In talking about the farm system it is easy to lose sight of the goal, which is developing the handful of players who will play in the major leagues. So, if Bradenton is brutal as a team, but Cole and Taillon progress nicely, who cares?

Below I've excerpted the NL Central players (sans Houston's) on John Sickels's Top 120 prospects. Blame him if you do not like the list. I've sorted the excerpt by team and ranking. Note two things about this list. First, the Pirates have five players on the list, and three are in the top half (Cole, Taillon, and Bell). That's good.The Brewers and Reds have three, and the Cubs have two. The Cards have seven, with two in the top half. Second, some players are doing great, and some are not. In many cases it is players making those tough jumps to AA or the majors that are struggling a bit.

So, if NH were a genius, how many players would he have in the top half of John's list?