MLB Proposal Would Eliminate 42 Minor League Teams

[cephasjames]

MLB Proposal Would Eliminate 42 Minor League Teams

MLB is not happy with MiLB stadium standards and geographical closeness to MLB teams (due to Player Development Contracts that change affiliated teams around a lot), so they are proposing a major overhaul that will reduce the number of MiLB teams to the teams with better facilities and that will adjust the existing leagues to make them more geographically friendly to the MLB teams.

There are other more detailed aspects to it too, as well as some bones thrown to the MilB.

I'm curious to see where this all leads. I feel like a better solution to all this would be for MLB teams to either buy minor league affiliates (as some have) so they can keep the teams up to the standards they want or the MLB can buy the MiLB (which may not even be possible).

Anyway. Thoughts?

[pgjocki]

If they pay players more, invest in strength training and medical plus spin off the teams not retained as independent leagues I'm good.

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[Cobra Mgr]

Baseball America had a looooooong article. But I needed it to understand the problem.

Seems to me MLB knows they are about to pay for their unfair work practices and want someone else to pay.

I also think it is absurd they expect to force teams to move up in classification and then they pay for the "privilege". Almost typical thinking of billionaires. They think they are doing you a favor by letting you do them a favor.

I'm also skeptical of MLB doing this to reduce travel for their players. More likely it is to reduce travel for the parent club front office when they want to visit their affiliates. Imagine you are a GM for the Brewers and your top 3 affialites are in San Antonio, Biloxi & the suburbs of Raleigh. It is admittedly dumb for Washington's AAA team to be in Fresno. And I'm sure clubs like the Brewers and Twins wish some of the Midwest League cities were in AAA.

As the article said, I think this is the MLB coming in with a higher demand with an eye to lowering their proposal as they negotiate. Some dead weight teams will be dropped, a couple affiliations will change a league or 2 will reorganize and affiliate contracts will be lengthened. The hardest part to agree to will be the $ as always.

[low]

This would help the talent pool, yeah? I always hear complaints how MLB shouldn't expand because there isn't enough talent.

[ThatSeventiesGuy]

Sounds like the Frontier League and other Independent leagues are gonna get a bunch of expansion teams if this goes through.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Baseball America had a looooooong article. But I needed it to understand the problem.

Seems to me MLB knows they are about to pay for their unfair work practices and want someone else to pay.

I also think it is absurd they expect to force teams to move up in classification and then they pay for the "privilege". Almost typical thinking of billionaires. They think they are doing you a favor by letting you do them a favor.

I'm also skeptical of MLB doing this to reduce travel for their players. More likely it is to reduce travel for the parent club front office when they want to visit their affiliates. Imagine you are a GM for the Brewers and your top 3 affialites are in San Antonio, Biloxi & the suburbs of Raleigh. It is admittedly dumb for Washington's AAA team to be in Fresno. And I'm sure clubs like the Brewers and Twins wish some of the Midwest League cities were in AAA.

I live in Richmond, which is now a SF Giants AA team. A few years ago I listened to a pre-game interview with the Giants director of Minor League pitching (Wayne Garland at the time, if I remember correctly). He said the Giants needed a team in the South so their young pitchers coming up from the California League(s) could learn to throw in heat and humidity because they would have to do that in MLB. He thought Richmond was a key stop in the Giants system for that reason.

So there is at least one organization that values distance and climate differences from their home region.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by ThatSeventiesGuy

Sounds like the Frontier League and other Independent leagues are gonna get a bunch of expansion teams if this goes through.

That was my first thought on this...

[thehef]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

MLB is not happy with MiLB stadium standards...

What exactly are they unhappy about? Seems that stadium standards that affect the gate are the affiliate ownership's problem, not the parent club's. And if it's a problem with the field conditions or training/workout facilities, those would be pretty small potatoes to fix, from an expense perspective.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by thehef

What exactly are they unhappy about? Seems that stadium standards that affect the gate are the affiliate ownership's problem, not the parent club's. And if it's a problem with the field conditions or training/workout facilities, those would be pretty small potatoes to fix, from an expense perspective.

Clearly you are unfamiliar with how minor league stadiums are operated. It is not 'small potatos' to upgrade a stadium. These are typically owned by the municipalities who are cash strapped and uninterested in spending on upgrades to the stadiums--or worse--building new facilities.

[monkeyman576]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Clearly you are unfamiliar with how minor league stadiums are operated. It is not 'small potatos' to upgrade a stadium. These are typically owned by the municipalities who are cash strapped and uninterested in spending on upgrades to the stadiums--or worse--building new facilities.

