By: Holly Horning & Kurt Snyder
While we still await the call of “Play ball!”, what better way than for us to look at events of the past week and to see which direction the needle has moved.
We have just one choice though as we look at the week starting on Thursday and running through Wednesday. Was the most memorable thing we saw happen worthy of praise, observation or a warning?
Let’s find out…
HOLLY
CONCERN
It is wrong to say or report that MiLB cancelled their season when MLB was the one who told them that they would not give them any of their minor league players to fill the minor league rosters. MLB also went on to tell their prospects that they wouldn’t sanction them to play in any of the independent leagues and would revoke contracts if they did, leaving them nowhere to go.
Power plays, pure and simple, by MLB in their attempt to take over the minor league system and run it – made easier by the pandemic and the resulting no revenue. It is now inevitable that the minor league system will be strong-armed into accepting MLB’s proposal to take over all aspects of MiLB and absorb the entire entity into MLB when their contract expires in September.
Just another way MLB is buying up everything in its path so they may have complete control of everything baseball, reap tremendous profits and do so without caring about the history, quality or need to resuscitate the sport of baseball.
KURT
‘Unprecedented’ is a good and very kind word to use for all that we have experienced in 2020, and baseball has been no exception.
Locally, after having learned that we will indeed have a season, albeit a short one, the Tigers released several surprising names they will be including on their 60-player roster.
Included are many of the players we would select for a Tiger minor league All Star team, and with the latest signing of Spencer Torkelson, you can add one more to that list.
Running down the list, you see all the names, including Mize and Manning and Skubal and Faedo, followed by Greene and even Dingler and Torkelson, just to name a … well, pretty much all of the players we have been anxious to see play in the D.
It’s doubtful they will all see time during this ‘unprecedented’ season, but it is intriguing to know that we should indeed see some of them.
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Holly, might minor league baseball be the Achilles heel of MLB’s antitrust exemption? An independent minor league of teams that sign their own players (not guys under developmental contracts) might field a decent product – especially with so many quality players unsigned in a reduced draft. Properly promoted, it could also be fun to watch.
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Exactly, McWatt. There will be a pool of very good undrafted players and a lot of cities with empty ballparks whose teams have been stolen from them. The time might be right for a truly independent high quality minor league. People in towns across America might get to support teams that are actually trying to win, not just develop players (who are likely to disappear up the ladder in the heat of a pennant race) for the parent club.
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Over the last few months there was a lot of talk about MLB wanting to eliminate around 40 of the 160 minor league teams. Now with no minor league teams this season, next year MLB can spin it that they are increasing the number of teams playing in 2021 by 120 over 2020.
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Holly your making me fear one of my most negative intuition’s. That the Lord’s of baseball have written the future as lost. And are now just sqweezing as much blood out of that metaphorical turnup as possible.
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Am I a bad fan by saying I wish they would just go ahead and proceed with the inevitable strike/lockout/labor war this year? I thought 1994 was the pinnacle of greed and ineptitude – yet I think the word “unprecedented” applies to the current destruction going on within MLB. I have such a bad taste in my mouth right now, I’ve never been less excited about a baseball season.
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