(10-18-2019 08:16 PM)Jjoey52 Wrote:  

(10-18-2019 06:40 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Interesting article today in Baseball America about MLB's proposal to reform minor league baseball. The essence is that MLB wants substantial changes, including a reduction in the number of minor league clubs, in order to reduce the money MLB teams spend on the minors, and to then use some of that savings to increase the pay of minor league ballplayers.

The BA article is definitely biased toward a minor league "OMG they want to destroy MiLB" point of view, and they disclose that some of BA's owners own minor league teams. Still, a lot of very good information.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/...gue-teams/

Very interesting. I like the geographic based idea for leagues as it would cut expenses and make life a bit easier for players. Not all of MLB’s ideas are gonna fly, but some will.

MLB has leverage. MiLB teams only have players if an affiliated major league team supplies them, and right now MLB pays all the players and coaches in the minors. MLB could easily stop supplying players and coaches to 25% of MiLB teams, because so few players ever make it from low-A or even single-A to the majors. There's too much travel in a lot of minor leagues, and from a MLB perspective it's absurd that every few years there are at least a couple of MLB clubs that are stuck with a AAA and/or AA affiliate that is thousands of miles from the parent club.

The only question is whether MLB is going to use its leverage, or whether they will back down from 90% of their proposal.