It’s FN crazy that a AAA player doesn’t make at a MINIMUM $100K in this era with how expensive life is. It’s crazy. AAA = $100K, AA = $85K and A = $65K it should be something that simple.
Wow how ungrateful these minor leaguers are wanting livable wages instead of wanting their employers to be able to buy another yacht is disgraceful. *in case you’re dense minor leaguers and everyone in the world should be entitled to livable wages
What I think is funny about expansion is the idea that they could staff two more teams. Hitters can barely hit... starting pitchers can barely cover innings, never mind the health concerns. Now they just don't want to develop. I already think the game could be dying. Do this and they make it official.
As a percentage of the adult male population, 18-40, there are fewer players per capita. They have the talent to stock two more teams, and that would help create a few more minor leagues.
College baseball doesn't use wooden bats. It's not a good replacement for the minor leagues, as is. Not to mention, the best college players come out for the draft early.
Bill Veeck proposed years ago in his book that MLB pay the NCAA to extend the college baseball season by a month. An extra month per year for 4 years would be the equivalent of a season in one of the old short-season leagues.
A lot of independent leagues are full of former AAA players and players who have had a cup of coffee in the bigs so it is more about winning then development.
This is why minor league towns, especially A ball towns, shouldn't be spending millions on upgrading their ballparks to the new standards set by MLB. On top of not getting any financial contributions from the parent teams, they're not getting any guarantee by MLB that their team won't be eliminated after spending all of those millions to the benefit of MLB and their future stars. The two minor league teams nearest to me (Kinston and Zebulon NC) have already tapped out and are letting their affiliated teams leave town. I don't blame them. They don't have to spend millions on upgrades to be the home stadium of an independent or summer college league team. They're just looking for a decent park to play in. MLB just doesn't appreciate their minor league partners, not to mention that they are handicapping themselves in developing their own future stars and new fans. MLB keeps finding methods to get in their own way when it comes to marketing the game of baseball.
to develop a fan base you want more people watching and playing the sport at all levels, not less. This is why MLB is going backwards compared to other more successful sports leagues.
How much more is it to pay your minor leaguers a living wage? Just curious, I don’t know the numbers. You see teams paying $20+ mill for one player a year but can’t pay their minors a livable wage. Make them salary and low level $60k a year and bracket it up from there.
If it is what Law said about 40 hours a week at $25 an hour, then that is $1000 per week. The minor league calendar is probably 30 weeks (including ST) but no more than 35, so put it at $32,000. Let's say 25 man roster, so that goes $800K. If each team has six minor league teams (to include complex leagues and DSL), then that comes to a total of $4.8 million. This isn't about whether these teams have the ability to pay even if you double it for other costs associated with them. The owners simply don't want to. Most of the current crop of owners aren't interested in winning, or finding a way to find every last avenue to find or develop young players. They just want bodies on the field so that they get their revenue sharing payment and extort some city to pay for a new stadium. The quality of owners are a hindrance to increasing the quality of the game.
@ I hear so many of these young adults having to be supported by family, they may never make it to the pros to even get a semi decent pay day. They should be able to support themselves. So sad. These teams make enough and these players are their employees too. You can’t support your employees then maybe they shouldn’t be the owners. My 2 ¢
viewing the minors as "cost" fails to recognize the general decline in interest over time there will be from the public if there are less ways and places to see baseball being played professionally - there are TONS of people who will never come close to seeing an mlb game but grew up near a minor league stadium and fell in love with the game as a result
This is outrageous MLB is the only one of the five sports leagues I'm involved with that is going backwards and driving fans away, thank god the Pioneer League went independent as you're not touching my Oakland Ballers
My proposal is to cut MLB's share of the minors to AAA alone. Everything else would be independent. There would no longer be a MLB draft of amateurs, but rather a draft of players with a season of experience at AA level. This would be highly advantageous to MLB teams, because instead of drafting a pig in a poke years away from contributing, they would be drafting someone with a history of success as high as AA, and a likelihood that he will be contributing to MLB within a year or two at most. So what would be in it for the owners of the independent minor league teams? Fat fees! For each pick in the draft, a MLB franchise would have to pay a fee commensurate with the draftee's position in the draft. Let's say the #1 pick with a year of AA experience costs $50,000,000, and each pick below that would receive $250,000 less. (Just throwing out numbers, which would need to be rationally thought through.) This would give AA franchises powerful incentive to acquire good players from lower level independents, or to sign and develop players at the lower levels of the minors themselves. A very successful AA franchise might be able to earn $100 million in fees in a single season. Since a MLB team would need to know that a player drafted for tens of millions is going to sign, this would only work if the salaries of rookies were assigned automatically according to their placement in the draft as they are in the NFL. The easiest would be to give each draftee some percentage of what was paid to the AA team to obtain his rights, for a set period. Let's say a draftee gets 50% salary of his draft price in return for five years of service. If the fee for the #1 pick were $50,000,000, the #1 pick would get $25,000,000 for 5 years of service, thus, $5 million a year for 5 years. Then he is a free agent, no "qualifying offer" to drag out his service time. This is great for both sides. The player gets to unrestricted free agency quickly, and the team gets his services at a time when he is ready to hit the ground running.
