f you've been reading ESPN Insider's NBA coverage, you know that they've been doing Future Power Rankings for almost three years. We've run with the idea for MLB, but tweaked the process a little bit .
Like the NBA version, we asked our MLB experts, Jim Bowden, Keith Law and Buster Olney, to rank all 30 franchises, from 1 to 30, in five categories. But because MLB organizations are run a bit differently than NBA clubs (and the leagues operate under different rules), the categories are different. For MLB they are:
Dan SzymborskiThe above pie chart breaks down the weight each category was given in our rankings.
• Majors: Quality of current big league roster
• Minors: Quality and quantity of prospects in their farm system
• Finances: How much money do they have available to spend?
• Management: Value and stability of ownership, front office and coaching staff
• Mobility: Do they have a lot of young, cheap players? Or old, immovable guys?
The average of the panelists' scores for each category are visible in the bar graphs for each team and are rounded to the nearest integer.
To come up with an overall score, we weighted the categories based on importance.
Major and minor league quality are given the most weight, finances and smarts are given 2/3 the weight, and mobility is given 1/3 the weight. So, for example, if everyone voted your team first in majors and minors, it would be worth 30 points, for finances and management that would be worth 20 points, and for mobility it would be 10.
The final scores are given on a scale from 0 to 100, representing a team's percentage of total possible points.
The scores and rankings are designed to reflect how well these clubs are set up for sustained success over the next five years.