Minor League Musings

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[JBears79]

Kepley needs to be promoted already. I wanna see how he handles AA pitching.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/what-a-29-2-score-says-about-the-state-of-low-level-minor-league-baseball--and-why-mlb-fans-should-care-222056306.html

Interesting read

[Outshined_One]

29 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/what-a-29-2-score-says-about-the-state-of-low-level-minor-league-baseball--and-why-mlb-fans-should-care-222056306.html

Interesting read

Quote

There’s a growing sense that the league would prefer to effectively outsource aspects of the development process to top college programs. Why spend money, the thinking goes, to make players better when Clemson and Mississippi State will do it for you?

That sums up one of the major issues in a nutshell nicely.  If the NFL gets to offload the cost of training and development onto the NCAA, why shouldn't MLB get the same benefit?

Perhaps that saves teams money over the short term, but how often are players ready to contribute to a major league team right after the draft, much less AAA or even AA?  At least the NFL draft seems to produce dozens of guys who can produce in the NFL their rookie season, but baseball is such a different animal that this mindset makes zero sense to me.

[mul21]

7 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

That sums up one of the major issues in a nutshell nicely.  If the NFL gets to offload the cost of training and development onto the NCAA, why shouldn't MLB get the same benefit?

Perhaps that saves teams money over the short term, but how often are players ready to contribute to a major league team right after the draft, much less AAA or even AA?  At least the NFL draft seems to produce dozens of guys who can produce in the NFL their rookie season, but baseball is such a different animal that this mindset makes zero sense to me.

100% agree with this.  There's obviously technique involved in the NFL, but it's much more about physical abilities than anything else outside of the QB position.  There's so much more nuance to baseball than football that it's an apples to oranges comparison.

[Bertz]

Honestly for domestic players it's fine.  The rare Konnor Griffin gets boxed out of debuting at 19 which has downstream impacts on his career earnings (certainly ownership's aim here), but for most guys it's somewhere close to a wash.  Guys at big time programs like Vandy it's probably actually better than toiling in the minors, and even your like Middle Tennessee States or whatever have gotten WAY WAY WAY better at player dev over the last decade.

I'd be real worried for the IFAs though.  It's already harder for a lot of these guys to get their footing in full season ball than it was a decade ago.  Now you need to go straight from the ACL all the way to High A?  That's a super steep learning curve. we get like one of those guys in the system every 2-3 years?  Even if rising tides help bridge the gap it's still going to harm a lot of mid tier international prospects.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Plus don't they want to get rid of IFA all together and put everyone in the draft?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[KCCub]

 

[craig]

The article about the complex league was interesting.  In younger days, I recall when Latin players listed super young when they hit the majors.  Still variably true:  Moises and Pedro are both 22. But maybe the age-curve for Latin players isn't as extreme, without bogus birthdays and with few actual baseball games played in Latin countries for teenagers.  

Cubs seem to be one of the teams that prioritizes teaching and intrasquad for Mesa guys.  Different, yes; not sure it's bad, though, or worse for development?  

The urgency for velocity over control, that's the game.  When we get buzz reports on Jabrayker Salaya, it's not because he's been a good pitcher.  12.15 ERA, 6 walks in 6.2 innings, 2.1 WHIP.  It's because he's got velocity and wildman stuff that he can't control yet.  That's the modern prospect game, that's not going to change.  

*IF* they want to recapture complex league of past, sure they could expand the rosters and allow an extra 10 undrafted college pitchers to throw more strikes.  That could be helpful, I'd be fine with that.  I don't imagine the costs for adding an extra five bedrooms to the complex dorms and feeding 10 extra college pitchers would be any big deal cost-wise.  Can do that for .2% of a Bregman, or whatever.  

With all the pitch-lab opties for college pitchers, I don't have much problem with American kids largely going to college.  I suspect that a lot of human development and growing up can happen in college, perhaps as well or better than in a complex dorm?  Most HS players aren't going to become major leaguers, do college may better prepare them for a non-big-league life.  There are HS guys who go pro, Hartshorn, Wing, Franklin, Ronny Southisene, Cruz, Lovich, Rosario, Hope.  Not sure the volume is that much lower than a few years back.  

Perhaps for some pitchers, college is as good a developmental route?  In college, development is valued big-time, but so too is winning.  Maybe the value of throwing a strike is developed as well or better in college than in the complex?