Major League Baseball and plans for Minor Leagues

[GeoWar]

The Professional Baseball Agreement (PBA) between Major League Baseball and minor league teams expires at the end of the 2020 season. But if a new MLB proposal were to become reality, more than three dozen cities with affiliated minor league teams will lose those teams a year from now and thousands of minor league players will be out of work as well.
"From the perspective of MLB clubs, our principal goals are upgrading the minor league facilities that we believe have inadequate standards for potential MLB players, improving the working conditions for MiLB players, including their compensation, improving transportation and hotel accommodations, providing better geographic affiliations between major league clubs and their affiliates, as well as better geographic lineups of leagues to reduce player travel."
Under the proposal, some teams would have to shed as many as 100 players from their current MiLB rosters. The Yankees currently field eight U.S. minor league affiliates, which means they can currently have as many as 285 players under contract. Under this proposal, they would have to drop as many as 135 players to meet the new restrictions. Right now, there are no restrictions on how many teams—and, therefore, how many players—a team can field. Under this proposal, all MLB teams would be limited to the same number of teams and players.
**** from article -- https://www.baseballamerica.com/stor...-league-teams/

**** It may create a larger pool of talent for small market teams -- for Independent league teams ect.. But it would also mean that players who develop later in careers might not be in organized baseball.

What are thoughts ?

[thehef]

Originally Posted by GeoWar

It may create a larger pool of talent for small market teams -- for Independent league teams ect.. But it would also mean that players who develop later in careers might not be in organized baseball.

It might also created a larger pool of available cities for the independent leagues. If, say, a city were dropped by official MiLB because of substandard facilities, but those facilities are still good enough for indy leagues, and the fan base is there to a degree, wouldn't that city be a prime candidate for an indy league?

And, of that talent pool of additional players, might that also make for more opportunities for indy leagues to move into new cities that might be ideal for them, but not available to official MiLB because of MLB territorial rights? (It's my understanding that the more-successful indy leagues have several teams that do well within the MLB teams' territories.)

[Brad K]

Getting rid of minor league teams in Lakeland, Tampa, Dunedin, Clearwater, and Bradenton will not save the Rays.

[Déjà Bru]

Previous posters have covered what I entered this thread to say: I believe such changes will be highly advantageous to independent leagues because there is enough interest in local baseball (in many areas, at least) and enough money floating around (which will paradoxically be attracted to less costly alternatives).

[John Madden]

Keep the Saints independent!

[Cooleyvol]

Well, the ante was upped last night it seems.

[ezpkns34]

As someone who always trims down the amount of minor league teams when I play OOTP, not sure I can decry MLB too much for their stance

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by ezpkns34

As someone who always trims down the amount of minor league teams when I play OOTP, not sure I can decry MLB too much for their stance

Same for me. I always reduce my minors in my OOTP games. I'm good with A,AA,AAA.

[bertha]

Tagged, this seems like a very interesting thread