minor league player salaries

[treebird]

should we care that a huge number of low-level ballplayers make as little as $1,100 per month?

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

does seem kind of fucked

[LeftCoastCubFan]

I classify ball players with actors, musicians, and comedians. They make a choice to live a dream, with a longshot at success. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a choice.

 

Add in the per diem and they make 11.56 an hour (based on a 40 hour week it is not less the a fast food worker). I'm not arguing that it is fair. It also doesn't address signing bonuses, having a college education for some, or a scholarship for some others. It isn't as simple as it is portrayed.

[TruffleShuffle]

they should be happy that they're being paid at all to play a game. [/extremesarcasm]

[Sammy Sofa]

I classify ball players with actors, musicians, and comedians. They make a choice to live a dream, with a longshot at success. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a choice.

 

Meaning they should just get whatever when it comes to being paid for their services?

[Guest]

Leaving aside the fairness aspect of it, you would think this would be a pretty substantial opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Paying all your minor leaguers an additional 2 grand per month(tripling salaries for those lowest paid players) for the season should come to less than 3 million bucks. Wouldn't enabling better living/eating conditions for your talent development be worth that? Not to mention the advantage you'd have with MiLB FAs and the like.

[SouthSideRyan]

MILB free agents worth a damn are going to make real money. When I first heard about what an average minor league diet is like I was in shock . Such a small thing you can improve upon

[Guest]

Leaving aside the fairness aspect of it, you would think this would be a pretty substantial opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Paying all your minor leaguers an additional 2 grand per month(tripling salaries for those lowest paid player) for the season should come to less than 3 million bucks. Wouldn't enabling better living/eating conditions for your talent development be worth that? Not to mention the advantage you'd have with MiLB FAs and the like.

 

I always thought they should be providing top notch nutrition and stuff to aid in their development. I was actually surprised to learn that they don't.

[imb]

Leaving aside the fairness aspect of it, you would think this would be a pretty substantial opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Paying all your minor leaguers an additional 2 grand per month(tripling salaries for those lowest paid player) for the season should come to less than 3 million bucks. Wouldn't enabling better living/eating conditions for your talent development be worth that? Not to mention the advantage you'd have with MiLB FAs and the like.

 

I always thought they should be providing top notch nutrition and stuff to aid in their development. I was actually surprised to learn that they don't.

 

Yeah, take a look at how top college football programs handle nutrition. Doesn't matter if you will see the field or not.

[forbez18]

The thing to remember still is that most of these kids are coming straight from college where they were paying to play baseball. I was able to play baseball in college and had thoughts of making it to the pros, but was never drafted. I went on to be a financial advisor and went and worked 12 hour days just about every day with no benefits (self employed) and made under $20,000 that year. The next year was even harder (as you no longer have a warm market) and worked as much or more and made under $18,000.

 

Now I say this because I did have friends who were drafted. Pitchers who I played with all my life and who I would pay to go watch every chance I got, and afterwards I would go back to their apartment and have a great time and just listen to the stories that they were able to tell me. Major League Players who were rehabbing would stop by sometimes and tell stories and buy drinks and dinner for everyone. They had access to very good work out rooms, they had meals that were catered about half of the time, they had experiences that not many people (specially on this board) would for a second hesitate to take advantage of. Now the catch - they made as much as I did the first few years, and then most of them were out of baseball. Minor league players who are not drafted high for the most part do not have a very long life in baseball. It is a gamble that most people in life would jump at, and they know it going into it. Just like I did when I went into my profession. Their profession is much riskier, but also comes with such a high ceiling. I have now been an advisor for 9 years and have a great job that provides for my family in ways I couldn't have though of coming out of college, but if someone came rolling down my street with a minor league contract I would sign it with out thinking twice. Do they deserve more? Maybe. Are there many, many, many people who probably deserve more? With out a doubt yes.

[TruffleShuffle]

Leaving aside the fairness aspect of it, you would think this would be a pretty substantial opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Paying all your minor leaguers an additional 2 grand per month(tripling salaries for those lowest paid players) for the season should come to less than 3 million bucks. Wouldn't enabling better living/eating conditions for your talent development be worth that? Not to mention the advantage you'd have with MiLB FAs and the like.

 

yeah, when you read a paragraph like this:

 

The LumberKings players lived in a small, struggling Iowa town, where many of them (those who didn’t receive big signing bonuses) were among the poorest residents. And they knew it. Every day, they were reminded of it. They lived in the town’s worst apartment complexes. They crammed four or five players into one- and two-bedroom apartments, sometimes studios. On biweekly paydays, they would climb into my hatchback and I’d drive to the Super Walmart at the edge of town, where some would cash their checks, buy groceries in bulk, and try to work out how much extra money they’d need for the next 14 days. They returned home exhausted, some sleeping side-by-side on air mattresses on the floor, got up the next day, and went to work as professional athletes.

 

 

it's not hard to imagine players improving more when they're eating better, sleeping better, worrying less about money and focusing more on their job rather than how to make such meager ends meet.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Not saying it wouldn't be cool if they were better paid, but the real prospects had bonuses and the rest can go screw, as far as MLB is concerned, because they are only there to fill rosters.

[bhogg]

Maybe the government can fix this problem, too.

[Guest]

Maybe the government can fix this problem, too.

I say no pay at all. They are playing a kids game. They should be given PBJs, Cap'n crunch (not peanut butter), and microwave mac-n-cheese as payment. It will toughen them up good.