actually have a fertile ranch it's very satisfying to be able to do a bit of gloating - no more having to make excuses for Big Stein's asinine squandering away of the kids and having to change the topic of conversation as quickly as possible. Earlier in the month I discussed a list created by the good folks at Baseball America ranking the 10 ten prospects in the Yankees system, which is interesting, but we hardcore Yanks fans are already familiar with the boys from our own system. Baseball Prospectus has ranked the overall top 100 prospects from all of the farm systems, which is much more useful when it comes to evaluating how each prospect stacks up against his peers, and of course puts a little extra swagger in the steps of the teams who have a lot of players featured on the list.

The list is chock full of highly-touted players, from the Sox's Clay Bucholz (he comes in at #2) to our dear Jobamania (who is ranked #4, after Reds outfielder Jay Bruce, Bucholz, and a 3rd baseman from the Rays named Evan Longoria [when I first read that name I thought "Eva Longoria is a baseball player AND a Desperate Housewife?! What an industrious woman!"] - a lower ranking than I personally believe he deserves). The list featured 5 Yankees (click their names to see their minor league stats!):

1. Jobamania (RHP) - #4
2. I-Ken (RHP) - #34
3. Austin Jackson (OF) - #47
4. Jose Tabata (OF) - #48
5. Allan Horne (RHP) - #67

As I said, we Yanks fans already know at least a bit about these dudes and are hopeful for their future contributions to the team, but it's nice to see that they are considered so skilled when compared to all the other prospects.

The Red Sox have 7 players on the list - 3 pitchers, 2 infielders, and 2 outfielders - and the Mets have... 1.

I've said it here before, folks, and I'm going to say it again: the Mets are the new OLD Yankees.