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

for sure

'invitations' going out today to 119 teams. there is a lot of bitterness

11 full-season clubs did not receive invitations from MLB to join the minors in 2021.

Full list: https://t.co/MOf6CpSQ2I pic.twitter.com/dZmdUdVY5n

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) December 9, 2020

damn, RIP burlington bees. that's where my grandma and a couple of my relatives lived. there is very little going on in burlington, and now that the bees are leaving, truly nothing.

i guess there's a railroad that goes through town, some freight passes by every once in a while and blows the dust around a bit

Burlington Bees GM Kim Parker tells me they are leaning towards entering a collegiate wood bat league. No official announcement at this point.

— Tommy Birch (@TommyBirch) December 9, 2020

vancouver and brooklyn and portland, oregon going full-season is cool, at least

yeah a full season cyclones team is super dope

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/monsters-of-2020-the-people-who-gutted-minor-league-baseball/

vancouver and brooklyn and portland, oregon going full-season is cool, at least

― mookieproof, Wednesday, December 9, 2020 2:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

this had escaped my attention until now. glad about this.

i don't have a subscription and the preview doesn't go into the meaty bits, but this *sounds* pretty bad

Minor League teams have learned in recent days they will not receive proceeds from 2020 national merchandise sales.

The reason?

MiLB's league office used that money to stay afloat over the past year.@jjcoop36 has the latest details: https://t.co/m0UBlywWFA

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) February 9, 2021

Officially official

This is the new Minor League Baseball landscape pic.twitter.com/UvyOAkWPcB

— Benjamin Hill (@bensbiz) February 12, 2021

@mookieproof how's your Spanish?

Organization Name: Advocates for Minor Leaguers
Website: advocatesforminorleaguers.com
Job Post Date: 19 Apr 2021
Job Terms: Full Time

Job Description

- Assisting Executive Director in facilitating a relationship of trust between Advocates for Minor Leaguers and each of more than 5,000 Minor League baseball players
- Fielding and responding to questions and requests from Minor League baseball players
- Organizing frequent meetings with the Advocates for Minor Leaguers player leaders
- Traveling to Minor League stadiums and Spring Training facilities to meet with Minor League players
- Supporting Grassroots Coordinator in execution of his or her job responsibilities

Qualifications

Skills: - Passionate about the mistreatment of Minor League baseball players
- Fluent in Spanish
- Experience with grassroots and/or union organizing
- Strong verbal communication skills
- Demonstrated leadership ability
- A willingness to travel and work irregular hours, including nights and weekends

Organization Description

Advocates for Minor Leaguers is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we encourage diverse candidates to apply.

How to Apply

This position is remote but will require significant travel. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Please send both a cover letter explaining your interest in the position and a resume to ha✧✧✧@milbadvoca✧✧✧.c✧✧.

Contact: Harry Marino
Email: h a r r y @ m i l b a d v o c a t e s . c o m

Here is the full release on the Pioneer League going to Home Run Derby instead of extra innings pic.twitter.com/0p30e84hYK

— Shaun Rainey (@ShaunRainey) April 27, 2021

The theme of this thread: Holy shit, minor league starters are working way, way less hard. Remember when 100 pitches was normal?

In the last five days, four minor league pitchers have reached 100 pitches. Not four per level, not four per day, four *total* (all AAA vets)

— Brendan Gawlowski (@GawlowskiB) May 25, 2021

Seems like an overreaction to a pretty obvious development... teams know a lot more now about how fragile pitchers' arms are while their bodies are still growing. I would rather have more starting pitchers making it to the majors in one piece and then throwing deeper into games instead of everyone constantly getting TJs all the time

Not of general interest, but: I've posted before about Darren Shred, I guy I coached in middle school who was drafted by the Reds. That didn't work out, then he was playing for Barrie in the Intercounty League, then the pandemic happened...so I checked around, and it looks like he's moved on to something pretty good:

https://www.objbaseball.com/news/shred-jumps-into-new-role-with-obj

Actually, that happened just before the pandemic; hope he managed to hold on to this.

Very cool.

Single A Lakeland beat Clearwater yesterday, 10-5 -- on three hits. Correct: 10 runs on three hits. In what might or might not be a shocking revelation, Clearwater walked 16 Flying Tigers batters. Repeat: 16 walks. Clearwater's pitching coach remains under observation ...

— Lynn G. Henning (@Lynn_Henning) September 4, 2021

BREAKING: Major League Baseball teams will provide housing for minor league baseball players starting in 2022, sources tell ESPN.

Details on the monumental change @espn: https://t.co/Wzw2pWU55i

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 17, 2021

how about that

thumbs up

getting out in front of the CBA? or are the minors excluded from that?

this should go well ($)

Sports and entertainment agency Endeavor, and its private equity investor Silver Lake, is in talks to buy up to a dozen minor league teams, with aspirations of potentially owning 40 or more of Minor League Baseball’s 120 teams over time, sources said. Endeavor is already a force in sports, in part through ownership of UFC, talent agency WME, and a host of marketing, licensing, and agent divisions. The pursuit of so many teams doesn’t amount to a fait accompli, but Endeavor is making attractive offers.

