Keith Law has been releasing his farm system rankings this week and today put out his Top 10 systems in baseball. The Cincinnati Reds system came in at #8 on the list. You need to be an ESPN Insider to see the whole list.

No system surprised me more from the start of this process (of putting together the annual prospects package) than the Reds’. Cincinnati has more guys who project comfortably as fourth starters than most teams have pitching prospects, period. For a team that will never be able to buy a fourth starter on the open market, that’s critical.

There’s more at the link, but I don’t want to give it all away (we’ve all got to make money). Law has plenty of nice things to say about the system, including some of the bats.

So, how do the Reds stack up against the rest of the division? Well, there’s some good news and bad news on that front. The Pittsburgh Pirates rank 4th overall, while the Brewers are also ahead of the Reds at #6. That’s the bad. On the good side of things, the Reds are ahead of the rest of the division, including the two teams that appear to be the front runners for the foreseeable future. The Cardinals are rated 13th. Chicago, fresh off of a World Series win, comes in at #18 on the list.

UPDATE: Keith Law just mentioned in his chat that the trade with Miami was not accounted for in these rankings. With that said, he also stated he wouldn’t move any teams because of it. He had this to say about the trade:

Love it for the Reds. Top 100 guy in Castillo, decent RHR in Brice, lottery ticket in White (probably doesn’t work out, but a guy worth having in the system to try to develop). Makes no sense for the Marlins.

No matter if it’s included or not, it’s a good showing for the organization despite players such as Cody Reed, Jose Peraza and Dilson Herrera not being eligible for the list.