Appalachian League Becomes College Wood Bat Summer League

50PoundHead

50PoundHead

Hessmania Forever
And so it begins. I haven't seen rico43 around and he is the guy usually on top of these things. I browsed Baseball America today and saw an article that MLB is trying to get the New York-Penn League to become a College Wood Bat Summer League. In the article, it stated that the Appalachian League had already agreed to do so.

Part of the proposed contraction of minor league franchises centered on the elimination of the Rookie Advanced (Appalachian and Pioneer) and Low-A Summer (New York-Penn and Northwest) leagues. That would put all the rookies in the complexes in Arizona, Florida, and Latin America. Looks like that process is underway.
 
Columbia Sc lost its affiliated team today (Mets). Nice stadium. Only four years old and cost $37 million. Hopefully someone jumps on it
 
Krgrecw said:
Columbia Sc lost its affiliated team today (Mets). Nice stadium. Only four years old and cost $37 million. Hopefully someone jumps on it
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I take it Columbia was a locally-owned franchise and not owned by the Mets.

Edit: Just read at Baseball America that Columbia will have a team.

Edit 2: It make make sense for the Braves to put their High A franchise in Columbia given the stadium issues in Florida. Of course, I don't know how the minor leagues will ultimately realign. There is going to be a new High A league (the Mid-Atlantic League) and I don't know how that will be configured.
 
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50PoundHead said:
I take it Columbia was a locally-owned franchise and not owned by the Mets.

Edit: Just read at Baseball America that Columbia will have a team.

Edit 2: It make make sense for the Braves to put their High A franchise in Columbia given the stadium issues in Florida. Of course, I don't know how the minor leagues will ultimately realign. There is going to be a new High A league (the Mid-Atlantic League) and I don't know how that will be configured.
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The Columbia ball park is really quite nice.

I assume the in place ownership group will be able to land a new affiliate and the Braves own all their own teams.

It would be great for the Braves to locate any of their levels there of course. Florida though is now at the spring training site, I think. Not sure how solid Macon or Mississippi is. Columbia is closer than Mississippi, I think.
 
Southcack77 said:
The Columbia ball park is really quite nice.

I assume the in place ownership group will be able to land a new affiliate and the Braves own all their own teams.

It would be great for the Braves to locate any of their levels there of course. Florida though is now at the spring training site, I think. Not sure how solid Macon or Mississippi is. Columbia is closer than Mississippi, I think.
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Do the Braves own the Florida franchise. I know they own Gwinnett, Mississippi, and Rome, but Florida must have gotten past me.
 
IslandBrave said:
They don’t own the Fire Frogs. They’re independently owned.
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the more you know.

I'm not sure it really makes sense to move a Florida league team to South Carolina, but I think they'd do a better than the Mets did, who were middle of the pack in the SAL (but significantly better than Rome if anyone is counting).

I will say the owners of the Fireflies have done a good job marketing though.
 
Southcack77 said:
the more you know.

I'm not sure it really makes sense to move a Florida league team to South Carolina, but I think they'd do a better than the Mets did, who were middle of the pack in the SAL (but significantly better than Rome if anyone is counting).

I will say the owners of the Fireflies have done a good job marketing though.
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They moved the team from Va a couple years ago. I think they wanted a team close to their ST site. I think the Fire Frogs were supposed to move to NorthPort as well
 
IslandBrave said:
They moved the team from Va a couple years ago. I think they wanted a team close to their ST site. I think the Fire Frogs were supposed to move to NorthPort as well
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You're right as far as I can tell. The team was slated to play at North Port in 2020, but then the season was scotched. The stadium problems pre-2020 were considerable. It seemed that a heavy dew would cause a rainout where they were playing before.
 
Metaphysicist said:
This minor league contraction stuff is so dumb.
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It's really going to get interesting. I think the big winner in all of this will be junior college baseball. My guess is the draft will be shortened to somewhere around 20 rounds and teams will be drafting more on past performance than projection. The other winner will be independent league baseball (American Association, Atlantic League, etc.). Right now, those teams are largely composed of retreads who have been released by major league franchises. With a shortened draft and a limit as to how many players can be under contract for each franchise, there will be an infusion of talent for that level of baseball.
 
