MiLB contraction

[Enjoy Terror]

2 hours ago, jarman86 said:

I don't think janitors is a good comparison as I don't know there are many janitors who have at least a 5-10% chance of being multimillionaires.

Why does the earning potential of a baseball player have anything to do with this? People aren't owed a shot at making money.

[Woody Held]

OZY has an article today where they compare MLB abandoning the MILB small markets to NASCAR leaving the small mostly east coast and Southern Tracks.  The jist  of the article is that it causes your fan base to shrink.   They show a correlation to how cup races were moved to larger venues like Las Vegas from North Wilkesboro , and now 10 years later they are playing to half empty tracks.  They believe the minors are a feeder systems that draw fans to the game and by abandoning these area’s they lose the growth of the game they promote.

https://www.ozy.com/the-new-and-the-next/will-mlb-make-nascars-mistake-in-cutting-off-its-minor-league-roots/253990/

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Enjoy Terror said:

Then the minor league team should be responsible for paying the employees through gate receipts, concessions, and merchandising.

Otherwise the MLB is just propping up a loss. Personally I don't think some of these stadiums can support a team without MLB cash, and that would lead me to believe that the market wouldn't bear a team naturally. If it could, then they could go independent and this conversation isn't necessary.

In the beginning all teams were independent.  They paid for everything.  They were just like Major League teams, but usually in smaller cities.

After a while Major League teams got tired of having to bid for the services of every young player they wanted, and the less well off minor league owners got tired of working their butts off to try to win games and make a profit but failing a good part of the time.  So they came up with a devil's bargain: the MLB team would pay the minor league team a set fee to have any player they wanted, and the minor league team would be guaranteed enough money to pay the bills and they wouldn't even have to go find players.  The Major Leagues also agreed to respect the minor league pennant races and the integrity of the teams, so they wouldn't steal Scranton's cleanup hitter in the middle of the pennant race so he could pinch hit for the Tigers twice a week.

But over the period of roughly 1925-1960 this evolved into the situation we have today, where most of the minors probably can't exist without heavy subsidies from the majors, and no one cares at all about wins and losses and pennant races in the minors.  The whole thing is just a way to sell beer and popcorn and cotton candy to families who don't mind a sort-of baseball game going on in the background.

We now have nearly a century of minor league baseball not mattering, and I don't think you can go back to the old way. Many consecutive generations have grown up knowing minor league baseball isn't really a sport, but just a way to train and funnel a few prospects to a far-away MLB team.  Which is most of why Buffalo and Milwaukee aren't terribly different sized cities, but one's baseball team draws 3 million fans and the other's 500k.

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Enjoy Terror said:

Why does the earning potential of a baseball player have anything to do with this? People aren't owed a shot at making money.

It has a huge impact on the number of people willing to become low-paid minor leaguers.  Like people buying a lottery ticket, minor leaguers think they're going to make $millions.  So they'll play for years for the equivalent of less than minimum wage.  Even if 80-90% of them never even get a cup of coffee in the majors. So there's essentially a limitless supply of players to fill the rosters of minor league teams. Whatever number of minor league teams they settle on they'll never, ever be short of players.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It has a huge impact on the number of people willing to become low-paid minor leaguers.  Like people buying a lottery ticket, minor leaguers think they're going to make $millions.  So they'll play for years for the equivalent of less than minimum wage.  Even if 80-90% of them never even get a cup of coffee in the majors. So there's essentially a limitless supply of players to fill the rosters of minor league teams. Whatever number of minor league teams they settle on they'll never, ever be short of players.

Especially when you add in all the international talent and many of them coming for relatively poor countries. A few years on a MLB minimum salary could keep them set for a majority of their natural life. 

[Enjoy Terror]

25 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It has a huge impact on the number of people willing to become low-paid minor leaguers.  Like people buying a lottery ticket, minor leaguers think they're going to make $millions.  So they'll play for years for the equivalent of less than minimum wage.  Even if 80-90% of them never even get a cup of coffee in the majors. So there's essentially a limitless supply of players to fill the rosters of minor league teams. Whatever number of minor league teams they settle on they'll never, ever be short of players.

I understand that it's a lottery ticket and I agree with what you've said. That doesn't answer the question: "Why does the MLB owe any player the opportunity to purchase that lottery ticket?" 

[jarman86]

1 hour ago, Enjoy Terror said:

I understand that it's a lottery ticket and I agree with what you've said. That doesn't answer the question: "Why does the MLB owe any player the opportunity to purchase that lottery ticket?" 

I guess I didn't phrase it correctly, my point is there aren't many janitors that have a career path that leads to making millions or becoming an executive at the company.  Sure it happens, i.e. the homeless guy Will Smith played was something of a janitor, but the odds are 1 in 500 millionish.  MLB does not owe any player anything, you are correct.  But if you can sign a person for 4-6 years at pennies on the dollar salary to develop and then get 3 more years of a lower salary, before they can go before an arbitor to get a more competitive salary, why would you eliminate that system?  It makes no sense.  

Congress will threaten to take away MLBs monopoly power, which they won't because MLB has too much money going to lobbyists and congressmen.  So Congress will accept status quo or comply with a minor pay increase, but hardly substantial.  Or MLBPA will not support minor leaguers in the past which they show a history of doing and throw them to the curb not fighting for them, even though it could help their own efforts, so since MiLB has no power to unionize really and Congress and MLBPA will sell them out to "keep baseball" in our small towns and have the right of passage to MLB, salaries will remain low.  

[weams]

 

[weams]

 

[Satyr3206]

Funny how you never hear about musicians, artists, etc bitch too much about the money because they love the pursuit.  But since MLB has all the money it's an issue for them.

[weams]

https://apnews.com/1512f5a4cf9a65f16a2641244e0c00fd

[weams]

 

[Frobby]

The MiL season is about 22 weeks long, so:

$500/wk = $11,000 (A/A+)

$600/wk = $13,200 (AA)

$700/wk = $15,400 (AAA)

Apparently the players at extended spring training get paid nothing but meal money until league play begins in June.    So they’re still hurting pretty bad despite the in-season raise from $290/wk to $400.

[weams]

53 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The MiL season is about 22 weeks long, so:

$500/wk = $11,000 (A/A+)

$600/wk = $13,200 (AA)

$700/wk = $15,400 (AAA)

Apparently the players at extended spring training get paid nothing but meal money until league play begins in June.    So they’re still hurting pretty bad despite the in-season raise from $290/wk to $400.

One year the Orioles team hotel served breakfast and dinner complementary to all guests. Players or otherwise. Buffet style.  Sunday through Thursday. Breakfast only on Friday Saturday. Jason Birken ate strictly off the dollar menu those days. 

[Dale]

Has this scenario been discussed:

Maintain 4 full season leagues

Replace short-season A league with a complex based short-season league that begins in March and ends in July. 

Keep rookie ball league as it is as well as the DSL.