The St. Louis Cardinals' farm system receives more national praise

The St. Louis Cardinals may frustrate some fans with their lack of big-time trades this off-season, but according to front-office executives around the league, they are sitting on a treasure of talent in their farm system.

Recently, the Cardinals were ranked a top 3 farm system in all of baseball. Most major outlets have not released their farm system rankings yet, but Jonathan Mayo was able to capture the opinions of front-office executives around baseball, who thought very highly of the Cardinals' system.

While polling executives about which team had the best farm system in baseball, the Cardinals received the 3rd most votes, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and overwhelming favorites, the Baltimore Orioles. What's even sweeter is not only did they rank highly in the best farm systems vote, but they also were voted the most underrated farm system in the league. Clearly, executives think highly of the Cardinals' farm system and think the general public does not understand how good of a pipeline they currently have.

The Cardinals also received votes for their ability to develop hitters, pitchers, utilize the draft, amount of "sleeper prospects" and how well they play the international market.

What may make fans chuckle the most is that the Cardinals were the 3rd most voted-for team when it came to "which team hordes prospects the most?". The Cardinals may be a bit too hesitant right now to deal with their young talent, but once again, recent rankings make it hard to blame them for their own excitement.

Not only did their farm system as a whole receive a ton of praise, but so did individual prospects in their system. Let's take a look at the excitement, and hesitancy, with different prospects in the Cardinals system.