Like Apprenticeship Programs or Artistic Pursuits: Minor League Baseball reporting 2017

if you're going to die in a taco-eating contest, it would be nice to at least do it in the privacy of one's own bathtub

Harvey in Vegas

https://nypost.com/2019/08/18/matt-harvey-was-really-nervous-for-his-minor-league-start/

https://i.imgur.com/MgdHshb.jpg

morbs might need one of these jerseys

we have a Game 141 today: scranton/wilkes-barre (NYY) and syracuse (NYM) are playing a one-game tiebreaker for the international league north title

mets are up 6-0 in the third with ervin santana on the mound

https://i.imgur.com/JM5LfgO.png

pretty crazy game tbh

#fuckthemercyrule

scranton won, 14-13. erstwhile brewers playoff hero erik kratz delivered the go-ahead two-run double in the eighth

wow awesome.

Brooklyn Cyclones one win away from NY Penn League flag, and i am pondering whether to invest in $5 tickets tonight or (if nec) tom'w

Travis Sawchik: are minor leagues necessary?

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/do-we-even-need-minor-league-baseball/

from a certain standpoint this is otm. certainly juan soto and casey mize don't need minor league baseball. and triple-a has never really been necessary -- it's more of a holding pen for the older replacement-level guys you need when someone gets hurt. the sheer number of transactions shifting players where they're needed seems to be rising all the time.

but i doubt that decreasing the footprint of the game is likely to have a good impact on its popularity. fewer (public) teams would present fewer opportunities, probably fewer draft rounds, and less of a reason for people to even try playing pro baseball. future kyler murrays aren't going to be any more attracted by spending development time in eternal spring training than they are by spending it in the minors.

also, minor league baseball draws 40m people a year; for reference, the nba and nhl draw in the low 20s. obviously the revenues are much smaller, but there's still money to be made as long as you can pay the players nothing and con municipalities into building ballparks.

most of that money goes to the minor league team owners, though, only a few of which are the MLB teams, and there's nothing MLB owners hate more than money they don't get a cut of. anyway the current Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and the minors runs through 2020; could be interesting to see what happens then

https://deadspin.com/maybe-you-just-like-watching-baseball-games-1838013774

i think there's a difference between "they're not necessary" and "it's a good idea to have them in some form"

Sometimes baseball provides its own soundtrack. Here is the final out of the 2019 NYPL Championship Series, as heard if you were with us in park. Speakers on.... pic.twitter.com/7LxKtwSkR0

— Brooklyn Cyclones (@BKCyclones) September 11, 2019

ever wanted to be a league president?

https://www.teamworkonline.com/baseball-jobs/northwestleague/northwest-league/administration-general-management/northwest-league-president-1964379

5 balls, 2 strikes, walls are made of glue, 460 feet away except for one HR circle (also covered with glue) that's in the middle of center field, only weird or funny players allowed, no water or refreshments allowed for anyone in the stadium

oh, and anyone who plays in the league gets a MLB contract with the yankees stipulating that they must appear in at least five games

Two of Independent Professional Baseball’s oldest and most established Leagues are pleased to announce that they will join forces. Beginning with the 2020 season, five former members of the Can-Am League will merge into the Frontier League.

Members of the Frontier League and the new teams from the Can-Am League will make up the 14-team circuit. The New Jersey Jackals, Quebec Capitales, Rockland Boulders, Sussex County Miners and Trois-Rivieres Aigles will play in the Can-Am Division. The Washington Wild Things and Lake Erie Crushers will join the Division as well. The seven remaining teams, the Evansville Otters, Florence Freedom, Gateway Grizzlies, Joliet Slammers, Schaumburg Boomers, Southern Illinois Miners and the Windy City ThunderBolts, will compete in the Midwestern Division.

http://frontierleague.com/2019/10/16/frontier-league-can-am-league-to-join-forces

wau. this would completely change minor league baseball, which has been in a reasonably steady state for 60 years

An MLB proposal to Minor League Baseball would eliminate 42 minor league teams, reorganize the minors geographically and move the draft back to August@jjcoop36 has the full story https://t.co/2m2EbccoXS

— Kyle Glaser (@KyleAGlaser) October 18, 2019

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2019/11/18/15466/mlbs-minor-league-hit-list-would-kill-42-teams-that-cities-spent-hundreds-of-millions-on-stadiums-for

nice little antitrust exemption you got there

In a response to MLB's MiLB proposal, 105 US Representatives sent a letter today to Commissioner Rob Manfred and all 30 MLB teams. pic.twitter.com/GSStK8NTwg

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) November 19, 2019

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJ2IBmkWwAAhE2b?format=jpg&name=small

we can all be legends

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKQiDFIWoAEYa2X?format=jpg&name=small

apparently the most notable thing about worcester, massachusetts is that the smiley face was designed there

fact: the smiley face was invented when forrest gump washed mud off his face on a blank t-shirt while he was running across america because he didn't know how else to confront the pain of losing jenny once again

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EK4GPcDXsAACkCM?format=jpg&name=small

Get your tickets now to see Cole's inevitable rehab appearance with the @TrentonThunder in the 2020 Eastern League Playoffs 😂 https://t.co/NVLAwxWw4P

— New Hampshire Fisher Cats (@FisherCats) December 11, 2019

fuckin ouch

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/skelton-bernie-sanders-minor-league-baseball-california

...Sanders, who grew up a Dodgers fan in Brooklyn before the team moved to Los Angeles, was the mayor of Burlington, Vt., in 1984 when the town landed the Vermont Lake Monsters. Now they’re on the MLB strike list. The senator is on a crusade about it and has more than 100 members of Congress with him, including Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), the House minority leader.

