Oakland A's headed to Las Vegas

What we're probably heading for is a system where teams identify a dozen or so prospects each year they believe have potential to be above average (or better) MLB players, and those will be the guys in which they'll invest money and training resources and will play in the "affiliated minors."

Of course other players will develop and emerge in independent/unaffiliated leagues, and the MLB teams will sign or draft or purchase these guys on a case by case basis, AFTER they've started to emerge. Then they'll join the couple dozen golden children already in the system, and in a year or so they'll be in the Show.

And of course every year a couple of the golden children will fall short of projections, clear waivers and sign with the indy teams on the way down.

But the MLB teams want to quit messing around with having a couple of dozen largely interchangeable "utility IF/OF" players and "No. 3 starters/middle relievers" in their systems when pretty much everybody in the organization agrees only five of them have actual MLB potential.

 

This is going to cause a ton of players to slip through the cracks. This will mostly be guys who would under almost no circumstances go to college. At the same time, thinning the minor-league herd should do a lot to greatly improve the quality of college baseball. Tough to believe MLB has not been for a long time envious of the NFL and NBA's free minor-league systems.

Unfortunately, the NCAA is not likely to increase scholarship limits, so a lot of guys will have to figure out a way to pay their way in. Those 11.7 schollies per D1 team are still going to go mostly to pitchers. That may be a good thing, though. Unlike in football and hoops, the top programs won't be able to stash players so nobody else can have them. Over-signing, though, could be a major issue.

And the 30 percent of MLB made up of foreign-born players seems likely to decrease. Not a whole lot of Latin American players on college rosters these days. That demo may get hit pretty hard if the minors are mostly wiped out. Who's going to sign those 16-year-old phenom shortstops from San Pedro De Macoris if there's nowhere for them to go play?

 

Source?

 

So, except for the top 10-15 or so prospects in each team's organization, essentially it will be like the minors before Branch Rickey established a farm system for the Cardinals. The good players sign with the modern-day version of the San Francisco Seals and Baltimore Orioles and then get purchased, like the Yankees did with Joe D, Tony L and others from the Seals and Lefty Grove from the O's.

 

Few of those 11.7 scholarships are full rides too, despite what travel ball coaches say.

 

This system is so ridiculous, it must be driven by the bean counters who have no clue about who makes the MLB roster. Do a survey of the 650 current MLB'ers and see where they came from. Are they all 1st rounders? I doubt even 20% are.

 

Any of these changes have to include roster changes. There are fewer than 10 players eligible for a major league team. You are inventing a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.

 

Typical MLB brain-dead move, let's grow the game by downsizing it.

 

And again I ask: source?

 

The source is: Billionaires don't want to spend money on guys who aren't going to make the majors.

They know they gotta get new players every year. But they don't wanna spend money on the huge majority of players in the minors who will never make it.

 

Meanwhile, announced 2,500 and change at the Masoleum vs the Mariners. Playing at the same time as the Warriors may habeen a factor.

 

Giddiup!