No major surprises, although I didn’t expect Adcock to get cut this soon. Ferrell, Castro, Dawson, Dennis, Figueroa, Billingsly, Pavlica, Reese, and Martinez were all late round picks; I personally liked what I saw from Dennis (versatile, rarely struck out). Juan Ramirez was part of the return for Verlander. Still 252 players in the Org by my count. Will probably add 10-20 more between now and then. Lots more cuts before next opening day if they only intend to field 5 farm teams.
Good question. I think so, with teams able to have players listed as “reassigned” for some limited period of time. But I am far from certain on that. Regardless, it’s very possible that under the new reduced model, orgs will have a glut of players in their complexes (I.e. AZL and GCL) that are waiting on assignments; it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did away with roster limits for those leagues.
Astros are one of the teams that has announced they will be paying their minor leaguers through the season.
Yep. The fact that there is so much inconsistency in what each team is doing right now (as opposed to the NBA or NFL teams) is a huge reason why baseball finances are preventing a resolution.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/06/mlb-rumors-expanded-arizona-fall-league-florida.html This would be awesome (although of course not as good as a normal minor league season). Makes for fun conversation: who would be on your 26 man Astros AFL (or more likely FFL) roster? Here’s mine (assumes the big league 40 man roster is off limits): C: Korey Lee, Nathan Perry IF: JJ Matijevic, Jeremy Pena, Freudis Nova, Grae Kessinger, Colton Shaver, Luis Santana OF: Jordan Brewer, Ronnie Dawson, Ross Adolph, Bryan De La Cruz, Chas McCormick SP: Forrest Whitley, Brandon Bielak, Tyler Ivey, Luis Garcia, Hunter Brown, Jairo Solis, Peter Solomon, Brett Conine RP: Shawn Dubin, Cody Deason, JA Rivera, Blair Henley, Brandon Bailey Taxi squad: Colin Barber, Joe Perez, Ryan Gusto, Angel Macuare
Proposal to accommodate teams’ desire to lower farm costs while continuing to promote the game thru more players having big league affiliation: -A single 50 round draft for all amateurs (including international players). All players under age 26 as of opening day must enter the league via the draft. Players over 26 are free agents. -Each Org has 4 minor league rosters: AAA, AA, A, and a complex (e.g. GCL) league team. A, AA, and AAA have 35 man roster limits; the complex league roster has a 50 man limit. Roster Limits include injured, suspended, and inactive players. - Players drafted in the top 10 rounds are given slot bonuses (no bonus manipulation). -Players drafted in rounds 11-50 who choose to sign are given a maximum bonus of $125k. Teams are allowed to have those players come to their complex for a 2 week tryout after the draft prior to making offers. -Disbanded minor league teams could form an independent league that could have a loose affiliation with MiLb that gives them first crack at released players and players that aren’t signed after being drafted. This league would be responsible for fully covering their own costs. The expectation would be that teams would still be drafting 50 guys, so the pipeline of guys who got a shot would still be there, but teams would really only expect to sign 20-25 each year (keep in mind, this would now include all the international guys, so the total number of players would be significantly lower).
Simple proposal: Teams get a pool of money to sign amateur players. Teams sign whichever player they want that is willing to sign with them. MLB organization can have as many players/teams as they want provided every player is paid a living wage.
So basically applying the current international signing structure to all amateurs, then adding a minimum salary to active minor leaguers? Works for me but I do think there’s valid arguments that it would be really bad for competitive balance, as the very best players could demand a crummy teams entire pool with leverage of being able to sign elsewhere for a still significant sum. And since the best players usually come from the top of the pool, you’d quickly see things get very out of balance.
You could balance it by altering pool money so that the worst teams and the smallest markets get more. I think it would make it easier to keep the league balanced because you would just need to quantify the difference. I like this idea, because it gives teams a ton of room to be creative.
Pools would be based on standings like the draft. If player wants to go to a specific team based on something besides highest offer, he's going to have to take less money than the highest offer. Considering the rate of busts in the majors, most amateurs would take the most money...though it would allow a player to pick an organization he wants in issues of money being close or a strong preference for something besides money. For instance, if there was an organization that was known to treat young players poorly, a player could decide to sign elsewhere even if for less money. It allows : 1) more player choice 2) helps teams that are better at identifying talent 3) Punishes teams that are a#$holes 4) Punishes teams that don't develop talent well.
History shows that brand value would override #2-4. You’d see a lot of guys taking less to sign with the Dodgers and Yankees while demanding more to sign with teams like the Rays. Very likely it would damage competitive balance. An ordered draft is the only way to ensure the teams with less talent/resources are able to acquire the best amateur talent. I could see maybe a 5 round ordered draft with set bonus amounts, then each team gets a pool they can use to sign any players not taken in the 5 rounds. That gives the vast majority of players the benefits you described, while still ensuring the top level of talent is distributed in a way the helps competition.
History has shown that #1 overrides brand value leading to #2 through #4 occurring. Dodgers and Yankees biggest advantage in free agency is money. Plus like the draft has extra slot money for low budget teams through extra picks, the low budget teams would have more money. The teams like the Rays would be the ones that could throw money around like the Yankees and Dodgers do in free agency. All the draft does is create shenanigans and gives teams more control than they should have.
Quick reaction updated post-draft prospect list: Grade 60: 1. RHP Forrest Whitley Grade 50: 2. 3B Abraham Toro 3. RHP Jose Urquidy Grade 45+: 4. OF Colin Barber 5. RHP Bryan Abreu 6. C Korey Lee 7. SS Freudis Nova 8. SS Jeremy Pena 9. RHP Alex Santos 10. RHP Hunter Brown 11. RHP Cristian Javier 12. RHP Jairo Solis Grade 45: 13. SS Grae Kessinger 14. RHP Tyler Ivey 15. OF Jordan Brewer 16. RHP Ty Brown 17. RHP Enoli Paredes 18. RHP Jojanse Torres 19. SS Dauri Lorenzo 20. RHP Luis Garcia 21. RHP Jose Alberto Rivera 22. RHP Brandon Bielak 23. C Garrett Stubbs Grade 40+: 24. OF Ronnie Dawson 25. 2B Luis Santana 26. LHP Blake Taylor 27. RHP Shawn Dubin 28. RHP Jairo Lopez 29. 1B Taylor Jones 30. 1B JJ Matijevic Other grade 40+ (no order): C Nathan Perry 3B Joe Perez LHP Kent Emanuel RHP Riley Ferrell RHP Nivaldo Rodriguez RHP Brett Conine RHP Blair Henley OF Chas McCormick RHP Angel Macuare RHP Peter Solomon OF Bryan De La Cruz OF Zach Daniels C Juan Santander
OF James Nix was released last week. He was a late round pick last year but an overslot signee who I felt had some potential. I’ve been unable to find a complete list of transactions since the beginning of the month so not sure if Nix was the only one released since the big group was released a couple of weeks ago or if there were others.
Reviewed milb.com today, and it looks like in addition to Nix, 2 others have been released that I hadn’t heard of yet. 2018 28th rounder RHP Joey Gonzalez was released along with intl signee RHP Luis De Paula.
I do not like how pitching-heavy the Astros "prospects" are at the moment with Toro the only hitting "prospect" MLB-ready. Here's to hoping for a couple guys going crazy next year.
... like Toro did last year? Hopefully there will be at least some minor league games this year, even if it is only complex leagues.
