Effectively Wild Episode 1628: What MLB’s Remaking of the Minors Means

by
December 11, 2020

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about and the Phillies’ surprise hiring of Dave Dombrowski as their president of baseball operations, then (15:04) bring on Baseball America executive editor J.J. Cooper to talk about the ongoing overhaul of the minor leagues, the history of the relationship between the majors and minors, why MLB sought to consolidate its control over amateur ball and the minor leagues, the impact of the pandemic, the pending improvements in conditions for minor leaguers, the virtues of amateur ball versus affiliated ball, minor league owners as sympathetic figures, how the 120 affiliated teams were determined, efficiency vs. access to the sport, and whether baseball will be better or worse off in the long run.

Audio intro: Whitney, "Dave’s Song"
Audio interstitial: The Strokes, "Under Control"
Audio outro: The Orange Peels, "Take Me Over"

Link to Jayson Stark on the Phillies hiring Dombrowski
Link to a compendium of J.J.’s coverage
Link to J.J. on the 120 teams announcement
Link to Evan Drellich on the 120 teams announcement
Link to J.J. on how the 120 teams were chosen
Link to J.J. on what’s next for excluded teams
Link to J.J. on expanded player limits
Link to J.J. on the Staten Island Yankees lawsuit
Link to J.J. on the new amateur leagues
Link to J.J. on the origins of short-season ball
Link to J.J. on minor league player expenses
Link to J.J. on minor league facility upgrades
Link to Baseball America podcast
Link to preorder the Baseball America 2021 Prospect Handbook

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2 Comments
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kevinthecomic
5 years ago

I believe the plural of dufus is dufi.

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kevinthecomic
5 years ago

Really excellent and amazing content here. A few things popped into my mind while listening. First, I think most will agree that MLB calling their “offers” to minor league teams “invitations” is, at best, laughable. As any introductionary text book on negotiation will tell you, if you’re not willing to walk away, you’re not negotiating. Minor league teams do not have the ability to walk away and therefore are not negotiating. MLB deserves the derision they are getting from Meg, JJ and others. Second, this reminds me of what happened maybe 30 years ago in the auto industry. The Big 3, and the imports, put the squeeze on their suppliers by cutting the amount suppliers would be paid, increasing the supplier’s inventory management burden and raising quality requirements. The supplier, whose entire business was making one, or only a handful, of components, had little choice but to accept. Was this ultimately a good thing? It can be argued that the suppliers who managed under the new requirements emerged stronger. Also, quality has steadily improved over the years. Stock price improvement? For some, but not all (not to mention a couple of bankruptcies). It would seem, then, that there will likely be winners and losers through this restructuring of the MLB/MiLB pact, but, as JJ points out, their full extent is probably unknowable for the next 5 to 10 years.

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