Dirtbags Baseball - Long Beach State 49ers

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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Minor League Realignment Moves Forward...Slowly

Realignment = Shrinkage.

As I posted here, Major League Baseball has a pending proposal to realign the minor leagues, eliminating the Rookie level Gulf Coast and Arizona Leagues, and converting the Pioneer League - a Rookie league with teams not owned by MLB franchises - to Short Season A ball. As Baseball America reports today, the proposal is moving forward, though a vote by owners has been postponed. MLB general managers did vote today...23-7 in favor of the change. As BA points out:

Sources said organizations that already draft more college players, such as the Athletics, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Rangers, generally are in favor of the changes. Organizations that favor a more traditional approach to player development, such as the Braves, Cubs and Twins, are among the seven organizations that voted against the proposal.

Read: "Traditional approach" as teams that emphasize drafting high school players.

"There's a club called the Atlanta Braves," Cubs scouting director John Stockstill said, "that added scouts in the 1980s, focused on player development and was patient in rebuilding the major league team. It took them five or six years, but now they are on the verge of winning a division for the 14th straight time. The other 29 clubs need to buy into the model the Braves have shown can work, not try to pull the Braves and the clubs like them down."

I've read a couple of baseball books in the last few months that really put this tug-of-war in focus: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, and Scouts Honor: The Bravest Way to Build a Winning Ballteam by Bill Shanks. As many reading this know, Moneyball focuses on the Oakland A's, drafting college players and sabermetrics; while Scout's Honor focuses on the Atlanta Braves, drafting high school players, and emphasizing "tools" and especially "makeup." If you like baseball books, both are worth the time to read.

From the GM's vote, it sure looks like the "Moneyballers" are winning the struggle for primacy in MLB. If that holds true with the owners, and the proposal passes, you can add a 4th likely result of the change to the three I previously listed: more high school players are likely to opt for college ball - either by choice or because the ratio of college to high school players drafted will shift to collegians.

posted on 8/23/2005 by Jeff Agnew

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