It just seems like a relic of the past. Baseball was an every man's game that had teams in every town and city and it continues to perpetuate for no particularly good reason.
Just look at all the new, modern minor league stadiums. It's a staple in some of these towns. Entertainment for the locals and a training ground for the major leagues. A small percentage make it to the majors, but look at all the ancillary positives that exist.
I obviously like baseball as well as minor league baseball. I see the benefits of a new minor league stadium (e.g. Fayetteville). That being said if the best justification we have for such a large organized minor league system is ancillary benefits such as local entertainment option and/or extra training for a large number of players who won't make the majors then maybe its not entirely necessary. I don't have the numbers the percentage of minor leaguers (coming in at any level) making the majors has to be less than 20% if not significantly lower. You'd think they could come up with a better system that doesn't have such a high failure rate. Just a thought exercise. I was saying that small towns having minor league baseball teams seems to be a relic of an era (late 1800's/early 1900's) when baseball was the only major sport and/or entertainment option in small towns. There are so many more options for both sports and other entertainment options today. In my opinion, there's no particularly good reason that ML baseball needs to support minor league ball in so many small towns. They could get by with many fewer levels of minor league baseball, say 4 instead of 7-8. And the towns would adjust, following college sports or some completely other form of entertainment. Then you wouldn't have so many guys entering professional baseball who are never going to make the majors. It was a bunch of scattered thoughts i had, but some of it made sense to me.
Why is it seemingly important to you? Why do you care? How does it negatively impact anything? We have tons of folks singing in local bars that are never going to make a career out of it. Tons of folks in community theatre that will never sniff broadway or even a local TV ad. Thousands of app writers who will never make a living doing it.
Those systems aren't created and paid for by the top level of those professions. Local communities are negatively impacted by paying for stadiums that are often bad investments.
You sure about that? Even if minor league stadiums are partially paid for by community bonds (I don't think very many of them are), those are voter decisions and investments in the community. If it's a bad investment (I don't think very many of them are) that's on the voters/politicians, not big league orgs. Minor league stadiums aren't like big league stadiums. They're not billion dollar single purpose behemoths. They're more versatile and in many cases the minor league team is the primary form of entertainment for the community. Living in Austin, I can tell you that Dell Diamond and the Express have been an absolute boon for Round Rock. The 40 round draft and multiple minor league levels serve many worthwhile purposes: Allow proper development to deliver big league players who not only play at the highest level but also are prepared for the life of a pro athlete. Allow many players to experience professional baseball, which increases interest in the game. Many of us likely know someone who was drafted and never made it, and I doubt those players regret giving it a shot. A form of wholesome, inexpensive family friendly entertainment for small communities. Increase competition so that players truly earn their way to the majors and that the absolute best players make it. Allow lesser know prospects who do have the talent but not the recognition to have their fair shot. The only thing you need to know to justify the existence of MiLB is that there are HUNDREDS of unaffiliated and semi-pro teams out there, and they seem to operate just fine. So even if for some idiotic reason the MLB did away with most of their minor league teams (and it would be idiotic), the demand for baseball would just create unaffiliated teams to replace them.
Here's a piece on the Buies Creek Astros. Since they're not going to be there long, they're taking a rather minimalist apporach in terms of the in-game atmosphere. The piece goes in-depth on how GM David Lane (who is also Greeneville's GM and I'm assuming he might be taking over once Buies Creek officially moves to Fayetteville) is trying to build awareness in the community for the new team.
David Paulino allowed 3 runs on 3 hits (2-run and solo homers), walked 2, and struck out 6 in 6 innings for Fresno. A.J. Reed hit a walk-off 2-run homer (5) to give the Grizzlies the 6-5 win.
Jorge Alcala was just promoted to Buies Creek. Here were his numbers with Quad Cities: 6 appearances (4 starts), 2-0, 2.03 ERA, 31 IP, 16 H (3 HR allowed), 7 ER, 12 BB, 35 K, 0.90 WHIP, .155 opponent average
Perez getting some love from scouting the stat line. Good K%-BB% and better homer run rate (0 per whatever). Granted, he gives up a homer, and it will tie his career high. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/katohs-most-improved-pitching-prospects-so-far-2/ Franklin Perez, RHP, Houston (Profile) Preseason KATOH+ Projection: 6.6 Current KATOH+ Projection: 7.9 Perez has yet to allow a run in 14.1 innings in High-A and has whiffed 29% of batters. The 19-year-old was almost as dominant in Low-A last season. As a teenager who’s dominated A-Ball hitters for over a year, Perez appears to have a bright future ahead of him.
Minor league stadiums aren't nearly as big, but their communities are often so much smaller, so it is still a significant investment. I live 15 minutes from the location of the Macon Braves (who've since moved to Rome, GA). There have been 2 teams since from small independent leagues, but nothing has lasted. There has been a push to get minor league baseball back, but reality is it is a bad investment for Macon, as much as I'd selfishly love it. http://businessjournalism.org/2015/08/sports-and-money-the-economics-of-minor-league-baseball/ Yes, they would. And why is that a bad thing? MLB doesn't want it to happen because they don't want any emerging competition. If MLB didn't control the minor leagues, how would the salary structure change?
MLB doesn't control minor league baseball. Like I said, there are 100s of independent minor league teams. There's nothing preventing any minor leaguer from moving over to an independent league team and collecting whatever salary they offer. MLB doesn't have a monopoly on baseball. It would be a bad thing to collapse the MiLB system because it would make the path from the minors to the majors less efficient.
MLB has a monopoly on baseball, whether you realize it or not. If the minor league didn't exist thousands of players would end up in other leagues.
There's clearly money in minor league baseball even without MLB affiliation. The Atlantic League in which the Skeeters play have new, and expensive ballparks north of 30 million dollars.
