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All Quiet on the Minor-League Front


Sorry, nothing new to report. Baseball America, which is the most reliable source of transaction information during the offseason (since MiLB has fewer interns to exploit), has only caught up to mid-December and I’m sure only one or two of you may be more excited than Boomer when he heard about the signing of 34-y.o. (35 in May) Daniel HernAAAAndez.

Yesterday, Ballpark Digest passed along news (sort of) the MLB-MiLB pissing match. It seems both sides have taken salt tablets. In the final graf, there’s a semi-confirmation that MLB’s list of 42 was negotiating tactic, if indeed one of the teams on the initial hit list (Lowell) is now “safe.”

However, as BPD’s founder/publisher Keven Reichard notes: “[W]hile there are many areas of common ground between the two sides, such as realignment to cut down on travel time, facilities upgrades on the player side[,] and a less drastic contraction, we won’t know how they could be worked out with no meetings planned.

The “sort of” is because I suspect that if/when negotiations do resume, one of the conditions will be radio silence. MLB badly miscalculated MiLB’s willingness to do its laundry in public, perhaps not realizing that penny-pinching a line item in the budget could pound-foolish.

Now, back to the watchlist and doldrums of the offseason…

24 Commments

  1. We have learned that two guys are returning from Korea to help out Fresno and a guy who can’t hit for average so that means Nats not spending big bucks on AAA free agents such as Boog Powell , J. Profar, Xavier Caliente…..so far….

    2. I have had fun this winter passing through SoCal saying to dodger hatted fans : loving Howie Kendrick now …

      1. Luke my dogs are way more active than yours ? Or else they don’t care about Rizzos quiet spell?? Lol

  3. However things play out with contraction/reorganization will be interesting. Hopefully Frederick can be rescued from the kill list as well. Hagerstown, Auburn — I think it’s just their time to die.

    1. Frederick is interesting . Clean facility. Great ties with community.
      Maybe somebody else has an angle to ponder

    2. A buddy of mine @ the airline runs a winery up near Auburn . He played golf with one of the former Doubleday pitching coaches. He will miss the baseball ties to the community

  4. While everyone ruminates about MILB contraction, let’s look at the average age of rookies across all sports —

    NFL — 21
    NHL — 20
    NBA — 20

    MLB hitters — 24.4

    MLB pitchers — 25.3

    This just in: Baseball is a skill that takes a long time to learn. You need all these teams so that the players can learn their craft.

      1. Spike still hibernates with the bears ….conversation to quell some chat :
        FREDNats possible April
        Roster core?
        Meregildo, Geraldo , Mendosa, Caufeld , Marincasa, Canning , Rhinesmith , Connell , J. Pascal , Vickers , Dunlop , Pineda , Sundberg ( if not service time on City Isle )….

      2. See if this wakes up Spike
        Hernandez. Tocci Keller
        Noll. Kieboom C. Sagdal
        Corredor …Ward and Wilson if legit. …resign Cowgill and Chuck Taylor and B Snyder
        Read and Reistteeerrrr
        Elevate Wisemsn ..Bengi

      3. Brass. Now you can proceed with signing depth pieces for Fresno and Harrisburg because Josh D finally succumbed to his AL career end with Twins. who should be AL Central favorites again.

  5. The way BP speaks about Matt Cronin maybe he’s the next Storen to rapidly run the gamut of minor league levels and end up in the majors with his two plus pitches in the back of the bullpen this season? He is after all a rare southpaw bird?

  7. Will: yes, sad news on Segura. RIP.

    Peric: yes, Cronin could be a fast riser. It will also be interesting to see if the Nats make the long-speculated move of Seth Romero to the ‘pen, or keep insisting that he has to start since he was a 1st-round pick.

    Re minor-league contraction: one of the big drivers of the plan has been Jeff Ludnow, who is now rotting in baseball hell. Will his departure change the direction of what MLB is trying to do?

  8. Insofar as we are in a quieter period, and the death of Fausto Segura reminds us that there are potential risers who are not well established on the prospect lists, I wanted to throw out another name, who is not on the watch list.

    Eduardo Vera, 25, was cut loose by the Pirates after a horrid first run at AAA. The Nationals picked him up and he struggled at AA. But looking back only to 2018, he closed in AA with a dominant stretch as a starter. And this winter, in Mexican League baseball, he’s been outstanding.

    So while he may not ultimately sustain performance at the higher levels, i can;t help but think of Mario Sanchez’ revival last year in his second run with the Nationals system and wonder whether Vera has a similar 2020 in store. Keeping an eye on him.

    1. A great addition to the AA/ plus bundle of arms , Cane….
      The park in Fred is going up as fast as a Royal Farms location ….

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