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Originally Posted by Qeltar
Because I have been watching baseball on and off for 40 years and I've never seen a team do what I can do (and have done)? Pretty simple really.
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Anecdotal. Have you examined every single transaction that a minor league club made over the course of one season? Examined all the transactions for a given league? All leagues for a given season? A given calendar year?
If you haven't, then you are, in fact, speculating. See the additional specific data I added to my prior post, which starts putting hard numbers to what goes on in the minor leagues. There is much more data that needs to be parsed, data that will start to paint a true picture of just what goes on in terms of transactions in the minor leagues.
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Originally Posted by Qeltar
I signed dozens of minor leaguers in one season last year. Couldn't even count them all. I needed to restock my farm system, the occasional one could turn out to be a gem or trade material, and why not? They're free. I'm a new player and I assumed they were in fact costing me something, but I needed the players. Then I found out they are free.
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They are effectively free in real life. Salaries in the minors are generally low. Signing bonuses after being drafted are the main money most minor league players will ever see.
In 2008, the Texas Rangers spent a total of $3.5 million on minor league player salaries (which includes Triple-A down to its DSL affiliates). Other direct operating costs of its minor league affiliates added another $5.0 million. Add a further $4 million in indirect costs (e.g. minor league spring training, roving instructors, administration, etc.).
Thus, out of grand total of $12.5 million spent in relation to its minor league system, only $3.5 million was player salaries (and a good portion of that salary total is attributable to one major league player outrighted to its Triple-A affiliate).
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Originally Posted by Qeltar
Are RL minor league contracts not guaranteed?
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They are not. The player can be released at any time and the club owes the player no further payment. In exchange, the player immediately becomes a free agent, able to sign with any other club without restriction. (The main benefit of this is that the player is no longer bound by the initial minor league contract, which grants the major league club the right to six unilateral renewals of the player's contract, thus giving the ML club seven years' control over the player. Once released, any subsequent contract signed lasts only as long as negotiated; these are usually one-year deals.)