Also minor league teams are typically not profitable.

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by thehef

What exactly are they unhappy about? Seems that stadium standards that affect the gate are the affiliate ownership's problem, not the parent club's. And if it's a problem with the field conditions or training/workout facilities, those would be pretty small potatoes to fix, from an expense perspective.

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Clearly you are unfamiliar with how minor league stadiums are operated. It is not 'small potatos' to upgrade a stadium. These are typically owned by the municipalities who are cash strapped and uninterested in spending on upgrades to the stadiums--or worse--building new facilities.

Originally Posted by monkeyman576

Also minor league teams are typically not profitable.

In particular, according to the article, the lowest level teams run into these issues the most. Lesser on-field product, lesser revenue, lesser municipality support. The MLB would like those teams to have better facilities for their players to play in or else, seems to be what this proposal is saying.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Clearly you are unfamiliar with how minor league stadiums are operated. It is not 'small potatos' to upgrade a stadium. These are typically owned by the municipalities who are cash strapped and uninterested in spending on upgrades to the stadiums--or worse--building new facilities.

No, I wasn't referring to upgrading a stadium. I was merely referring to field conditions or training facilities (i.e., expanding or refurbishing a weight room, improving the field conditions, and/or upgrading/adding an additional practice field). From the perspective of a major league team's operating budget, those would be small potatoes.

[madjac74]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Clearly you are unfamiliar with how minor league stadiums are operated. It is not 'small potatos' to upgrade a stadium. These are typically owned by the municipalities who are cash strapped and uninterested in spending on upgrades to the stadiums--or worse--building new facilities.

Do you operate a minor league stadium?

"Clearly" That city may have a team owner who has corporate sponsors who foot the bill for any upgrades which improves the stadium and keeps people happy and generating revenue for the owner and the community and tax dollars for the city that owns the stadium. Also keeping them attractive to their current affiliate or attracting future affiliates.

My area has a class A team that has made incredible improvements to the stadium and its grounds including a giant ferris wheel in left field. And thats just class A! I have read some Triple A teams are building or already have their own stadiums.

MLB cant talk much about stadium quality. Wrigley was a dump for decades since I had gone there. I say "was" because id rather go to Milwaukee or st louis for a game because they have nicer stadiums and its more affordable plus it seems the new cubs ownership is actually fixing up the dump.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by low

This would help the talent pool, yeah? I always hear complaints how MLB shouldn't expand because there isn't enough talent.

Back in 1946, there were 16 teams in the Major Leagues. There were 160 million Americans, 145 million of them were white.

Effectively, there were VERY few latino players, and no blacks. This was an average of 9 million people per Major League team.

Now, there are 32 teams, and 324 million Americans. ALREADY, there is a bigger talent pool for each MLB team, not factoring in the hundreds of millions of other players currently available. Mexico, the Domenicans, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Korea, Japan, etc. This is another 400 million people, at LEAST.

It is my contention that the available number of athletes has never been higher.

it is also my contention that the training and culture of many of these players have never been worse.

Manny Machado (hustling isn't part of my game) would NEVER have made it to the majors, or would have been demoted just 20 years ago.

Free swinging, ill-disciplined players are the norm, not the exception.

Taking a pitch, and it is a ball, taking another pitch just doesn't happen. Going the other way, moving a runner along, throwing to the correct base, not missing signs, getting the runner in from third, over-reacting to an inside pitch, and a HUNDRED tiny indicators of bad baseball are constant.

I cannot go to an MLB game without shaking my head at least once. Am I an expert on the game? Damn right. I feel that I have a greater knowledge of the INSIDE game than most of the players I see on the MLB field. They. Just. Don't. Care.

Now that I am off my soapbox, the level of athleticism is exceptional. Take today's players, train them properly, and they would dominate the game of 50 years ago. If they're trained properly, and have an equivalent level of motivation.

F*ck Manny Machado, and every player like him.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by madjac74

Do you operate a minor league stadium?

.

I worked for a municipality that does own one. I know first hand how budgets are put together and how the needs of schools and such are put ahead of all those minor upgrades (which are actually very expensive to a local government).

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by thehef

No, I wasn't referring to upgrading a stadium. I was merely referring to field conditions or training facilities (i.e., expanding or refurbishing a weight room, improving the field conditions, and/or upgrading/adding an additional practice field). From the perspective of a major league team's operating budget, those would be small potatoes.

Major league teams do NOT own many minor league teams. They have a working agreement to provide players. Local expenses are the responsibility of the local owners--many of whom do make enough to earn a nice living.