That’s a unique political alliance between a self-described democratic socialist and an unwavering supporter of President Trump.

In Burlington, Sanders told Shaikin, “What I saw with my own eyes is what minor league baseball does to a community. It is especially gratifying to see kids go out to the ballgames, families able to afford the relatively low price of tickets, and kids get autographs from players. There’s just a huge amount of excitement and community spirit….

“Major league owners have got to understand that this is not just a profit-making business. This is something that millions and millions of people, and kids, think about, pay attention to and feel strongly about.”

saw someone claiming that the dodgers leaving brooklyn was the foundational event of bernie's politics lol

meanwhile, #beef

MLB deputy commish Halem offers detailed look — photos, internal MiLB email — into MLB’s beef with minors. Says 42-team hit list is inaccurate.
The owners: ‘The problem with them, there is what they say publicly, and what they say privately is different.’https://t.co/Yrc1ofcihM

— Michael Silverman (@MikeSilvermanBB) December 11, 2019

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/12/14/major-league-baseball-threatens-to-walk-away-from-minor-league-baseball-entirely/

I can’t even understand how baseball would work without a minor league system.

i think manfred's saying mlb clubs would... like... sell their current teams and buy up a few unaffiliated feeder teams? or something?

manfred's background is in labor relations, and he seems to be treating MiLB like a union he's trying to break

i imagine the atlantic league and american association would be thrilled to get affiliated players, then there are the current minor league teams that big league clubs outright own, plus they could run more games out of the spring complexes. and once MiLB is broken, they can pick off the more desirable current minor league teams (durham, columbus, etc) and offer them a shittier deal

god knows the us government loves breaking unions, but the fallout from this would affect so many districts that i think congress might actually do something about it

the money involved in all this is minuscule for a $10b/year industry, but the story of modern america is that the extremely wealthy would rather watch society burn than part with any money at all, so

look out, Worcester

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2020/01/13/15657/worcester-adds-20m-more-in-tax-money-to-baseball-stadium-because-it-forgot-how-gravity-works/

(pick a glitzy new 2020 thread title, mook)

Last Friday, Jake Seiner and Ben Walker of the Associated Press reported that Major League Baseball has opted to raise minor league player pay to, at minimum, $4,800 dollars a year. As usual, the change was announced unilaterally: minor league players are not unionized and cannot help but accept this compensation. Specifically, MLB decided to set minimum pay levels (not including spring training, which is unpaid, and not starting until the 2021 season) at:

$400/week ($4,800 for a three-month season) for Rookie or short-season (up from $290/$3,480)
$500/week ($10,000 for a five-month season) for Class A (up from $290/$5,800)
$600/week ($12,000 for a five-month season) for Double-A (up from $350/$7,000)
$700/week ($14,000 for a five-month season) for Triple-A (up from $502/$10,040)

Assuming that players work an eight-hour workday five days a week (which is an assumption you’d make only if you both knew nothing about how long minor leaguers work and also were feeling extremely generous towards the league), the new pay scale works out to an hourly minimum wage of $10, $12.50, $15, and $17.50, respectively. Assuming even 50 hours a week puts everybody below $15 an hour; 60 hours a week puts everyone below $12. And all of the scenarios assume either that players are independently wealthy or that they’ll fit their year-round conditioning and training in around finding some other way to make money seven or nine months out of the year.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/minor-leaguers-to-be-paid-more-not-enough/

only the truly desperate or insane need apply

in no way do I mean this in approval of this terrible system... but honestly I'd be a much happier person right now if I was playing minor league baseball for $10/hr

the fact that it won't start until next season makes it look expressly like 'look what we can do if we save money by contracting a quarter of the minors'

good three part fangraphage on that from last week btw:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/untangling-a-minor-league-mess-part-i
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/untangling-a-minor-league-mess-part-ii
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/untangling-a-minor-league-mess-part-iii

i think this could inspire a new 2020 thread title mook

I suppose this is on-brand given the low player salaries: Minor League Baseball announced a sponsorship deal making Stauffer's the "official frozen prepared meals" of MiLB.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) February 24, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-season-without-baseball-could-be-crushing-blow-for-minor-leagues-11586430020?mod=djemMTIPOFF_h

welp

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/sources-milb-ready-to-agree-to-significant-reduction-in-teams

Started to feel inevitable

A's told minor leaguers they've decided to end their $400/week stipend on May 31, with five days' notice. The part that says "your UPC remains in place" means "we won't pay you, but you do not have the right to be a free agent." Interesting this was sent by GM and not ownership. https://t.co/PJ2B4k1d5B

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) May 27, 2020

Just some rough math. Say there are 200 players in a minor league system. Paying each $400/week for July, July and August is $5,200 per player. To pay every minor leaguer would have cost the Oakland A's a hair over $1 million.

Owner John Fisher is worth an estimated $2 billion.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 27, 2020

the sad part is that the $1M would probably be a good "investment", just in terms of boosting the morale/performance of players through the noble act of paying them

if some traveling salesman came by Fisher's office and offered to inject snake oil into the veins of all the players in his organization to boost their morale and performance for 3 months, at the insanely low price of only $1M, he would probably do it

the fuckin *marlins* are paying their dudes through august

We're not selling jeans here...

hundreds of minor leaguers are being released, although it's difficult to track because MLB's (and therefore baseball america's, etc.) transactions list is not being updated

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/05/28/teams-releasing-bunches-of-minor-leaguers-today