Minor League Baseball is the biggest problem with baseball

[MilkSpiller22]

So... ive been thinking... and i have come to the conclusion that minor league baseball is the biggest problem with the MLB...

What i mean by this... every other sport, the draft goes directly to the professional team... it fills out any holes a team has, and even if you go BPA over need you can still use that player...

Baseball the drafted player goes directly to your minor league team... and this creates many problems... so now lets list a couple of the problems with minor leagues(can not list them all-just too many...

1.

Spoiler

There is so many minor league players, that owners will never be willing to give reasonable pay to all...
2. players are sent to the minor leagues to "develop", but teams are always hesitant to promote their best players for money and contract reasons...
a. this creates some of the best players to play in the minors for too long and not make the money they deserve in the pros, and hurts there major league career because they may not get to the pros until a spot opens up for them.
b. This also allows for life long minor leaguers to get opportunities in the majors- although that is not necessarily a bad thing, but late bloomers do often allow owners to save their studs in the minors for longer, so they dont need to use them until they want to...


Now... i do have a solution... but i do understand this will never happen...

my solution is to give every team ONLY one minor league team.
Players must be 20 years or older to be drafted( and players can only be drafted who either went to college or ****BASEBALL U****)
all Free agents and players who graduated ****BASEBALL U*** and not drafted are candidates for ****FREE AGENT CAMP***
if you are an international player younger than 24(arbitrary-i know) you must spend at least one year in BASEBALL U and you can only be drafted(not signed)..

.

Spoiler

Now to explain Baseball U
there is 100(number can be changed- but the purpose is to help out the latino kids) scholarships every year for the top 100 players that want to go to baseball U(an alternate path to the majors than College)

you take courses in ENGLISH, Money Management, Baseball history, Media management, and others... the education is a requirement for all students 21 or younger, but of course since this is a sports developmental school and not focused on education, the education is not as important as their baseball rank.

Baseball U is basically a college so, this is where these kids all live, learn and eat.. this is much easier to fund than having so many minor league camps and teams...


any college player who was not drafted may enter Baseball U for another chance to be Drafted... but they are not required to take any class work...

Free AGENT Camp-

only the top 100 players can make this camp
to be eligible for this camp, you must have played at least one game in the minors or majors or graduated from BASEBALL U
and all players in the free agent camp get paid.




the major league team can only promote from their minor league team, and a minor league team is only allowed to add a player from the free agent camp if they have a REAL need or if they drop a player into the camp(and lose all control of that player)




Now what my solution does,
1. It makes it easier for Minor leaguers to be funded the way it should
2. you will draft players more ready for the pros... so it is more important to draft ready players over project players
3. with a shrunken minor league pool you may not be able to keep your studs hidden for long...

 

[Sandisfan]

The Truth is Most players in the Minors (some exceed expectations other never live up to them) Are Really There to give the actual good prospects, players to hone their skills against. With only one team you would have 23 or 24 or even 25 year old players against 18 year old players who would be dominated and in a very bad situation to develop. You need to have several different levels for players to players at different stages to play against. The players, who are as it were, fodder for the real prospects get the chance to live out a dream of becoming a major league-er, some of those fill short time positions and live their dreams.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

The Truth is Most players in the Minors (some exceed expectations other never live up to them) Are Really There to give the actual good prospects, players to hone their skills against. With only one team you would have 23 or 24 or even 25 year old players against 18 year old players who would be dominated and in a very bad situation to develop. You need to have several different levels for players to players at different stages to play against. The players, who are as it were, fodder for the real prospects get the chance to live out a dream of becoming a major league-er, some of those fill short time positions and live their dreams.

you didnt read my post... which is fine, it is unnecessarily long... but i also said, you must be 20 or older to be eligible to be drafted...


also, i think it is a fallacy that players take so long to develop... i think that is how owners sell it to us fans... that, and there are lots of "projects" being drafted... if you shrink the minor leagues, you wont have the room for so many projects...

