First:

Evans > Reynolds

Second:

I feel confident that BOTH Smith and Alonso will come into spring training minus a few pounds. Both of these gentlemen KNOW VERY WELL that they are out of shape. Alonso will either become Dom Smith's fallback if Smith fails or will be eventually traded.

Third:

Oswalt will be on the Vegas-NY shuttle next year.

Fourth:

I still have hope for Wheeler. He had the stuff but the results were lacking. And then the sore arm....

Fifth:

There is no doubt our farm system is meh right now. But we may have an over abundance of hard throwing relievers.....

Once again, nobody will ever confuse me with a Matt Reynolds fan, and it should be easy to find someone better, but much like Cecchini...like at the same level of competition, he really hasn't been.

Do we have a bottom 5 farm system?

Sure he has. And almost certainly will be going forward.

Oswalt did not make the EL top 20 prospects on BA's list

Yes.

Please do explain.

This probably could be it's own thread and pardon my doom and gloom but it seems that by far the most likely scenario for this club is a mediocre 2018 campaign followed by several years of being horrifically bad

I mean it's hard to make an argument against the idea going into 2018 the system looks really, really bad. Things can change reasonably quickly in player development, drafts etc but the top 10 will easily be the worst since we started doing the top 50 poll and it's not like the depth is that great either.

Those lists are out? Or is that just a preview?

We're at least very close to bottom 5 if not in the bottom 5.

List is out but behind a paywall but Oswalt did not make it despite his "pitcher of the year" award which suggests despite his performance he's not highly thought of talent wise (which seems in line with what most have said).