Minor Baseball: The Farm & The Indies

Affiliated Baseball (Continued from previous page)

Who Plays In These Leagues?

A few of the players will be from the forty man roster of the major leagues, which is cut down as the season begins. Those players are usually assigned to the AAA. The remainder are players signed to minor league contracts. They will be assigned by the Farm Department of their club to one of the teams within the farm system of that major league organization.

Players will include top picks from the major league baseball draft, high school and college players clearing different try-outs, players from other countries, and players who move over from independent baseball.

Will Most of These Players Make It to the Major Leagues?

No. The majority of players in the minors see little, if any time in the major leagues.

There are always a number of players on the "fast track" who will be passing through. They are more common at the AA and A levels, as they frequently leap-frog past AAA.

There are several players who put together some of their own personal mechanics at the same time that a need arises from the major league club for a replacement player.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

There is a lot of movement in the minor leagues. Players are assigned to teams in the off-season, or during spring training. Assignments are based upon the three As:

1. Ability - What level best suits the player's development?
2. Availability - How many players does the organization have at a particular position. If there are more shortstops than there are places to play, cuts will be made. A player may also get stuck at a particular level because they are deemed valuable to the organization, but there is no place higher for them to go.
3. Action - Is the player doing what they can to put together the tools to stay where they are or move forward? If they fail to improve, or produce lackluster numbers, they can find themselves being 'sent down' to a lower level or, worse still, released outright.

The only constant is change. If you are a local fan, you can count on players being moved in and out of your club. This can be a good thing, though. At the major league level, clubs are saddled with under-performing players with big dollar contracts. It becomes much harder to move a player paid millions of dollars who is not at the peak of their game. Minor league players, by contrast, are as interchangable as playing cards.

There used to be less movement between the independents and the affiliated leagues. These days, though players finding themselves cut may wait for another ride on the affiliated merry-go-round in any of a number of independent leagues.

The Players Cut & Moved Are Less Talented, Right?

Wrong. There are players that are under-performers, but there are also a substantial number where "fit" is the greater problem.

A player may not fit a particular farm system because of interpersonal problems with coaches, teammates and/or the farm office. They may also not fit because there are too many players and not enough upward movement in their organization.

When big deals are made in the major leagues, and a "minor league player to be named" is part of the deal, this may be the opportunity of a lifetime for a player stuck in one system to shine in another.

Players who underperform on one team may excel at another opportunity.

Do Groups of Players Ever Move Together?

Sometimes. Before the days of the high dollar major league player, when athletes made more modest sums, it was not uncommon to see a group of players groomed in the minor leagues into a tight unit, then brought up together or within a short period of time of each other.

Multi-year contracts with major league players and free agency issues usually preclude a lot of this kind of movement, so most clubs have given up on this practice. You will see some small groups of players moved up within the minor league system.

Are Minor League Players Just Not As Good As Major League Players?

Minor league players are not supposed to be as good as major league players. This is a developmental system, and the level of play in the minors is generally not at the same level of intensity that the best players in professional sports are supposed to muster.

That being said, there are players in the minors who are as good, if not better, than major league athletes. These are ones either moving up to the majors or stuck in a holding pattern waiting for an opportunity at a major league club.

The game itself is often better, more intense at the AAA and AA levels.

Major league athletes often slowly play their way up to their potential over the long season, with games getting better as the stakes for championship series berths become a reality.

In the minors there is no tomorrow. Players play full-out, all of the time. Failure to do so can result in being sent down or cut. At the salary levels.

The lower levels of affiliated baseball are a lot like college games: Players who are much more inexperienced are still learning. You can see some exciting games, though in the Class A and Rookie levels, as players start to put their careers together and dominate at that level.

These are still the best players that the scouts and farm directors of the major league clubs can find. For every one in a uniform at any level, there are thousands of others who did not make the cut.

Continued...

Top | Back | Next |