 

[Nosferatu]

 

[MilkSpiller22]

I think I sabotaged my own thread by giving a solution to the problem.

Can a mod put the “solution” into spoiler??

@HaroldSeattle ??

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I think I sabotaged my own thread by giving a solution to the problem.

Can a mod put the “solution” into spoiler??

@HaroldSeattle ??

Think I did that right, don't have much experience with spoilers.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Think I did that right, don't have much experience with spoilers.

Thanks for the quick response. But Not quite helpful. But whatever. Looks like it’s a dead thread anyway.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Thanks for the quick response. But Not quite helpful. But whatever. Looks like it’s a dead thread anyway.

Changed it again....any better/helpful?

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Changed it again....any better/helpful?

Can you put the everything below that too in spoilers.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Can you put the everything below that too in spoilers.

Like that?

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Like that?

Sure. That’s good enough. Lol. Thanks.

Either way. Big fail of a thread for milk here.

 

[calsnowskier]

i think this is a good brainstorm idea. It would need to be vetted pretty heavily. But on the surface, it reminds me of the NBA and their use of the G-League. I don’t follow the NBA that closely, but I think that “unsigned” players can go to the G-League and still be eligible for the draft(??).

@Sandisfan highlighted one of the biggest problems with your plan, though. Young kids need to play at age/talent appropriate levels and they need to actually play. If a team is only allowed 1 team, than the younger prospects who need much more work would not be able to get the appropriate level competition to develop appropriately. A minor league system requires “fodder” to just fill spaces not occupied by legit prospects.

I think having an amateur “camp” and a professional “camp” are certainly interesting ideas worth exploring, but your idea, as spelled out, is still just at the brainstorm level.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

i think this is a good brainstorm idea. It would need to be vetted pretty heavily. But on the surface, it reminds me of the NBA and their use of the G-League. I don’t follow the NBA that closely, but I think that “unsigned” players can go to the G-League and still be eligible for the draft(??).

@Sandisfan highlighted one of the biggest problems with your plan, though. Young kids need to play at age/talent appropriate levels and they need to actually play. If a team is only allowed 1 team, than the younger prospects who need much more work would not be able to get the appropriate level competition to develop appropriately. A minor league system requires “fodder” to just fill spaces not occupied by legit prospects.

I think having an amateur “camp” and a professional “camp” are certainly interesting ideas worth exploring, but your idea, as spelled out, is still just at the brainstorm level.

But remember under my proposal you must be at least 20 to be drafted and to be in the minors. And yes it is just brainstorming. And nowhere near complete.


Really just wanted to talk about how minor leagues is probably the biggest problem with the MLB.

And if they don’t try to fix it, then we will continue to have some of the same problems.

For example, I just can’t see the owners paying all the minor leaguers. And for that same reason I just can’t see owners bringing up players as they should.

If we shrink the minor leagues then it will be easier to get the better players to have better opportunities.

Also, I’m not sold that that players stay in the minors for development. Or even if it is it is partially because teams draft young project players. With a smaller minor leagues you may not be able to afford taking your time on players.

 

[The Q]

This will be telling quite a few good talents to go play college football…

 

[The Q]

You guys are not wrong that a significant portion of the minor leaguers are easily replaceable chattel there just so the real prospects have a place to play.

You could probably get away with 2 levels of real prospects if you really pushed it.

But i think 3 covers it

 

[Nosferatu]

Big fail of a thread for milk here

Ahhhh, you're used to it buddy!

 

[MilkSpiller22]

You guys are not wrong that a significant portion of the minor leaguers are easily replaceable chattel there just so the real prospects have a place to play.

You could probably get away with 2 levels of real prospects if you really pushed it.

But i think 3 covers it

What if we push up the minimum age that can get play in the minors. And have an independent league for the young international players.

Then I think we can make it to 2. In time of course.

 

[Robotech]

So... ive been thinking... and i have come to the conclusion that minor league baseball is the biggest problem with the MLB...

