Every farm system in baseball, ranked

Plus: After 1,993 tries, a Roy Oswalt perfecto

Monday, August 17 View Online Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today's games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.   We always get excited when a top prospect arrives in the big leagues. Sometimes we might even get a little too excited … but then someone like Joshua Báez comes along and vindicates all that hype.    Báez's history-making debut for the Cardinals over the weekend has us thinking: Which teams might have the next prospect sensation waiting in the wings?    Luckily, MLB Pipeline just put out its midseason ranking of every single team's farm system, with insight from our trio of prospect experts, Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra.   Let's take a look at some of the most interesting nuggets in there.    1) The Dodgers are No. 1 even after their Skubal trade    How do they do it? The Dodgers somehow always seem to have one of the best Major League teams AND one of the best Minor League systems. They've even managed to take over as the best overall farm system (they were No. 2 entering the season) despite trading away two Top 100 prospects, Zyhir Hope and River Ryan, to get Tarik Skubal at the Deadline. That's because Los Angeles still has six Top 100 prospects left, tied for the most of any team, and several others knocking on the door.   2) The Giants made a massive jump    The Giants had the 19th-ranked farm system at the start of the season. They've moved all the way up to No. 5, one of the biggest jumps any team has made within a single season since MLB Pipeline started ranking these things. What was a hitter-heavy farm system at the start of the year is now much more balanced, with San Francisco's pitching prospects headlined by Jackson Flora, the fourth overall pick in the 2026 Draft, who's now MLB's No. 31 prospect.   3) The Draft and trades made their mark    The farm system rankings come out right after the Draft and the Trade Deadline for a reason. Teams are reloaded with lots of new prospects. Take the Rays, who got No. 1 Draft prospect Grady Emerson with the second pick in July and have now moved up from No. 10 to No. 2 in the farm system rankings. Or the Orioles, who landed a big prospect package for Adley Rutschman and have moved up from No. 13 to No. 7.    4) The Nats kept CJ Abrams and still jumped    There was a lot of buzz surrounding CJ Abrams leading up to the Trade Deadline, but the Nationals managed to hang onto their All-Star shortstop and still move up in the farm system rankings. That's partly due to the returns from trading Foster Griffin and Luis García Jr., and partly due to the rise of prospects like 2025 No. 1 Draft pick Eli Willits. The Nats were No. 23 at this time a year ago and No. 17 at the start of 2026; they're now No. 6.    5) The Angels are finally moving up    The Angels have always ranked near the bottom of MLB Pipeline's farm system rankings since they started in 2020. That includes their 2026 preseason ranking of No. 28. But this time they're all the way up to No. 17 -- the highest they've ever been. One big reason is the addition of Arjun Nimmala, who instantly became the team's top prospect after the Halos got him in the José Soriano trade.   See all 30 farm system rankings here >> AFTER 1,993 TRIES, AN OSWALT PERFECTO Roy Oswalt finally has his perfect game. Well, video game Roy Oswalt, that is.    In case you missed it, this was the story that took the baseball world by storm last week: One man, Jay Lucarelli, trying at any cost to throw a perfect game with the Astros' star pitcher in the MVP 2005 video game.    It took nearly 2,000 tries, but Lucarelli finally did it. On attempt No. 1,993, he achieved Oswalt perfection.    The Oswalt perfect game even came against the Red Sox, who were the best team in MVP 2005 as the reigning World Series champs.    Fittingly, the video game perfecto ended with Oswalt making a highlight-reel catch on a comebacker by Doug Mirabelli -- the same Mirabelli who heartbreakingly broke up one of Lucarelli's perfect game attempts with two outs in the ninth a few days prior.   Our Matt Monagan talked to Lucarelli during his viral quest -- and even Oswalt himself weighed in to wish him luck -- so be sure to check that out to get this legend's backstory.  GAMES OF THE NIGHT Here are three games to keep an eye on tonight.    Orioles at Rays (6:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)    With three straight wins over the American League-best Rays, the O's suddenly hold sole possession of the third AL Wild Card spot, and they go for the sweep today. The Rays at least get Shane McClanahan back for the series finale after a couple of weeks on the injured list with back tightness.   Marlins at Phillies (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)    The Phils are trying to carve out their path to the postseason, and they send ace Cristopher Sánchez to the mound (15-4, 2.54 ERA, 181 strikeouts) as they look for their fourth win in a row. The Marlins are back in the Wild Card hunt after winning six of their last eight games, and here's an opportunity to make up ground against the Phillies, who are tied with the Padres for the second Wild Card spot.    White Sox at Cubs (8:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)    As the Crosstown Classic begins, both Chicago teams are in playoff position. The White Sox just showed they're the team to beat in the AL Central with a sweep of the Tigers, while the Cubs have a firm grip on the top NL Wild Card spot. Could this series even be a preview of an all-Chicago World Series? THE BEST TOMMY JOHN SUCCESS STORIES So many pitchers owe their careers to Tommy John, who died this weekend at age 83.   The surgery that now bears his name has helped thousands of pitchers keep pitching, at all levels of the game, including Cy Young winners and Hall of Famers. It's an incredible legacy.   In honor of John himself, who was the great trailblazer, we collected the best Tommy John success stories, which include pitchers like:   Jacob deGrom    No starting pitcher had ever won a Cy Young Award after undergoing Tommy John surgery -- until deGrom. The then-Mets ace broke the barrier with his back-to-back NL Cy Young-winning seasons in 2018 and '19.   Justin Verlander    Verlander is the second starter to return from Tommy John surgery and win a Cy Young. Remarkably, he did it in his first season back from Tommy John -- and at age 39.   John Smoltz   Smoltz is the first Hall of Famer to be enshrined in Cooperstown after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Before his surgery in 2000, Smoltz was part of arguably the greatest starting rotation in Major League history alongside Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. When he returned in 2001, Smoltz converted into a reliever, and he was just as dominant.   Jonny Venters    One of baseball's most remarkable comeback stories, Venters is one of the only pitchers to make it back to the big leagues after three Tommy John surgeries.    See the other pitchers on our list here >>  250 FOR 250: CLUTCH MOMENTS In today's 250 for 250, we rank the top 10 clutch moments in MLB history. You probably remember some of them, like …    The David Freese Game    Freese's game-tying triple with the Cardinals down to their final strike in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, followed by his 11th-inning walk-off home run, made him an instant postseason legend.   Miguel Rojas in Toronto    This one's still fresh in our minds. Rojas' game-tying home run in the ninth inning of Game 7 of last year's World Series breathed new life into the Dodgers and helped them become back-to-back champs.    Troy Glaus plays the Rally Monkey   Glaus capped off a wild five-run comeback by the Angels against the Giants in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series by crushing a two-run double over Barry Bonds' head. The Angels went on to win the series in seven.  © 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Please review our Privacy Policy. You (geoffgould.gr8iphone@blogger.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com. Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. 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