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Saber rattling at its finest. It seems to have already worked.
Let me know when they get a bill through both houses of Congress that tells MLB teams that Congress is in control of what they can do with their minor league teams.
Has Cardinal ownership and/or front office made any public comments about this issue or are all of the teams letting Manfred’s office handle the PR for now? I would think that if this issue becomes close to becoming reality (which I doubt) and if State College and Johnson City actually were about to be removed as an affiliate the Cardinals would have to make some kind of comment right?
As far as I know, no teams have commented, though Mike Shildt did. I do plan to ask Bill DeWitt next month if he hasn’t remarked in the interim. I do not have high expectations, though. Many do not understand this is not Manfred’s idea. The teams may or may not like how he is handling negotiations, but I would be surprised if any team breaks rank since they reportedly supported the contraction plan, 30-0. I imagine when asked that BDW will express regret over the towns’ losses, but play up the Dream League, and explain that the cuts have the players’ welfare in mind, etc… Same talking points as Manfred, without the threat to start their own minor leagues.
Just one of the 42 stories, but a historic one.
MLB picked the wrong fight here https://t.co/doRTcU4uLj
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) December 25, 2019
Interesting strategy. MLB offers to shift a full-season team to the district of one of the sponsors of the Congressional committee established to fight their contraction plan.
Latest on fate of Lowell Spinners: From source, MLB eyeing keeping an affiliated full-season Single-A team in Lowell — but not necessarily a Red Sox affiliate.
US Rep. Lori Trahan not wild about any team that's not a Red Sox team.
More:https://t.co/ZyXKQFy6WM— Michael Silverman (@MikeSilvermanBB) January 8, 2020
Random thought: Luhnow reportedly championed the minor league contraction proposal, though all 30 teams are said to have agreed. Could his firing hurt the plan's momentum – or is this now Manfred's battle to win or lose?
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) January 13, 2020
The Chairman of the #STLCards explained his take on MLB’s plan to remove affiliation from 42 minor league teams, including two from his own organization. (free) https://t.co/ITkPRsMqG1 pic.twitter.com/Pyb9iJGlcn
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) January 21, 2020
Sure does sound like ownership is in bed with MLB and, Brian, your comments are spot on. They are trying to use the facilities as their reasoning for cutting 42 minor league teams. Any serious fan knows full well that major league baseball is fully capable of increasing minor league pay by a large margin without killing the goose laying the golden egg. Time will tell but MLB never addresses the large number of fans that will be placed out of range of a ballpark offering minor league games. Sad situation and distracting to the game overall.
“If” this goes through it would seem much more logical from a team and player standpoint to do this over 2 years. In the Cardinal’s case, eliminate one of their short season teams one year and the second the next year. That way you are only weeding out 30 players per year for 2 years instead of 60 players over one year.
Logical is not what this proposal seems to be about. The quality of play at Class-A is going to drop if the new world comes to pass. What was a huge jump from the GCL to Class-A will be the only way. The draft will be reduced. I predict more of the 42 teams will fold than will be able to pay for their own players and coaches in the Dream League on top of the expenses they cover today. That is just a way for MLB to push off shutting down teams on the local owners, not themselves. A lot will change in a hurry…
Like was pointed out to me recently, we should let the MLB owners do what they want and not complain about it. Too much whining around here right?
People are always surprised that when wages are increased, demand for labor goes down. Econ 101.
The owners know where the stuff with MiLB is headed, and they are bring proactive (or possibly just flexing in advance of negotiations). This is how the real world works. I don’t like it any more than the next guy, but at least guys won’t have to chase their dreams in poverty, they can give up on them and get careers.
I don’t believe that MLB owners actually own these minor league clubs. They just provide the players. DeWitt seems to be saying that the actual owners of these minor league teams are responsible for everything else, and some of them are not doing everything that they should be doing. I would be willing to bet that the remaining minor league players will be much better taken care of after this over, whether out of sense of dignity or out of fear of the ongoing litigation.
I know the MLB owners don’t own all of the milb teams, but in all reality, if the MLB owners transfer the responsibility of paying the players to the milb owners that will be a burden that some of them won’t be able to handle, therefore the MLB owners have a lot of power in this situation.
As a side note I think the St. Louis Cardinals own the team in Springfield correct?
The Cardinals own Springfield, Palm Beach and the complex teams in the GCL and DSL. None of those teams and leagues are involved in the contraction moves. Across MLB, the 42 teams to be contracted are not owned by the parent organizations.
So has a definitive decision been made or are they still discussing the idea. I am guessing the minor league teams have not been officially notified since I haven’t heard of any law suits being filed.
It seems if this isnt final before the end of the season these abandoned affiliates are going to have too short of window to organize themselves into independent leagues. It may take several months just to sort out what teams will want to participate and what teams wont want to go forward under these conditions.
Dewitt mentioned attendance being a reason for contraction, but the Appy League and NY-Penn outdraw the FSL in attendance. In fact FSL games barely average 1000 people if that.
The finality will be in the new operating agreement between minor league baseball and MLB. The current one runs through this season. A part of that agreement stipulates how many minor league teams will be supported by MLB. I would imagine that until that agreement is signed, anything could change.
MLB issues a statement that MiLB is not cooperating. One minor league owner, Jeff Goldklang, fires missiles back. You can read his feed if you are interested in all of it.
Most frustrating part of this process is MLB's willingness to blatantly lie at every turn. This complete statement is, for lack of a better term, utter bullshit. MiLB has consistently attempted a "constructive and solutions-oriented" approach, only to be told "120!" at every turn
— Jeff Goldklang (@JeffGoldklang) January 28, 2020
Good to see a lot of grownups in the room there.
He’s a liar.
No, he’s the liar.
Let’s just get the government to fix this for us.
The government is always a big help. This should go really well.
Sure sounds like the trust between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball is at an all-time low. pic.twitter.com/MPIYUda1Iw
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) January 29, 2020
This is a cleaner version of the letter from MiLB to MLB (three pages).
MiLB has sent a letter to Rob Manfred. pic.twitter.com/bllD1WRHQW
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) January 29, 2020
It is four pages long and to me it seems that the facilities issue is a smokescreen. Naturally it all comes down to $$ and the bottom line. I believe that closing down the SS teams lacks foresight. Baseball needs as much exposure as possible. This proposal would mean even more empty baseball fields and that is a plague that is hurting the game itself and eventually hurt MLB talent-wise and down the road pocket-wise.
This proposal would mean even more empty baseball fields and that is a plague that is hurting the game itself and eventually hurt MLB talent-wise and down the road pocket-wise.
It already has hurt the game. How many of the best athletes in the US play baseball now as opposed to other sports like football or basketball? How many average Americans could pick Mike Trout or Christian Yelich or Mookie Betts out from a photo? I think the game is doing itself a great disservice by cutting off its nose to save a few bucks now, to spite its face ten or twenty years down the road.
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