What i mean by this... every other sport, the draft goes directly to the professional team... it fills out any holes a team has, and even if you go BPA over need you can still use that player...

Baseball the drafted player goes directly to your minor league team... and this creates many problems... so now lets list a couple of the problems with minor leagues(can not list them all-just too many...

1.

Spoiler

There is so many minor league players, that owners will never be willing to give reasonable pay to all...
2. players are sent to the minor leagues to "develop", but teams are always hesitant to promote their best players for money and contract reasons...
a. this creates some of the best players to play in the minors for too long and not make the money they deserve in the pros, and hurts there major league career because they may not get to the pros until a spot opens up for them.
b. This also allows for life long minor leaguers to get opportunities in the majors- although that is not necessarily a bad thing, but late bloomers do often allow owners to save their studs in the minors for longer, so they dont need to use them until they want to...


Now... i do have a solution... but i do understand this will never happen...

my solution is to give every team ONLY one minor league team.
Players must be 20 years or older to be drafted( and players can only be drafted who either went to college or ****BASEBALL U****)
all Free agents and players who graduated ****BASEBALL U*** and not drafted are candidates for ****FREE AGENT CAMP***
if you are an international player younger than 24(arbitrary-i know) you must spend at least one year in BASEBALL U and you can only be drafted(not signed)..

.

Spoiler

Now to explain Baseball U
there is 100(number can be changed- but the purpose is to help out the latino kids) scholarships every year for the top 100 players that want to go to baseball U(an alternate path to the majors than College)

you take courses in ENGLISH, Money Management, Baseball history, Media management, and others... the education is a requirement for all students 21 or younger, but of course since this is a sports developmental school and not focused on education, the education is not as important as their baseball rank.

Baseball U is basically a college so, this is where these kids all live, learn and eat.. this is much easier to fund than having so many minor league camps and teams...


any college player who was not drafted may enter Baseball U for another chance to be Drafted... but they are not required to take any class work...

Free AGENT Camp-

only the top 100 players can make this camp
to be eligible for this camp, you must have played at least one game in the minors or majors or graduated from BASEBALL U
and all players in the free agent camp get paid.




the major league team can only promote from their minor league team, and a minor league team is only allowed to add a player from the free agent camp if they have a REAL need or if they drop a player into the camp(and lose all control of that player)




Now what my solution does,
1. It makes it easier for Minor leaguers to be funded the way it should
2. you will draft players more ready for the pros... so it is more important to draft ready players over project players
3. with a shrunken minor league pool you may not be able to keep your studs hidden for long...

I think I know what you're saying, but baseball is different from other team sports like football and basketball in that the game of baseball is like 99% about the pitcher vs. batter matchup. In other team sports, you can help your rookies (or any lesser players) by literally having other players help them during a play. A player coming out of college might bat under .150 if he has to play on the MLB team right away. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout can't bat for you.

I do think that owners abuse the minor league and player service time rules. It's BS that a stud player will often have to wait until he's 24 or 25 years old before he gets on the Major League team.

 

[calsnowskier]

I think I know what you're saying, but baseball is different from other team sports like football and basketball in that the game of baseball is like 99% about the pitcher vs. batter matchup. In other team sports, you can help your rookies (or any lesser players) by literally having other players help them during a play. A player coming out of college might bat under .150 if he has to play on the MLB team right away. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout can't bat for you.

I do think that owners abuse the minor league and player service time rules. It's BS that a stud player will often have to wait until he's 24 or 25 years old before he gets on the Major League team.

Agree that clock manipulation is a major issue in MLB. I posted a brainstorm-level idea about a week back that was intended to address it. But the more I thought about my idea, I found loopholes in it that could be at least as bad as the current scenario.

I think combining an age-based FA system with an age-based Rule V draft AND implementing some kind of independent “G-League” like minor league system (controlled by either MLB or the MLBPA) might hold a solution.

 

[redseat]

the problem is that owners are greedy little sh^ts. They don't care about the players or the fans. All they care about is money...