AA vs AAA

[Banedon]

Admittedly I'm no minor league guru, so I thought I'd run this by you folks and get your impression. This was a Dusty quote referring to Marmol:

 

"They told me he was throwing the best,'' Baker said. "Double-A ball now is probably as competitive or more competitive than Triple-A. They say teams send most of their prospects to Double-A. They say Triple-A may not have the same intensity because a lot of guys are biding their time, waiting to come to the big leagues, vs. guys being on a more equal basis in Double-A.''

 

Do you guys think that's accurate? Is AA more competitive than AAA?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Not necessarily more competitive, but what Dusty means is that quite a few of the best prospects are promoted from AA to the big leagues, entirely skipping AAA.

[sherwood921]

I'm definately not an expert on this, but I've always looked at it as guys with the most potential are in AA. A lot of guys go straight to the majors from AA, unless they still need to work on a couple things, or they are blocked by a better major league player. I see AAA with a lot of guys who are fringe major leaguers, and are generally older. If there's a 30 year old former major leaguer who can't cut it anymore, he'll more likely be in AAA than AA. Again, just my take on it.

[donobr]

THAT'S CORRECT

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Is AA more competitive than AAA?

 

I would say yes. I think AAA is becoming watered down with AAAA talent and vets who refuse to let their careers go.

[Balsa]

Yeah, I'm not sure about more competitive, but AAA seems to be a purgatory in between AA and the Majors where players often get stuck when they can't hit MLB pitching. But then, I don't know that much about the MiLB.

[NCCubFan]

I think that's partially, but not entirely, true. Many prospects do go straight from AA to the major leagues (Marshall and Marmol have done that for the Cubs; Willis and Cabrera have done that for the Marlins in recent years). Not all top prospects do that, however. I don't think the fact that Felix Pie is in AAA means that his stock is falling. I think it would be safe to say that a greater percentage of AA players are prospects as compared to AAA, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those prospects who are at AA are better prospets than the ones at AAA.

[biittner77]

As someone once said "Everyone's a prospect until they become a suspect" It stands to reason that the lower levels would have more guys considered prospects and fewer system players. There are a lot of talented players in AA but there are also a fair amount of guys like Gary Cates that can be successful at AA but will never see the big leagues.

 

AAA players are more experienced but aren't always as talented. There are more system guys than AA but they are better system guys. There are also a lot of guys in AAA that have high ceilings that are biding their time, working on a particular aspect of their games against more experienced competition.

 

As for players skipping AAA entirely, it's true that it happens more often than it used to but I'd guess that most players still make at least a brief stop in AAA before getting the call.

[Brian]

I'm betting that AAA is filled with guys that are blocked at the major league level, or that are still very young or have things that need to work on still.

 

Purely speculation, but I'd assume it would be better for pitching prospects to be in AAA with the old veterans so they can learn about getting out hitters that have been there before and perhaps were at one point all-star caliber hitters.

[rawaction]

That was especially true a few years ago, but now...you have some great talent in AAA. Delmon, Pie, Brandon Wood, etc. I think it's due to a lot of the higher payroll teams having great minor league systems, thus being able to hold prospects in the minors longer (LAD, LAA, even the Cubs to some extent)

[JGalt73]

In 2004, Clay Davenport of BP looked at the winter and fall leagues and quantified their equivalence to the majors. In that article is the following % of ML level that exists in AA and AAA as a whole:"Triple-A leagues rate between .850 and .870, and the Double-A leagues come in between .790-.800". As a whole, AAA is a more difficult league.