Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenoser
So who said it was a happy go lucky time?
At one point in time there were no minors either, but baseball managed to get by. The vast majority of minor leaguers never make it to the majors. The ones who work hard at maximizing their talent (funny, there's that "hard work" term again) make it to the bigs. Like I said, play hard, work hard, if you have the talent you'll get noticed and called up.
I stand by my original question - why do you need to bring them up to see if they're ready? If they're playing and working hard, they'll get called up. They'll get noticed because they'll stand out above their peers.
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Maybe I misunderstood "molly coddle kids through several different levels of minor leagues", combined with " hard work seems to be a hard concept for a lot of people to comprehend these days". I thought you meant that the players were lazing their way through the minors.
True, the current style of minor-league organization didn't come about until the '30s, but its been here for quite a while.
The half a dozen to a dozen players who get brought up to the expanded rosters have been the one who stood above their peers, usually through that same hard work you mentioned, but it still helped teams to get a look at how they would do against major-league competition.
Is it "necessary", probably not, but it is a good evaluation tool. If a player can't make the transition from AA or AAA to the majors, or needs to work on something that you only realize when he reaches the top, the earlier a team finds out the better. It may mean having him work on something in the fall leagues and spring training, or it may mean realizing he isn't going to be productive at the top level, but teams like to find out as soon as possible.
Sorry if I over-reacted, but the snark about "hard work" being a concept people don't understand set my teeth on edge. While I am quite willing to throw out the occasional "in my day" at my kids, it is usually with a grin and a wink. People still work hard today and it still gets rewarded more than taking it easy does, in the vast majority of circumstances.