Minor League Season Officially Cancelled

[weams]

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-2020-minor-league-season-is-canceled-so-what-happens-next/

 

 

[Enjoy Terror]

I was already under the impression there was not going to be a minor league season. Am I the only one?

[Sanfran327]

I asked this question in another thread, but it will make more sense in this one now.

If this is true and the MiLB season is cancelled, what does that do to our 30 and 60 man rosters for the MLB season? Do we decided to let guys like Rutchman, Mountcastle, and the other top prospects play? ST workouts and intersquad reps won't give them the experience they need to get better. These guys need to play. 

My biggest fear, obviously from a pure baseball perspective, with the pandemic was how this was going to affect our player development. I think the guys at the very top of our talent pool could tread water in MLB without it being a detriment to their development. This is far from ideal, but I think putting those guys on the shelf for a year is worse. 

Someone on here much smarter than me will know what we should do. I'll take my answer off air.

[VaBird1]

7 minutes ago, Sanfran327 said:

I asked this question in another thread, but it will make more sense in this one now.

If this is true and the MiLB season is cancelled, what does that do to our 30 and 60 man rosters for the MLB season? Do we decided to let guys like Rutchman, Mountcastle, and the other top prospects play? ST workouts and intersquad reps won't give them the experience they need to get better. These guys need to play. 

My biggest fear, obviously from a pure baseball perspective, with the pandemic was how this was going to affect our player development. I think the guys at the very top of our talent pool could tread water in MLB without it being a detriment to their development. This is far from ideal, but I think putting those guys on the shelf for a year is worse. 

Someone on here much smarter than me will know what we should do. I'll take my answer off air.

A lot of the people who think in a similar way to Elias and Mejdal believe that you can accomplish just as much training the players without minor league games.  I guess we will find out.  Might not hurt the young guys to hit live pitching that has played AAA or pitched a little in the majors even it is isn't a "real" game.

[Sanfran327]

4 minutes ago, VaBird1 said:

A lot of the people who think in a similar way to Elias and Mejdal believe that you can accomplish just as much training the players without minor league games.  I guess we will find out.  Might not hurt the young guys to hit live pitching that has played AAA or pitched a little in the majors even it is isn't a "real" game.

So the AAA or AAAA guys are the ones that get the most screwed here. Because they can help train and stretch the lower-level guys, but who pushes them? Hopefully there is a plan to do right by some of these guys when we're in a no-win season. Then again, nobody owes them any favors, and pro sports is a meritocracy. 

Any speculation what we would do with our minor leaguers without a MiLB season? Would we just have mixed rosters competing against each other over and over? That's certainly better than intersquad, but not much. And limits exposure by a significant amount. It will be interesting to see what happens.

[scOtt]

1 hour ago, Sanfran327 said:

I asked this question in another thread, but it will make more sense in this one now.

If this is true and the MiLB season is cancelled, what does that do to our 30 and 60 man rosters for the MLB season? Do we decided to let guys like Rutchman, Mountcastle, and the other top prospects play? ST workouts and intersquad reps won't give them the experience they need to get better. These guys need to play. 

My biggest fear, obviously from a pure baseball perspective, with the pandemic was how this was going to affect our player development. I think the guys at the very top of our talent pool could tread water in MLB without it being a detriment to their development. This is far from ideal, but I think putting those guys on the shelf for a year is worse. 

Someone on here much smarter than me will know what we should do. I'll take my answer off air.

Much better than sitting at home on their butts...

[HowAboutThat]

This makes me sad. But more than that, how can you cancel the minor-league season and not cancel major league season as well? They’re both baseball games, There’s not enough difference between the two to justify continuing one while you stop the other.

 

[DrungoHazewood]

8 minutes ago, Philip said:

This makes me sad. But more than that, how can you cancel the minor-league season and not cancel major league season as well? They’re both baseball games, There’s not enough difference between the two to justify continuing one while you stop the other.

MLB gets maybe half of their revenue from gameday sources.  Something like that.  Each team gets over $100M from TV, radio, MLBAM, etc.  Some well over that.

I'm guessing that MiLB gets 90% of their revenue from gameday sources.  Teams like the Tides or Baysox might have little low-power AM stations broadcast their games, and I guess a few dollars from streaming games, but rounding off, if there's no crowd there's no money.

[HowAboutThat]

13 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

MLB gets maybe half of their revenue from gameday sources.  Something like that.  Each team gets over $100M from TV, radio, MLBAM, etc.  Some well over that.

I'm guessing that MiLB gets 90% of their revenue from gameday sources.  Teams like the Tides or Baysox might have little low-power AM stations broadcast their games, and I guess a few dollars from streaming games, but rounding off, if there's no crowd there's no money.

Sounds like you’re saying that because money is to be made, we will play. If money is not to be made, then we won’t play. So safety has little or nothing to do with it.

And yes I know, I should not be surprised…

[Enjoy Terror]

10 minutes ago, Philip said:

So safety has little or nothing to do with it.

If safety had anything to do with it, people would be inside wearing a mask and not playing baseball with each other.

[DrungoHazewood]

7 minutes ago, Philip said:

Sounds like you’re saying that because money is to be made, we will play. If money is not to be made, then we won’t play. So safety has little or nothing to do with it.

And yes I know, I should not be surprised…

The Bundesliga and all kinds of other European soccer leagues have been playing for a month with no major issues.  I don't see how baseball is going to be that different, although the US has different rates of infection in different areas.  I don't think safety is a huge concern, and they'll stop if it starts to be.

And of course money is a huge factor.  Why wouldn't it be?  Baseball is a business, it exists to make money.  This isn't a pickup game at the local park.  MLB is a $10B corporation.  Are you saying you prefer that all of the employees of the Orioles just don't get paid?  I would love for there to be a MiLB season, there's just no point if playing games costs everyone money.  Without paying fans every minor league game is a net loss.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

If safety had anything to do with it, people would be inside wearing a mask and not playing baseball with each other.

Like everything else it's a balance between safety and people making a living.  If MLB can make some money and pay some salaries (not just players) through media contracts while being a relatively low risk to the players, why shouldn't they?

[Legend_Of_Joey]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

This makes me sad. But more than that, how can you cancel the minor-league season and not cancel major league season as well? They’re both baseball games, There’s not enough difference between the two to justify continuing one while you stop the other.

 

Minor League Baseball also has about 4 times as many teams and are more spread out, plus the players generally live with host families. There is a higher risk.

[Frobby]

3 hours ago, Philip said:

Sounds like you’re saying that because money is to be made, we will play. If money is not to be made, then we won’t play. So safety has little or nothing to do with it.

And yes I know, I should not be surprised…

Not true.    More money being made off the games means more money to spend on safety measures.   

[HowAboutThat]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Not true.    More money being made off the games means more money to spend on safety measures.   

Call me skeptical. I think more money being made off the greens means more money being made off the games. The owners will spend as little as they possibly can.

As I get older I understand more and more why Jesus was so frustrated.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Philip