50PoundHead said:
It's really going to get interesting. I think the big winner in all of this will be junior college baseball. My guess is the draft will be shortened to somewhere around 20 rounds and teams will be drafting more on past performance than projection. The other winner will be independent league baseball (American Association, Atlantic League, etc.). Right now, those teams are largely composed of retreads who have been released by major league franchises. With a shortened draft and a limit as to how many players can be under contract for each franchise, there will be an infusion of talent for that level of baseball.
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Fully agree and also I think that we will see more summer leagues similar to the famous Cape Cod League. There will be lots of greatly adequate facilities available with the diminished minors.
 
I did some quick research the other day. Just under 80% of the draftees in Rounds 21 through 30 in the 2019 draft signed professional contracts. A majority of those signing were college players. If the draft goes to 20 rounds, that would amount to possible influx of talent to the independent leagues of around 230 players. Granted, it's not a foregone conclusion that all of those players would sign with an independent league team because of most of those teams do not have the financial resources of a major league franchise. Further, major league franchises may draft some of the post-20th round guys earlier if the draft is shortened (Bryce Ball was the Braves' 24th-round pick in 2019 and signed for well above the post-10th round cap). I have no idea whether the draft will be shortened, although I have to believe that if there is going to be a hard limit as to how many players a team can have under contract shortening the draft will in the offing. Who knows what that may mean, but it will create new avenues for the scouting and development of amateur talent.
 
50PoundHead said:
I did some quick research the other day. Just under 80% of the draftees in Rounds 21 through 30 in the 2019 draft signed professional contracts. A majority of those signing were college players. If the draft goes to 20 rounds, that would amount to possible influx of talent to the independent leagues of around 230 players. Granted, it's not a foregone conclusion that all of those players would sign with an independent league team because of most of those teams do not have the financial resources of a major league franchise. Further, major league franchises may draft some of the post-20th round guys earlier if the draft is shortened (Bryce Ball was the Braves' 24th-round pick in 2019 and signed for well above the post-10th round cap). I have no idea whether the draft will be shortened, although I have to believe that if there is going to be a hard limit as to how many players a team can have under contract shortening the draft will in the offing. Who knows what that may mean, but it will create new avenues for the scouting and development of amateur talent.
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Something that has been bouncing around in my head on that front...

"Specialized" scouting becomes a thing - and something much easier for organizations to streamline. You'll have what have always been considered your typical area scouts at the high school/college/unaffiliated league/international and Low-A levels - guys strictly looking for talent, size, and previous measurables (size/radar gun velo/footspeed). At the next couple of levels you start to impose more analytics - less scouts needed because you're now separating things you don't need the eye test for (spin rates, etc.). Then you have a few more eyes involved when players advance to the AA or AAA levels because you want to "see" how those players piece together the information you've given them - is their pitch recognition or sequencing improving, how do they react in certain game situations?

The need for advanced scouting dries up to a point because you only worry about having eyes on players that have reached AA that are making noise and players at AAA that you may need to promote soon in the case of injury to make tougher decisions about. The A and AA levels signal who fits your organizational profile without having to have so many scouts involved because you're really mainly just looking for changes in data. With MLB in charge of all levels, my expectation is that the technology will expand to most of the parks so that the organizations can "scout" players without necessarily needing to have advanced evaluators in attendance until most players are within shouting distance of being promoted to 40-Man Rosters.
 
clvclv said:
Something that has been bouncing around in my head on that front...

"Specialized" scouting becomes a thing - and something much easier for organizations to streamline. You'll have what have always been considered your typical area scouts at the high school/college/unaffiliated league/international and Low-A levels - guys strictly looking for talent, size, and previous measurables (size/radar gun velo/footspeed). At the next couple of levels you start to impose more analytics - less scouts needed because you're now separating things you don't need the eye test for (spin rates, etc.). Then you have a few more eyes involved when players advance to the AA or AAA levels because you want to "see" how those players piece together the information you've given them - is their pitch recognition or sequencing improving, how do they react in certain game situations?