I don't get AJ's point on college not being for development. Yes, the coaches need to win to secure their job, but if they don't develop talent that they get (i.e. walk-ons, freshmen, juco transfers) then they won't have a team to play with. And if a college team just relies on getting the best college ball players and getting transfers, someone else will have to develop them to get to that point. Football, basketball, hockey, etc. have no issues with college being a developmental league, so why would baseball (a college sport that brings in no money compared to football or basketball for most schools) be more intense on a coach's win/loss record? If a college coach can't develop his players, then he'll either need a bag for NIL or pray that he can recruit better than anyone else.
Instead of getting rid of 2 minor league levels, why not move those leagues to another country all together. How would this bill be enforced in Mexico, Japan, or the Caribbean Islands.
It’s FN crazy that a AAA player doesn’t make at a MINIMUM $100K in this era with how expensive life is. It’s crazy. AAA = $100K, AA = $85K and A = $65K it should be something that simple.
@@gregthegroove agreed! These players shouldn’t have to bum from family members just to survive.
Wow how ungrateful these minor leaguers are wanting livable wages instead of wanting their employers to be able to buy another yacht is disgraceful. *in case you’re dense minor leaguers and everyone in the world should be entitled to livable wages
What I think is funny about expansion is the idea that they could staff two more teams. Hitters can barely hit... starting pitchers can barely cover innings, never mind the health concerns. Now they just don't want to develop. I already think the game could be dying. Do this and they make it official.
As a percentage of the adult male population, 18-40, there are fewer players per capita. They have the talent to stock two more teams, and that would help create a few more minor leagues.
Let's have that show about why the minors are important and why having the various levels make sense!
College baseball doesn't use wooden bats. It's not a good replacement for the minor leagues, as is. Not to mention, the best college players come out for the draft early.
I mean rob manfred loves money and hates baseball what else do you expect?
Any of the teams that get cut should look into Banana Ball.
Bring Keith on more!
Bill Veeck proposed years ago in his book that MLB pay the NCAA to extend the college baseball season by a month.
An extra month per year for 4 years would be the equivalent of a season in one of the old short-season leagues.
Getting rid of a level of the minor leagues: the old saying of being penny wise and pound foolish...yup, that's MLB's brand, Manfraud strikes again
I'd be fine with dropping a league if they were to start compensating minor league players much better.
I will camp outside of the MLB office if they cut another level
Best get the tent ready
How do independent leagues do it?And would more such leagues develop? It seems like minor and independent leagues are important for keeping fans, too.
A lot of independent leagues are full of former AAA players and players who have had a cup of coffee in the bigs so it is more about winning then development.
This is why minor league towns, especially A ball towns, shouldn't be spending millions on upgrading their ballparks to the new standards set by MLB. On top of not getting any financial contributions from the parent teams, they're not getting any guarantee by MLB that their team won't be eliminated after spending all of those millions to the benefit of MLB and their future stars.
The two minor league teams nearest to me (Kinston and Zebulon NC) have already tapped out and are letting their affiliated teams leave town. I don't blame them. They don't have to spend millions on upgrades to be the home stadium of an independent or summer college league team. They're just looking for a decent park to play in.
MLB just doesn't appreciate their minor league partners, not to mention that they are handicapping themselves in developing their own future stars and new fans. MLB keeps finding methods to get in their own way when it comes to marketing the game of baseball.
to develop a fan base you want more people watching and playing the sport at all levels, not less. This is why MLB is going backwards compared to other more successful sports leagues.
How much more is it to pay your minor leaguers a living wage? Just curious, I don’t know the numbers. You see teams paying $20+ mill for one player a year but can’t pay their minors a livable wage. Make them salary and low level $60k a year and bracket it up from there.
