Minor league baseball is the levels of baseball under the MLB. The teams are linked to a professional team in hopes to continue to build and find better players. There are thousands of minor league ballplayers, with every MLB team typically having at least three minor league teams. I find this unique because other sports and leagues such as the NFL and NBA don’t have “minor league” teams.
Minor league baseball players are known for making very little money. In fact, according to Baseball-fever.com, and online forum with threads on minor league baseball, minor league players are typically paid around $1100 per month. However, they are not paid in the offseason. This forces most of them to find a part-time job to survive. Also, when they are with the club they only get one free meal a day. Players typically live in hotel and split that cost by living with another player.
First, I didn’t know how I felt about the small amount of pay and small amount of benefits. After all, it is the minor leagues and they don’t produce much revenue. Also, they have their shot at making decent money with the Triple A squads or even making bank with the Major League team. I feel bad for the players who come from a tough financial background and probably don’t last long in the minors.
Another way to look at it is from a college kid’s perspective. Many minor league players are young. In fact, according to allexperts.com, where people ask questions and then a baseball expert answers them, the average age is 19 to 23 years old and kids as young as 15 can try out for major and minor league teams. This is the age when several people attend college and have to pay for high tuition costs, probably even taking out loans. These young players may have to try and do the same thing at this point in their lives.
The money paid to players comes mostly from the major league teams’ revenue. Minor league baseball has their own baseball fields, uniforms, and equipment to pay for. However, their revenue is fairly small as it is tough to draw large crowds to these games. According to Dave Berry’s blog on herald.com, it is typically to have discounts if you show up in a group of eight to the games. Dave also said, “Sometimes silly and corny is more fun than watching a bunch of over-paid prima-donnas out on the field,” referring to the minor leagues compared to the MLB and its players.
How do the minors work? There are four classes of minor league baseball: Rookie ball, Class A, Double-A, and Triple-A. The baseball talent increases up to the highest league which is Triple-A. With the exception of a few freak athletes, the majority of professional players play at least one season of minor league baseball. They may also play there for a few weeks to “get their swing back” or recover from injury. The minors allow for MLB teams to build their top prospects and even call-up thriving players come playoff time. Also, all Major league umpires get their start in minors. These are all positive things that minor leagues bring, but would be able to still work with only half the teams and players.
In my opinion, the Double-A and Triple-A leagues should stick around. They are the top two levels of baseball that can produce the best players and put on the best show for fans. Also, the MLB draft should less than 52 rounds. Most draft picks don’t sign anyways so there is no point. They should have less than 10 rounds making it much easier to sign players. These players would then go straight to Double-A. The others who were not drafted will have to wait until next year or the next tryouts. I don’t feel like we would lose any great players from this. If a player is going to be great in the big leagues, they will find a way to make a roster even without Rookie ball or Class-A. This would also allow for increasing the minor league players’ salary.
