MLB looking to restructure all of minor league baseball

[fanfromday1]

Thank you SlappyUtilityMIF and John Taylor for the feedback. I regularly attended the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes games when the Angel's single A Team' was there. But now that they have moved to San Bernardino, I usually only attend when the Big League Team is out of town. I went to a few Las Vegas Aviators games this year too. I have friends who live over there. Got to admit, Milb has a flavor all its own. Some of the between innings stuff are almost worth the price of admission alone. Again, Thanks for the feedback.

[Jeff Fletcher]

This doesn’t bother me at all. 
 

I would much rather see the actual minor leaguers with a chance to play in the majors get paid a living wage instead of having their salary cut so an extra 100 filler players per organization can wear a uniform. 
 

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

52 minutes ago, RBM said:

I’m still processing this and trying to understand how it would ultimately look. It feels like it’s about money for the MLB clubs in the end. It’s always about the money but in this case is it also in the best interests of MLB and it’s players?

In the proposed new system would a guy like Mike Piazza ever get a chance to make the MLB? He was drafted in the 62nd round out of a JuCo in Miami.

Would a guy like Jared Walsh ever have a shot to play in the MLB? He was a 39th round throw away pick after Dipoto chose his own Son, Jonah, as a vanity pick in the 38th round. Jonah never reported to camp. Jared is still pursuing his dream.

This feels like ownership profiteering to me. 

No to Piazza, No to Walsh, and Jonah is in the belly of the whale.

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

Interesting to see what will happen to the St Paul Saints..... Wonder if the Twinkies will try to pull them?

[eaterfan]

7 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

This doesn’t bother me at all. 
 

I would much rather see the actual minor leaguers with a chance to play in the majors get paid a living wage instead of having their salary cut so an extra 100 filler players per organization can wear a uniform. 
 

I think this is what MLB is trying to convince people is what is necessary for them to pay players living wages. It's not. MLB just got $1 billion from Disney in a new revenue stream. MLB player wages have stagnated, the draft and international free agent pool have capped amateur spending. Lot's of smart people who follow the economics of MLB have been saying they can easily afford to pay minor leaguers much more. This is about the MLB owners trying to screw over minor league owners and using the minor league players they have already screwed over as pawns.

They are talking about cutting about 20% of the teams.

Let's assume teams have 5 affiliates, and each affiliate has 30 players (a higher number than is probably real), and each player makes $15,000 a year (also higher than reality, possibly almost twice as much), and costs $15,000 in overhead (not sure on that number). Each team spends $4,500,000 per year on player salaries in the minors. That's the price of a bad FA reliever. If they paid everyone $30,000 the amount spent would be $6,750,000. 

Cutting one team each, 20%, the current cost would be $3,600,000 if salaries staid the same. So for roughly $3,000,000 MLB owners could double the salary of every minor leaguer, triple it in many instances, and not cut any affiliates. 

I'm sure my numbers are not accurate. But I think it's hard to argue that for the price of a Matt Harvey, or an owner's yacht fuel budget for the year, minor league players could be paid a decent wage and they wouldn't have to cut jobs to do it.

But who will think of those poor yachts, permanently moored in the harbor, work not enough fuel to go anywhere?

[Jeff Fletcher]

9 minutes ago, eaterfan said:

I think this is what MLB is trying to convince people is what is necessary for them to pay players living wages. It's not. MLB just got $1 billion from Disney in a new revenue stream. MLB player wages have stagnated, the draft and international free agent pool have capped amateur spending. Lot's of smart people who follow the economics of MLB have been saying they can easily afford to pay minor leaguers much more. This is about the MLB owners trying to screw over minor league owners and using the minor league players they have already screwed over as pawns.

They are talking about cutting about 20% of the teams.

Let's assume teams have 5 affiliates, and each affiliate has 30 players (a higher number than is probably real), and each player makes $15,000 a year (also higher than reality, possibly almost twice as much), and costs $15,000 in overhead (not sure on that number). Each team spends $4,500,000 per year on player salaries in the minors. That's the price of a bad FA reliever. If they paid everyone $30,000 the amount spent would be $6,750,000. 

Cutting one team each, 20%, the current cost would be $3,600,000 if salaries staid the same. So for roughly $3,000,000 MLB owners could double the salary of every minor leaguer, triple it in many instances, and not cut any affiliates. 

I'm sure my numbers are not accurate. But I think it's hard to argue that for the price of a Matt Harvey, or an owner's yacht fuel budget for the year, minor league players could be paid a decent wage and they wouldn't have to cut jobs to do it.

But who will think of those poor yachts, permanently moored in the harbor, work not enough fuel to go anywhere?

Oh I know. You’re right. They can afford to pay them. 
 

I still think there are too many minor leaguers. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

So I've been trying to imagine the consequences of this change and I'm thinking this is going to have a significant impact on college seniors in the amateur draft. Right now seniors have just about 0 leverage when it comes to signing with teams which gives players incentive to sign a contract before their senior year and it gives teams a cheap pool of talent to pick from when filling out their draft. Now that there is this dream league college seniors will have the chance to turn down an offer and play in the dream league.

The benefits of this for the players are huge. They now get a second look against significantly stronger competition. The early minor leagues has always been where fringe guys, and even top talents like Adell have established themselves as real prospects. The question is, how are these players then going to be selected by major league teams? If it's a free market selection these players are going to earn far more than they would as drafted seniors. If that is the case then the incentive to sign for nothing out of the draft will be gone and you will see far fewer seniors taken in the draft, and younger players holding out for more money.

