Evolving Role of Indy and Collegiate Wood Bat Summer Ball

[blingboy]

MiLB restructuring (and other evolutions in the role and relationship between MLB organizations and Affiliates) seems to be bringing Indy and Wood Bat Summer Leagues into the prospect development loop. So this seems a legit topic for a thread. If there is one already I did not find it. Since I have enjoyed a good bit of INDY and Collegiate Summer League ball over the years I will likely post thoughts and musings about it, and do not want to clog other threads or bore uninterested forum participants.

[blingboy]

The 2020 Prospect League (College Wood Bat) season was cancelled, but was supposed to see the Team in Hannibal move to O’Fallon where the Frontier League (Indy) Rascals had been, due to extensive flood damage to the ballpark in Hannibal. I have not been able to discover if that move is still on for 2021.

[gscottar]

Well we do have a “restructuring milb thread” on page 2 that this topic may or may not fall under.

[Brian Walton]

I am fine if you all want to break this out. I do think indy ball is very different from wood bat leagues since the former are professionals (being paid). But MLB’s “One Baseball” vision has them leading them all. (Note my choice of words, “leading” rather than “paying for”.)

[blingboy]

My thought was that the restructuring thread was more about affiliates.

I have to say I am excited about possibly being able to see a few prospects early in the development pipeline of MLB organizations closer to STL than in the past. I figure the more teams in the area, the better the chances a prospect will land there. But it is fluid so who knows.

[Ratsbuddy]

Does this include the Ohio Valley League? Its a league of about ten teams here around the Midwest where college players complete from late May thru late July. And it is a wooden bat league.

A couple of years ago there was a guy hitting about .385 for the local team, the Dubois County Bombers. His name was Nick Gonzalez. He looked pretty good to me. I believe he was drafted or signed by the Seattle Mariners.

r/Esteemed Rat

[blingboy]

I guess it all depends on how an MLB org would go about placing a paid (minimally as is the case now) low level prospect in a league where nobody else is getting paid. It seems like each Summer Wood Bat league will have to figure out its own policy. Placing a paid prospect in a professional ball Indy League would be more straightforward I think.

[Brian Walton]

The new MLB Draft League, which includes State College, is expected to play a 68-game schedule from late-May until mid-August.

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