Quote:
Originally Posted by thehef
In the pre-affiliate era I think we're basically talking about a combination of a) players loaned to MiLB clubs, and b) a looser-than-affilliate type of relationship between MLB and MiLB clubs.
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I think we should be careful about using the term 'loan' because the Major League Rules have always expressly disallowed player loans. Player movement was usually the result of sales of their contract from one club to another; sometimes it was the result of being traded.
I would caution also about the term 'affiliate era' because even within 'era' the nature of the relationship changed considerably. A minor league affiliate of 1931 was a very different thing from an affiliate of 1961, and different again from an affiliate of 1991. (What might be termed the 'modern' era of minor league affiliation started with the changes to the major-minor relationship adopted in 1963; and even then, minor league clubs still had a degree of freedom which did not exist in later years.)