When I first heard about this I thought it was a great idea. Spring Training holds little interest after the very first few games when we are all just happy to have baseball back so an event that will grab some interest and some air from Sports Media in a time where it's possible (after the Super Bowl and before the NCAA tournament) makes a ton of sense. But of course it's MLB so they have to do it wrong.
Instead of a small set of games featuring guys who are either just were brought up, are going to start in the majors, or ones that have a good shot of making it up this year* they just have every team field a team of prospects. But few teams... check that NO teams go deep enough in meaningful prospects to make a full roster interesting, even before you pull out guys that may be a little banged up or teams otherwise don't want participating. You are literally going into the 30s and 40s in terms of a teams individual prospect list which is way deep into "will never make the majors territory"
And while it is fun to see guys like Crews and Wood and House for Nats fans, guess what? They've been seeing them all spring if they've been paying attention. So a bit of Jarlin Susana maybe? That's what you are tuning in for? Granted this won't be the same for every team. The Nats have the bulk of their best prospects in the upper minors but still I don't think this is how it should be done.
How should it be done? My suggestion would be an set of 3 games - AL East vs NL East, etc. with rosters of 25 guys from 5/6 teams who could conceivably win the ROY this year. I don't mean that in the "are on ROY watch lists" I mean that in the "might be up this year and qualify".AL vs NL here would give a better game but would also be limiting. Maybe your guy gets in, maybe he doesn't, and if he does it might be a couple batters or one AB. But divisional splits could be fun because it's not only your guys you might see this year but the young guys you might see the most of next year too. And because it includes guys who might have debuted late last year that includes some really good players baseball fans might not have seen much of.
Like the Futures Game the seed of the idea is good. And the mistakes of this idea aren't as egregious as the Futures Game being televised while other actual real games are going on. But MLB is still diluting national interest for no good reason as far as I can tell. If it's a "don't want another team handling my prospect" then things can be set like a 1 inning limit pitching, or you can't put this guy in CF. It's a true exhibition. The idea is fun. Make it as fun as possible. This is like a 6 out of 10. Slightly fun. Do better
*to differentiate it from the Futures Game which is a mish-mosh of levels and very limited number of guys per team.
4 comments:
I like your idea but I think the impediment is logistics. No one likes traveling much in spring training, and I’m guessing most MLB teams aren’t keen on paying to fly kids across the country for one game. Maybe if they could divide the teams in a way to keep the cactus and grapefruit league’s separate? Also, I’m not sure how big the TV market is for this. The folks that show up to ST games in person are probably more dedicated fans that would rather see the dregs of their teams prospect list than the third or fourth guy on a team they don’t care about.
Missed opportunity. Intensive ST evaluation and coaching going on in each team --- including assessment and fixing of problems. Logistics and costs aside, there's probably little interest in showcasing young talent widely during the 20 days when coaching staffs are trying to get their heads around what they have (or don't have).
Really, you just described the Arizona Fall League.
As someone who has watched virtually no ST, I really enjoyed the Spring Breakout game. It was interesting to see Susana and Herz have great stuff but no real command, while Cole Henry looked MLB-ready. Stats and highlights can only tell you so much, and even though it was an exhibition, you could tell guys were amped up to showcase their stuff. I also know who TJ White is now, even if he never makes the majors.
In terms of structure, whenever possible, MLB should make these in-division games, since as a Nats fan, I'm more likely to eventually see some Jett Williamses than whoever is in the Astros farm system. I also liked the rules-testing like automated balls/strikes.
Big picture, and I'm paraphrasing Bomani Jones here, but one thing that makes the NFL (and to a lesser degree, the NBA) a juggernaut is the constant focus on the future. Even if your team stinks, you can do Mock Drafts ad nauseam, use the ESPN Trade Machine, etc. MLB does not have this, and is at a clear disadvantage because college baseball doesn't operate in the same developmental way as college football and basketball (maybe allowing teams to trade draft picks would help but that's a more complicated problem). So MLB can't just copy/paste all ideas like the NBA Futures Game, and I think Spring Breakout is absolutely a step in the right direction.
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