Endeavor declined to comment, as did Major League Baseball, which has to approve any minor league ownership transfer.

The potential sales could bring concerns for both minor league owners and municipalities, and may also create an issue for the Major League Baseball Players Association to address, as Endeavor also represents baseball players. If successful, Endeavor’s purchases would be the most significant financial development since MLB restructured MiLB this year, reducing the number of teams by 40 — or 25 percent — and centralizing MLB control.

One little-noticed change in the overhaul greased the path for Endeavor: The elimination of the prohibition on an entity owning more than one team per league.

wtf

baseball never met a cartel it didn’t like

This sounds like a complete cluster fuck of conflicts of interest

what they should do is integrate betting to the whole operation

Sources: Rachel Balkovec, who joined the Yankees organization as a minor-league hitting coach in 2019, will serve as the manager for the Low A Tampa Tarpons next season.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) January 9, 2022

I misread that as the Tampa Tampons and then laughed and then immediately felt horrible about myself

The @FLProBaseball has announced it will use "sudden death baseball" to settle tie games. After one extra inning if game remains tied, the home team chooses to hit or pitch. The hitting team puts a runner on 1st. 3 outs. Run scores? Hitting team wins. No runs? Pitching team wins.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) January 24, 2022

run scores in that situation only about 43% of the time, so

dumb as hell imo

honestly i don't think i care

i don't care either, i just find it amusing to see a pro sport admit that game outcomes don't matter as much as simply ending

clearly minor leaguers should skip spring training, sparing their clubs this horrible financial burden, and just show up for regular-season games. everybody’s happy!

MLB argues for minor leaguers to stay unpaid in spring training: "It is the players that obtain the greater benefit from the training opportunities that they are afforded than the clubs, who actually just incur the cost of having to provide that training” https://t.co/md2BqNjr0X

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 12, 2022

wow.

i'm glad people are presumably going to get paid, but i really wish some lawsuit would force these pro leagues to open their books

Minor league players, MLB reach settlement in minimum wage lawsuit

NEW YORK -- Minor league players and Major League Baseball have reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging teams violated minimum wage laws.

Terms of the settlement were not filed with the court Tuesday and details were not released. Two people familiar with the negotiations, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the release of details was not authorized, said the sides in recent weeks had been discussing a possible settlement in the $200 million range.

all very healthy behavior

springfield’s chandler redmond hit a solo homer, two-run homer, three-run homer and grand slam tonight

second time that’s ever been done in pro baseball (that anyone knows of, at least); the other was tyrone horne for arkansas (then also a cardinals double-a team) in 1998

that's weird; last night, just before you posted that, i was perusing the stats of Springfield's team. Mainly checking in on Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Malcom Nuñez, who have 61 years of life experience between the three of them, and also Moisés Gómez, who is a relatively ancient 23 year old with 23 home runs and a 1.106 OPS. didn't even see Chandler Raymond! he's 25. i'll probably never see him in a big league uniform but it's warming to see someone have an insane, career accomplishment kind of night

(shit, i forgot nunez was just traded to the bucs)

The Major League Baseball Players Association has launched a campaign to unionize Minor League Players across the country #1u #FairBall pic.twitter.com/DDq4Q8NOXI

— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) August 29, 2022

possibly a big deal?

also it is amusing that milb.com, the official website of minor league baseball, doesn't mention this in any way

and, the campaign is pretty much done? they got >50% to sign the union cards

And just like that, minor league baseball players are on the verge of unionizing.

More than 50 percent of minor leaguers signed authorization cards in support of unionization under the guidance of the Major League Baseball Players Association, the organization announced Tuesday. As such, the players union has asked MLB to voluntarily recognize it as the representative for minor league players. The league had yet to comment as of early Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement came just one week after the union made the surprising move to send out the cards to gauge interest, a move made to seize the momentum created by two-plus years of advocacy that pushed the low pay and challenging working conditions of the minors into a brighter spotlight than ever before. That minor leaguers would unionize never seemed imminent. That the MLBPA would serve as the organizing force behind their unionization was never obvious.

But as of Tuesday morning, their combined efforts had hurtled minor leaguers one step closer to unionization.

“Minor league Players have made it unmistakably clear they want the MLBPA to represent them and are ready to begin collective bargaining in order to positively affect the upcoming season,” Tony Clark, executive director of the players union, said in a statement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/06/minor-league-unionization-mlbpa-authorization-cards/

thumbs up

That's an F7 on your scorecard, but a home run in Delvin Pérez's heart 🤣 pic.twitter.com/05EIE3gH1R

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 23, 2022

In 2002, 186 MiLB pitchers threw 150+ innings. This year, five MiLB pitchers threw 150+ innings. We want to honor great pitching seasons (and Painter's is a great season). So that has led to the BA MiLB Pitcher of the Year award.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) September 29, 2022

When we said “World’s Largest Horseshoe,” we really meant it. pic.twitter.com/FfgZGCdKmZ

— Springfield Lucky Horseshoes (@ShoesBaseball) October 16, 2022

there once was a minor league team called the Fargo Divorcees

it was way back when. also, i just learned that Fargo used to be well known as a particularly easy and quick place to get a divorce