The need for advanced scouting dries up to a point because you only worry about having eyes on players that have reached AA that are making noise and players at AAA that you may need to promote soon in the case of injury to make tougher decisions about. The A and AA levels signal who fits your organizational profile without having to have so many scouts involved because you're really mainly just looking for changes in data. With MLB in charge of all levels, my expectation is that the technology will expand to most of the parks so that the organizations can "scout" players without necessarily needing to have advanced evaluators in attendance until most players are within shouting distance of being promoted to 40-Man Rosters.
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I think the showcase circuit is going to really heat up because that is how franchises will get a better idea on how to balance risk/reward on high school guys. My guess is you will see fewer flyers post-Round 10 on perceived ceiling. That will chase a lot of kids into junior college ball (and maybe on to 4-year schools). If franchises are limited to somewhere between 125 and 150 players, there's not going to be a lot of desire to invest in "maybes." At the same time, there are always late bloomers and having eyes out there is often the only way to find those types. It may resemble the pre-draft era that existed prior to the mid-1960s in that teams may still have scouts, but most of those scouts will be out in the hinterlands.

I haven't even talked about how these changes may affect the international player market. Braves are have only one Dominican Summer League team and one Gulf Coast League team. Dodgers (as an example, there are others) have two Dominican Summer League teams and two Arizona League teams. Granted, Braves roster for a single team may be as large as the two Dodger entries (I didn't check the numbers), but there will be a winnowing of the international market (and perhaps the implementation of an international draft) if the proposed contraction is pursued.
 
What are the rules for guys who don’t get drafted. How long do they have to wait to sign a free agent contract with any team. So say a strong college commit goes undrafted. Could any team just extend a free agent contract to them at that point. The rounds 21 and up are usually reserved for guys like that.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
What are the rules for guys who don’t get drafted. How long do they have to wait to sign a free agent contract with any team. So say a strong college commit goes undrafted. Could any team just extend a free agent contract to them at that point. The rounds 21 and up are usually reserved for guys like that.
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My stuff is all conjecture. MLB hasn't announced how the draft will operate going forward, but I am envisioning some big changes and I think 20 rounds is where it will end up. I wouldn't be surprised if they implemented an international draft as well. Rules about who/when you can sign undrafted players and for how much could be a real quagmire. Undrafted players were signed this year and I can't remember if there were bonus limits for these players or not. I've always thought that the players you are highlighting will end up in junior college ball.

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50PoundHead said:
My stuff is all conjecture. MLB hasn't announced how the draft will operate going forward, but I am envisioning some big changes and I think 20 rounds is where it will end up. I wouldn't be surprised if they implemented an international draft as well. Rules about who/when you can sign undrafted players and for how much could be a real quagmire. Undrafted players were signed this year and I can't remember if there were bonus limits for these players or not. I've always thought that the players you are highlighting will end up in junior college ball.

5894d9d9ffb7608025da762f3cf3494d.jpg
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The cap for undrafted 2020 guys was $20,000 - not sure there would be a reason not to expect a similar ceiling placed on players not selected in a 20 round draft. If they didn't do that, teams with money like the Yankees or Dodgers could just tell all the borderline guys they liked to tell teams that were talking about drafting them that they wouldn't sign - then they'd give them $100K (or more) to sign after the draft was over.
 
clvclv said:
The cap for undrafted 2020 guys was $20,000 - not sure there would be a reason not to expect a similar ceiling placed on players not selected in a 20 round draft. If they didn't do that, teams with money like the Yankees or Dodgers could just tell all the borderline guys they liked to tell teams that were talking about drafting them that they wouldn't sign - then they'd give them $100K (or more) to sign after the draft was over.
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Those would be my thoughts as well and I would guess that the new rules would extend to the international market as well. I'm seeing an international draft as part of the next CBA.
 
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