My guess is that MLB will bar drafted players from playing in the dream league which might be just enough incentive to prevent a significant shake up in the draft from occurring. Logically we should expect MLB to significant reduce the number of rounds in the amateur draft to coincide with this change, so the number of affected players will still be large. Either way I think the dream league will be quite fun to watch, with a lot of talented guys fighting for a real shot at a baseball career. Being unaffiliated means we are going to have discussions on here about which DL guys we should sign, which should be fun.

[failos]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:36 PM, Kevinb said:

People hate change in general. Especially baseball people. Baseball needs to evolve or it’ll die off. 

Die off? Please. Teams are making more money than ever. I would love to know the basis of this narrative?

[T.G.]

Great piece by my favorite sports writer Joe Posnanski:

https://joeposnanski.com/p/minor-league-thinking

Really interesting insights. 

[Docwaukee]

11 hours ago, True Grich said:

Great piece by my favorite sports writer Joe Posnanski:

https://joeposnanski.com/p/minor-league-thinking

Really interesting insights. 

great article!! thanks for posting.  

 

[Second Base]

17 hours ago, True Grich said:

Great piece by my favorite sports writer Joe Posnanski:

https://joeposnanski.com/p/minor-league-thinking

Really interesting insights. 

Agreed. For me, the most disturbing part is the willingness to forget it's roots and breakdown the unique culture of minor league baseball. MLB is making this decision from a money standpoint, they're willing to sacrifice is part and present for an uncertain future.

[greginpsca]

I think if they only were to eliminate the rookie short season leagues, and instead place those players at their spring bases , it would not have a drastic effect. Those leagues last about 60 days a year. Then, MLB can evaluate the effects over a few years, and go from there. 

[Stradling]

I am not in the business of telling other businesses how do spend their money, but man this just sucks.  There is zero reason they can't pay all of the minor leaguers much more than they currently get paid.  I have no idea how many players they have on each team but lets go crazy and call it 50 players (it is probably half of that) and then they have 5 or 6 minor league teams, so we will call it 300 total minor leaguers.  If you gave them all $40k a year it is $12 million.  My guess is since I projected high that number is probably closer to $8-9 million.  Not a single owner can't afford to do that.  They just raised the minimum for a Major League Player by about $7k a year.  As Scotty has pointed out in other threads there is a history in the minor leagues, call it nostalgia that you really shouldn't be messing with over a very small amount of money.  

Sally Struthers Voice-"for just the cost of a Zack Cozart, you can pay each minor leaguer a livable wage"

[floplag]

I would truly hate to see some of the more rural areas lose baseball entirely.  
I saw a map earlier today on this and basically it was those areas that arent large enough to support the majors.
I get that in many cases they are largely fillers etc... but to those communities they ARE baseball.
If this goes thru i would hope those areas are kept instead of keeping 37 or however many minor league teams there are in Cal in various divisions for example. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 10/20/2019 at 12:00 AM, Jeff Fletcher said:

This doesn’t bother me at all. 
 

I would much rather see the actual minor leaguers with a chance to play in the majors get paid a living wage instead of having their salary cut so an extra 100 filler players per organization can wear a uniform. 
 

This was one of the points made on MLB Network. Many players, especially in the low minors, have absolutely no shot at ever making a major league roster but they are under contract. They don't make enough to live on, and their major league dreams will never be realized.

Farm teams supposedly exist to develop players for the major league club, not to support leagues in the low minors.

[Docwaukee]

9 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

This was one of the points made on MLB Network. Many players, especially in the low minors, have absolutely no shot at ever making a major league roster but they are under contract. They don't make enough to live on, and their major league dreams will never be realized.

Farm teams supposedly exist to develop players for the major league club, not to support leagues in the low minors.

I think they should personally.  It's good for the game.  I don't care if those players don't have a shot and the problem is that you just never know when you're gonna get a couple guys that surprise you.  Plus, there are tons of people in baseball that have great baseball minds who end up coaches, scouts etc.  You'd be taking away a means for them to stay in the game as well.  It really is such a small amount of money in the grand scheme.  

Frankly, I wouldn't mind a revamp to make travel easier and it would be a good opportunity to address some of the BS that goes on in foreign countries.  Make each team contribute a pool of money and don't let kids under 18 sign.  Then they become part of the draft.  Foreign facilities would still be used and teams would get credit/equity on them.  MLB teams should all have the same number of minor league squads.  If they're gonna contract some teams then the pool money should contribute to keeping those teams afloat as a developmental/independent league.  Maybe they don't contribute as much to pay for players salaries in those league but enough to keep the facilities up to date and adequate.  If players who didn't get drafted want to continue to play, they have to accept that their salaries will be a bit lower.  But at least make it live able.  Maybe you don't pay them as much, but offer educational opportunities where instead of money in their pockets, they get discounts on classes at local colleges where they can finish their undergraduate degree or even work toward an advanced degree.  Create advocates for the game and maintain local baseball cultures that keep young fans curious and interested.   

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I would settle for not having half the games on the schedule blacked out even if you pay for the baseball package.

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:43 PM, Inside Pitch said:

Those teams are also going to be asked to pitch in more money.....  So, goodbye cheap minor league entertainment for some of those cities.

That was my first thought. Whereas i think the teams should be closer to the parent club, its gonna suck for those small towns that milb is the only sport for hundreds of miles.