The Ropes of Minor League Baseball

As baseball season is upon us, many teams start practice and start to get back into the groove of things this week. And as an avid baseball fan, as it gets closer to baseball season, I start talking about baseball more and more. When I talk about baseball, I find that many uneducated sports fans (people who claim they like sports but then when you have any kind of indepth conversation they are immediately lost) don't know the ropes of the Minor League Baseball system that leads up to the Big Leagues (or for those of you who are a little confused... Major League Baseball).

First, let’s start off simple. When a player signs with a specific MLB team, they must go through a process of building and maturing by playing in lower level teams before they make it big. The purpose of the minor league system is to 1) prepare and develop young players 2) “the forging of a successful local business” according to HowStuffWorks.com. If a player were to go through all levels of the system this is the order in which they would go. However, quite often, players jump around from one level to another and sometimes even make it to the majors just to be brought back down to Triple-A or maybe even Double-A.

Rookie League:

Shortened season

Consists of six leagues

Class A-Short Season:

Shortened season

Consists of two leagues

Designed to allow college players to finish the College World Series before going professional

Single-A:

Class A-Advanced:

Consists of three leagues

Often second or third promotion for a minor leaguer

Play a complete season

Class-A:

Slightly below Class A-Advanced

Consists of two leagues

Play a full season

Leagues have their season divided into two parts

The records clear out after the first half

The teams with the best record in both the first and second half with clinch playoff spots

Double-A:

Consists of three leagues

Some players can jump to the majors from this level

Expectation-the players in this level will make it to the majors by the end of the season

Two of the three leagues have their season divided into two parts

The records clear out after the first half

The teams with the best record in both the first and second half with clinch playoff spots

Triple-A

Consists of two affiliated Leagues

Holds the remaining 15 men for a MLB teams 40-man roster

The Mexican League is considered Triple-A but it does not have ties with MLB teams

Major League