Brian Ross
Senior Editor
Minor League News

Minor Baseball: The Farm & The Indies

Minor league baseball comes in two flavors: Affiliated and Independent.

Affiliated Baseball

The affiliated leagues and teams are the developmental arm of Major League Baseball (MLB). Their mission is to continue to hone the skills of players recruited from high schools and colleges until they are at the top of their game, and ready to play in the big leagues.

The players' contracts are owned by the major league team. The MLB teams pay player salaries. Some players assigned to the minor leagues are part of the major league club's 40 Man Roster. Others are signed to minor league contracts with the club.

Why Do They Call It "The Farm"?

Affiliated baseball also goes by the nickname "the farm system" from the days when scouts used to joke with Branch Rickey, who built the first development system for the St. Louis Cardinals, about growing his players 'down on the farm' like corn.

How Are the Minor Leagues Coordinated?

Made up of twenty leagues in four countries, the coordinating body that governs all affiliated leagues is the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NABPL, the "NA", or the organization also likes going by the name "Minor League Baseball," even though they represent a large portion of the sport at this level and not its entirety.). Founded in 1901, they have been the coordinating entity between the major leagues and the minor leagues for more than 100 years.

Many of the leagues in affiliated baseball are as old as the organized game itself. The Eastern League even slightly predates the National League.

The affiliated system is the most highly organized and coordinated development program in professional sports. There are six classes of baseball, from AAA to Rookie (See Class Act for an explanation of the divisions and how they stack up.).

Within the six classes of baseball there are twenty leagues: Three in AAA, three in AA, five in A, two in A Short Season, and seven in Rookie (See the list). The twenty leagues field 176 teams.

The Golden Age of Minor League Baseball

This is the golden age of the affiliated leagues. While the MLB frets over declining attendance numbers and television ratings, attendance at minor league baseball stadiums is over 39 million fans in just affiliated baseball. Over ninety new baseball parks have been built since 1990, bringing in larger crowds and re-energizing the passion for the game in towns as small as Cedar Rapids and as big as New York City.

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