AA Options

[dougdirt]

If Billy is holding his own in AA, then ya bring him up! I don't know when baseball players started to have to stop at a full season at each level before promotion. Doing so gets you to the bigs at age what 23-24 on average?. Where's the Robin Younts' and KG Jrs' cracking the bigs at 18-19 these days? Okay those are Hall of Famers, but I know there are dozens of examples; some hit some don't. How does anyone play 20 seasons any longer when they don't make the majors till age 23 or 24? Billy could certainly out produce Willie Harris, and most likely Drew Stubbs the way he's swinging the last 9 months.

Elite players push their way to the Majors quickly still. Bryce Harper is going to debut this year and he isn't going to be 20. Only the elite ever played 20 seasons.

I am imaging that you have never actually seen Billy Hamilton play before. If you had, there is no way that you believe he would outplay Harris or Stubbs at this point in his career. There is not a chance.

Most guys stop at each level, but not all of them. Some guys go from rookie ball to A+. Some guys start out in A ball the year they are drafted. A handful of guys have skipped from Low A to AA (Cozart being one example).

But, the biggest reason I think we see guys making stops at every level these days is simple.... money. There is more incentive now to take your time developing these guys than to rush them because they are getting paid more and leaving when they get the chance. A guy gets up at 20, he is gone before his prime. Move a guy a tad bit slower and he gets up at 23 and he is better prepared (most likely) to step in on day one and you get him through his prime at a cost controlled price before he walks into free agency.

Also, baseball is the toughest sport around. That is why you don't see guys jumping straight to the pros from high school or college like other sports. And every single year, the professionals get even better. These guys are better athletes than ever before and the amount of detail they can get with scouting reports and simulation (pitching machines that have video projections of the pitchers wind ups but then throw their pitches with similar movement at the same speeds) make these guys more prepared than ever as well. This isn't your fathers baseball. There is more to take on than ever before to be a successful Major League player and I think the gap is wide from the minors to the Majors than ever before because of the technology that you get in the Majors compared to the minors that didn't used to be there.

[powersackers]

Elite players push their way to the Majors quickly still. Bryce Harper is going to debut this year and he isn't going to be 20. Only the elite ever played 20 seasons.

I am imaging that you have never actually seen Billy Hamilton play before. If you had, there is no way that you believe he would outplay Harris or Stubbs at this point in his career. There is not a chance.

Most guys stop at each level, but not all of them. Some guys go from rookie ball to A+. Some guys start out in A ball the year they are drafted. A handful of guys have skipped from Low A to AA (Cozart being one example).

But, the biggest reason I think we see guys making stops at every level these days is simple.... money. There is more incentive now to take your time developing these guys than to rush them because they are getting paid more and leaving when they get the chance. A guy gets up at 20, he is gone before his prime. Move a guy a tad bit slower and he gets up at 23 and he is better prepared (most likely) to step in on day one and you get him through his prime at a cost controlled price before he walks into free agency.

Also, baseball is the toughest sport around. That is why you don't see guys jumping straight to the pros from high school or college like other sports. And every single year, the professionals get even better. These guys are better athletes than ever before and the amount of detail they can get with scouting reports and simulation (pitching machines that have video projections of the pitchers wind ups but then throw their pitches with similar movement at the same speeds) make these guys more prepared than ever as well. This isn't your fathers baseball. There is more to take on than ever before to be a successful Major League player and I think the gap is wide from the minors to the Majors than ever before because of the technology that you get in the Majors compared to the minors that didn't used to be there.

Thanks for the detailed response. I was at 5/3 to see Hamilton play the final week of the season and playoffs last year. He looked good to me then, but that's an ultra small sample. I just got my partial season tickets to Dayton so I can watch some of this years group for 17 games.

[lollipopcurve]

A handful of guys have skipped from Low A to AA (Cozart being one example).

I believe Cozart did 2 years in Dayton, thus their willingness to send him to AA from there. (He also doubled up in AAA.)

[Sea Ray]

Elite players push their way to the Majors quickly still. Bryce Harper is going to debut this year and he isn't going to be 20. Only the elite ever played 20 seasons.

Yeah, the elite and Jamie Moyer...

Also, baseball is the toughest sport around. That is why you don't see guys jumping straight to the pros from high school or college like other sports. And every single year, the professionals get even better.

I think this is a great point and one I don't think is mentioned enough. How tough of a sport is basketball when you have high school kids playing at a superstar level in the NBA?

Look at Deion Sanders. He worked 6 days a week to perfect his craft at baseball but he could hop off of a helicopter on Sundays and play Hall of Fame level CB.

Baseball is a very, very difficult sport to play and master and I tell my 12 yr olds that often as I coach them. Between the wild pitchers and the amateur umpires, I tell them that if they're lucky, they'll get one hittable pitch per AB. Baseball really is a rough sport

[dougdirt]

I believe Cozart did 2 years in Dayton, thus their willingness to send him to AA from there. (He also doubled up in AAA.)

He did double up in Dayton, but it wasn't like a normal double up. He went there after the draft and got his brains beat in. Then returned there his first full season and hit better.

[RedlegJake]

I think its a mirage if sorts that players spend longer in the minors. It may seem that way when you think of the super players but go back in time and see how old many guys were when they broke in - with the exception of bonus babies in the late 50s and early 60s who had to kept, most guys didn't hit the majors until their early-mid twenties. From the inception of the farm system in the early twenties/late teens to now its been that way. In fact - its probably better than it was in the thirties and forties because they added Rule 5 and minor league service rules to protect players from the habit of teams stashing guys forever. Some really, really good players never got a chance until they were almost too old because they were blocked and their team had no incentive to trade them or move the player blocking them. The Reds own star Frank McCormick was in his late twenties when the Reds finally gave him a chance. Pitcher Larry Jansen had a sterling minor league record winning 20+ a couple times and yet never got a shot until too late. SO, its pretty much a perception myth that players are older now when they hit the ML.