A reason to hope: The Mel Kipers of baseball are rating Yankee prospects near the bottom of the well

Every winter around now - after the free agents have been signed, the rosters have formed, and the Grammy night nipple-slips have been digested - there isn't much baseball to discuss. Thus, the talkers and ponderers take up their lowest level of blather: The beer pong game of rating the game's top 100 prospects.

This is done, for the most part, by people who - if they've actually seen the players they're rating - saw them once last summer. Between then and now, some got married, some found God, some became alcoholics, some started weight-training, and maybe one or two figured out the far corner of the plate that eluded them in the past. In short, most are entirely different people than they were last August. But they get ranked 1 to 100.

Here is all you need to know about the Yankee farm system and these ratings.

We have a bunch of young guys who, if they have big years, will skyrocket into the upper tier of next winter's rankings! Whoopie.

Right now, if we're pondering who will help the 2014 Yankees, we'd have to mention Dellin Betances, who's been around so long he seems less a prospect than old-timer. This could be Dellin's year. Finally! He might be a middle innings reliever. All he has to do is throw strikes and beat out a few of Cashman's scrap-heapers. The bar is not that high.

After that, we have two ancient Cubans - Adonis Garcia and Ronnier Mustelier - both pushing 30, who spent last year at Scranton, though they were injured. They play OF, but they're trying to learn 3B and 2B (for obvious reasons.) Unless they have big springs - I mean REALLY BIG SPRINGS - they look ticketed for another year in the Electric City. These guys have "Tucker Ashford" written all over them. (For those of you too young, look him up.)

After that, JR Murphy comes to mind. He is "Most Likely to be Traded for a Salary Dump Slob." Murphy, a catcher, played well at Scranton last year and received a cup of coffee, when he was hailed - (rather sadly) - as the big harvest crop of the 2013 Yankee farm system. But now with Brian McCann in front of him, and our supposed best prospect Gary Sanchez behind him, Murphy looks like a good bet to be dealt somewhere in a package for the 3B we currently do not have. This is sad. He actually looks like a future major leaguer.

Finally, there is the raft of anonymous young pitchers - let's call them the Preston Claiborne Class of 2014, named for the guy who showed up last summer after never once being mentioned by prospects ratings. Suddenly, he was there. Claiborne looked great for a while, then was mercilessly bullied by the Redsocks in that horrible three-game sweep at Fenway. He was so hammered in Boston that I wonder if he can come back. If not, there will be a new Preston Claiborne. We just don't know who it is.

In past years, some of the prospect rankings included Japanese imports, such as Jose Contreras and Dice K. This year, they didn't. Otherwise, they would have put Masahiro Tanaka high on the list - possibly Number 1 or 2. At age 25, he's younger than most of our Scranton-level prospects.

As for the Slade Heathcotts and Mason Williamses, the Manny Baneuloses and the Preston Whatnots, well, let's hope for breakout seasons. If so, next February, when there is nothing else to talk about, they'll rise in these meaningless rankings. Whoopie. Pass the meatballs.