A more boring future? Yankees place three in the top 175 players under or at age 25

While tapping their toes, waiting for the season to start, the geeks at Baseball Prospectus painstakingly ranked the top 175 ballplayers on or under age 25 - the dork equivalent of building a scale model of the Lusitania from dental floss. Imagine the intense argument over whether Dopey Dildox should beat out Filthy McNasty for No. 159. It was the Manhattan Project for dweebs. They actually calculated 15 separate tiers of talent, the last one surely based on stool samples and swimsuit competition.

The Yankees have three (3) players on the list, none in the top eight tiers. They are Luis Severino, #55; Aaron Judge, #57; and Jorge Mateo, #138.

Yankee bloggers have a tendency to get excited at the prospect of prospects, but as Scooby would say, "Ruh-roh."

Boston has ten (10) players on the list, including Mookie Betts (#9) and Xavier Bogartes (#11) and some guy named Moncada, at #26. That's the closest we came in the first 50: We once placed second in the bidding on Moncada, but Food Stamps Hal saved his dimes and - who knows - maybe Moncada will run into a wall or something, and Hal can say he told us so. (Food Stamps didn't flinch in getting Aroldis Chapman on a damaged merchandise price tag, thanks to a bit of domestic violence!) This is why I spent most of today hoping to see the name "Steinbrenner" pop up on the Panama Papers. Oh, well...

Severino has to pitch well this year, if the Yankees have any chance. And if we are going to be good for a stretch of years, Aaron Judge must become a star. Anything less, and - geez - where will our next core come from?