Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I have been closely following the news about MLB's plan to eliminate 42 minor league teams. I work for the Chattanooga Lookouts during the season as an usher, one of the teams on MLB's list of teams that could lose affiliation with a parent club under a new contract. Today a friend sent me this article
https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2020/1/31/21117245/minor-league-pay-stagnant-dick-allen-paycheck-1960

They are paying minor leaguers so little, yet they still want to cut expenses even more by killing small town baseball.

I feel your pain. I go to about 75 minor league games a year here in Northern California. There are four affiliated teams (1 triple A and 3 class A advanced) and about 6 independent minor league teams within easy driving distance. There are several other affiliated and independent teams if you want to drive 2 to 3 hours. But you know I looked at the California League schedule (class A advanced) and all 8 teams from last year are on the schedule. They were supposed to lose the Lancaster franchise and Fresno was supposed to go from AAA (Pacific Coast League) to Class A advanced in the California League. I agree about the low pay in the minors.The Majors need to step up and provide more support and pay these kids a little more. If you think it’s tough for these kids in Tennessee try that same pay here in the Bay Area where the median price of a home is 6 to 12 times what it is in Tennessee and the rents are accordingly higher. Hell I’d gladly pay $2 more a ticket if the cheap ass Major Leagues will kick in some money but if they wont, screw em. They could cut costs by not paying mediocre players 10 million bucks or 20 mil plus for guy who can barely throw 5 innings every 5 or 6 days. IMHO

Cutting 42 teams doesn't make sense for many reasons.

1) Financially, baseball is doing fine right now.

2) Minor league baseball is one of the best strategies for getting kids to become avid baseball fans.

3) There has been a serious drop off (something like 27%) in youth/high school football athlete participation due to parents being concerned about concussions etc. ---so there will be a significant influx of quality athletes migrating to other sports, especially baseball, so there will be more athletes pursuing baseball careers, limiting those possibilities is counter productive.

I agree wholeheartedly with #2 and #3. MLB's problems, among others, is the games and the season are too long, and too many teams spend too long a fraction of the season not in the playoff hunt.

MiLB is a great family experience, is rooted deeply in communities, and is cost effective. We lived in Colorado Springs and I despised the Rockies, but loved walking down the street in our neighborhood to watch the AAA affiliate SkySox. Was always fun and a cost effective way to spend time watching pure baseball, lots of activities, etc.

blineimages wrote:Cutting 42 teams doesn't make sense for many reasons.

1) Financially, baseball is doing fine right now.

2) Minor league baseball is one of the best strategies for getting kids to become avid baseball fans.

3) There has been a serious drop off (something like 27%) in youth/high school football athlete participation due to parents being concerned about concussions etc. ---so there will be a significant influx of quality athletes migrating to other sports, especially baseball, so there will be more athletes pursuing baseball careers, limiting those possibilities is counter productive.

My thought for a long time has been to shorten the regular season, but expand the post season using a round robin double elimination tournament. Allow stats to accumulate and work the schedule to approximate the 162 game standard.

DE tourney allows for the occasional short series wonders to be smoked out, and sustained excellence to be rewarded. But it still creates excitement for a longer period and for more people.

So the regular season is about seeding for the tourney. Then the playoffs/tourney begin the long road to the World Series.

I know purists--not ideal--but the reality is it is in decline. It sucks to be an Oriole fan for instance.
There have been much more revolutionary changes--
expansion, DH, 162 game schedule, mound height, strike zone, fence distance, replay, etc. We shouldn't be naive enough to think that what we have now in its present state is the culmination of perfection.

I'm usually pretty conservative about change for change's sake, but when data drives other decisions, it is time to decide.