If it is what Law said about 40 hours a week at $25 an hour, then that is $1000 per week. The minor league calendar is probably 30 weeks (including ST) but no more than 35, so put it at $32,000. Let's say 25 man roster, so that goes $800K. If each team has six minor league teams (to include complex leagues and DSL), then that comes to a total of $4.8 million. This isn't about whether these teams have the ability to pay even if you double it for other costs associated with them. The owners simply don't want to. Most of the current crop of owners aren't interested in winning, or finding a way to find every last avenue to find or develop young players. They just want bodies on the field so that they get their revenue sharing payment and extort some city to pay for a new stadium. The quality of owners are a hindrance to increasing the quality of the game.
@ I hear so many of these young adults having to be supported by family, they may never make it to the pros to even get a semi decent pay day. They should be able to support themselves. So sad. These teams make enough and these players are their employees too. You can’t support your employees then maybe they shouldn’t be the owners. My 2 ¢
viewing the minors as "cost" fails to recognize the general decline in interest over time there will be from the public if there are less ways and places to see baseball being played professionally - there are TONS of people who will never come close to seeing an mlb game but grew up near a minor league stadium and fell in love with the game as a result
Would the College development apply to Latin players too?
This model obviously serves the NFL quite well. With NIL, makes sense for players and MLB
Aside from the salary issue, what about the revenue that is generated in smaller markets.
This is outrageous MLB is the only one of the five sports leagues I'm involved with that is going backwards and driving fans away, thank god the Pioneer League went independent as you're not touching my Oakland Ballers
So I'd guess by cutting more minor league means more 14 year olds from Dominic and less Americans
My proposal is to cut MLB's share of the minors to AAA alone. Everything else would be independent. There would no longer be a MLB draft of amateurs, but rather a draft of players with a season of experience at AA level. This would be highly advantageous to MLB teams, because instead of drafting a pig in a poke years away from contributing, they would be drafting someone with a history of success as high as AA, and a likelihood that he will be contributing to MLB within a year or two at most.
So what would be in it for the owners of the independent minor league teams? Fat fees! For each pick in the draft, a MLB franchise would have to pay a fee commensurate with the draftee's position in the draft. Let's say the #1 pick with a year of AA experience costs $50,000,000, and each pick below that would receive $250,000 less. (Just throwing out numbers, which would need to be rationally thought through.) This would give AA franchises powerful incentive to acquire good players from lower level independents, or to sign and develop players at the lower levels of the minors themselves. A very successful AA franchise might be able to earn $100 million in fees in a single season.
Since a MLB team would need to know that a player drafted for tens of millions is going to sign, this would only work if the salaries of rookies were assigned automatically according to their placement in the draft as they are in the NFL. The easiest would be to give each draftee some percentage of what was paid to the AA team to obtain his rights, for a set period. Let's say a draftee gets 50% salary of his draft price in return for five years of service. If the fee for the #1 pick were $50,000,000, the #1 pick would get $25,000,000 for 5 years of service, thus, $5 million a year for 5 years. Then he is a free agent, no "qualifying offer" to drag out his service time. This is great for both sides. The player gets to unrestricted free agency quickly, and the team gets his services at a time when he is ready to hit the ground running.
More independent leagues on the way.
I don't get AJ's point on college not being for development. Yes, the coaches need to win to secure their job, but if they don't develop talent that they get (i.e. walk-ons, freshmen, juco transfers) then they won't have a team to play with. And if a college team just relies on getting the best college ball players and getting transfers, someone else will have to develop them to get to that point. Football, basketball, hockey, etc. have no issues with college being a developmental league, so why would baseball (a college sport that brings in no money compared to football or basketball for most schools) be more intense on a coach's win/loss record? If a college coach can't develop his players, then he'll either need a bag for NIL or pray that he can recruit better than anyone else.
What's the difference from college players vs international signings ?, how much of the league actually comes from college ?
Why would any team agree to this? Could MLB teams affiliate with independent teams?
Instead of getting rid of 2 minor league levels, why not move those leagues to another country all together. How would this bill be enforced in Mexico, Japan, or the Caribbean Islands.
Is both the Florida League and Low A necessary?
They should just get rid of the AA and A. It's like the WNBA, it doesn't make money.
Judging a manager based only on winning or losing is dumb. The manager largely does not control that