Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Royals Top MiLB Org Standings

Image credit: (Photo by Zach Lucy/Four Seam)

Three months into the 2021 minor league season, a look at how Major League Baseball teams’ minor league clubs are faring seems to have a clear American League East slant.

The top team as far as overall full season MiLB winning percentage is the Rays. Right behind them are the Yankees, followed by the Red Sox, who are tied with the Royals for third.

Those three AL East teams have a total of 12 full-season clubs. All 12 of those clubs are above .500 right now.

The Rays actually have the two winningest teams in all of the full-season minor leagues. The Rays High-A Bowling Green affiliate has the best record in the minors (56-23, .709 winning percentage). The Rays Low-A Charleston affiliate has the next best record (54-23, .701 winning percentage).

Here’s a look at the 15 winningest teams in the minors as of Aug. 4.

Team	Org	W	L	PCT	RS	RA	RUN DIFF
Bowling Green	Rays	57	23	.713	478	345	133
Charleston	Rays	56	23	.709	481	328	153
Tampa	Yankees	55	24	.696	567	351	216
Quad Cities	Royals	53	25	.679	482	351	131
Fresno	Rockies	53	27	.663	451	343	108
Durham	Rays	52	27	.658	456	299	157
Hudson Valley	Yankees	52	28	.650	413	335	78
San Jose	Giants	52	28	.650	470	338	132
Everett	Mariners	51	28	.646	551	360	191
Scranton/WB	Yankees	48	27	.640	418	313	105
Somerset	Yankees	50	29	.633	410	279	131
Greensboro	Pirates	50	30	.625	450	353	97
Reno	D-Backs	48	30	.615	553	516	37
Portland	Red Sox	48	30	.615	385	357	28
Akron	Indians	48	30	.615	422	333	89

At the other end of the spectrum, the Visalia Rawhide are not only the worst team in the full-season minors, they are on a historic pace. Visalia is the only team in the full-season minors winning less than 30% of its games.

Here’s a look at the 15 least successful teams in the full minors (as of Aug. 4).

Team	Org	W	L	PCT	RS	RA	RUN DIFF
Visalia	D-Backs	20	60	.250	386	607	-221
Hartford	Rockies	25	54	.316	335	478	-143
Kannapolis	White Sox	26	54	.325	354	537	-183
Palm Beach	Cardinals	25	51	.329	346	473	-127
Syracuse	Mets	27	51	.346	379	480	-101
Fredericksburg	Nationals	28	52	.350	340	515	-175
Charlotte	White Sox	28	51	.354	382	471	-89
Harrisburg	Nationals	28	51	.354	289	354	-65
Biloxi	Brewers	29	51	.363	356	420	-64
Louisville	Reds	30	49	.380	312	339	-27
Brooklyn	Mets	30	48	.385	333	377	-44
Lakeland	Tigers	30	48	.385	332	447	-115
Reading	Phillies	31	49	.388	329	434	-105
Springfield	Cardinals	31	49	.388	387	521	-134
Winston-Salem	White Sox	31	49	.388	358	465	-107

Overall, there are six organizations that are winning over 55% of their games across the four full-season minor league levels. There are also six organizations winning less than 45% of their games.

Org	W	L	PCT	Above .500	Run Diff
TBR	209	107	.661	4	506
NYY	205	108	.655	4	530
BOS	178	137	.565	4	141
KCR	178	137	.565	3	278
PIT	176	137	.562	3	125
SEA	178	139	.562	4	242
LAD	172	145	.543	4	268
SFG	171	147	.538	2	170
MIN	168	148	.532	4	54
CLE	167	148	.530	3	6
MIA	165	151	.522	2	-23
TEX	164	152	.519	2	105
BAL	161	151	.516	3	66
MIL	160	159	.502	2	59
ATL	159	161	.497	2	-17
DET	156	160	.494	2	9
TOR	154	158	.494	1	19
COL	152	164	.481	1	-107
CIN	150	165	.476	2	-41
OAK	150	168	.472	0	-119
HOU	147	166	.470	1	-38
LAA	144	170	.459	0	-223
PHI	141	170	.453	0	-206
SDP	142	173	.451	0	-111
CHC	140	172	.449	0	-162
ARI	137	179	.434	1	-290
NYM	131	181	.420	1	-156
CHW	128	190	.403	1	-315
STL	126	190	.399	0	-418
WAS	119	195	.379	0	-352

We did want to add one additional piece of context to our look at minor league organization standings. One thing you often hear from farm directors is how their teams are younger than the competition. It’s true that a younger team may struggle against older opponents, even if they have more long-term potential. So we looked at the average age of rosters (as of Aug. 4) across each organization’s four full-season teams. The average age of a full-season minor leaguer is currently 24.4 years of age. So the teams that are winning with younger than average players are in the top left quadrant of this chart. Those that are losing with older than average players are in the bottom right quadrant.

Here’s a look at the average age of full-season rosters as of Aug. 4.

Rk	ORG	Avg. Age	Rk	ORG	Avg. Age
1	STL	23.59	16	TB	24.43
2	CLE	23.74	17	MIL	24.44
3	PHI	23.77	18	LAD	24.45
4	TEX	23.78	19	BAL	24.53
5	HOU	23.89	20	SF	24.54
6	PIT	23.96	21	BOS	24.57
7	NYY	24.08	22	COL	24.72
8	KC	24.11	23	LAA	24.75
9	ARI	24.18	24	NYM	24.96
10	CHC	24.33	25	CWS	24.96
11	TOR	24.35	26	SEA	24.97
12	MIA	24.35	27	WAS	24.98
13	DET	24.37	28	ATL	24.99
14	SD	24.41	29	OAK	25.05
15	CIN	24.43	30	MIN	25.13