Sorry. That’s bullshit. You think Edmonds wasn’t trying? You think he wanted to go out like that?

I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, or that he doesn’t give 110%. I just think Chase would be an improvement out there.

Sure the rich teams buy a lot of the talent, but at least the other teams get a shot by having a system where they can develop their own, Sure a salay carp makes a lot of sense, but that’s a pipe dream. There are too many rich teams and a rich player’s union that won’t agree to it. Currently, most of the problems with teams trying to pay their player’s is that there is this idea out there of that these players want 5-10 year contract and they want them at a time where most of the deal will be outside of their prime years. These types of deals are team killers for a smaller revenue clubs and even the richer clubs have a lot of trouble dealing with these contracts. If the expectation of these deals were changed, I think you would see the smaller revenue clubs better able to compete for their free agents.

Sure there are 162 games in a season, but unless you play a guy everyday you won’t be able to determine what skills he has, what his weaknesses are, and how he might develop. Even if you quadrupled the scouting resources you still wouldn’t have the close up relationship of allowing your employees to work with these players and see them on an everyday basis that you get with the minor leagues. In the NFL this is different. You only play once a week and you get to see your guys in practices on a daily basis where everybody gets to get their work in. In baseball they play games that count every day and when millions of dollars are on the line, you don’t want to use a roster spot on somebody you don’t feel comfortable playing or worse someone that isn’t there yet, but you feel you need to play everyday. For the most part I’m talking about hitters, since pitchers - because of their injury - almost seem better off rushing to the majors to get the most out of their abilities before something happens, but even still there are plenty of pitcher that have deficiencies they need to work on before they take up time in the big leagues.

My point with the NBA is that even though there are elite high schoolers that make it there are others that just aren’t ready to deal with the wealth their new money brings or the pressures of trying to make an impression with the team. I think the NBA would be improved a lot by a minor system since the kids coming out nowadays don’t learn all the skills they need to become better NBA players and the overall skill level of the league has suffered (with the exception of the internationalization of the game). I know that there are ways a player can get into trouble in the minors, but once again you have your employees keep an eye on them everyday and working with them to try to increase the maturity level (if that’s possible) or more importantly trying to get them to improve their work ethic to be of major league quality. At the very least they can report on maturity problems of a player so you can weed the bad makeup guys out before they cost the major league team anything more than a signing bonus.

I think the overall thing you might be missing with criticizing the “hoops” these players go through is that the “hoops” are more than just the numbers on the field. Teams want to see guys improving their skills. When they are drafted the teams come up with plans on how they want to develop players based on what their scouts saw before the draft and in the rookie camps. Getting promoting through the minors is not just about hitting .300 in Fort Wayne, striking out 10 per 9 in Lake Elsinore, bashing 30 HRs at San Antonio or posting a sub 2.00 ERA in Portland.