History of the Minor Leagues Part 4 - The Struggle for Survival 1929-46

   After the boom years of the 1920s, the stock market crash ushered in almost two decades of the leanest years in the history of the minor leagues, and brought about a transformation that ushered in a relationship between the minors and the majors that is more like the one that we know now.  It also brought several significant innovations in the promotion of the game that was to have profound effects.  The game at the minor league level has probably not gone through a more turbulent time.
   Both levels suffered significant declines in attendance during the first years of the Depression.  Baseball no longer was a luxury that the average American could afford.  Gate receipts dropped 70% in 1931 and 32 from 1930, and it took sixteen years to reach the high-water mark of 10 million after that season.  Profits dropped at the major league level from $1.3 million in 1929 to a loss of $1.7 million in 1933. To make end meet, the Senators sold future Hall of Famer SS Joe Cronin to the Red Sox for $250 000 - a sum which was greater than the payroll of 14 of the 16 major league teams. Part of the problem in the decline in revenue was the majors' refusal to drop ticket prices,  citing the fact that they didn't raise prices during the boom years of the 20s.
   So, with the high unemployment of the Depression, baseball tickets of any kind were out of reach for most people.  And for those fortunate enough to have a job, taking a day off work to watch a game was not an option.  The minors began to experiment with night games as a way to both give workers a chance to catch a game, and to bring in other spectators by the novelty  factor. It took a few years, but the majors, originally resistant to the idea, gave in in the mid 30s, and soon night games became a standard feature of minor and major league schedules.
  Despite this, minor league teams still saw themselves as independents (the Pacific Coast League, which we have not touched upon, viewed itself almost as a third major league, and stayed quite independent until the late 50s).  But their independence was waning. Attendance was still in decline, partly because of economics, and perhaps partly because the expansion of major league teams' radio broadcast networks allowed teams to follow their favourite major league team instead.
    Faced with the declining revenues of the Great Depression, they became more indentured to major league teams as a source of funds to make up for the shortfall, via the sale of top players.  The majors, for their part, agreed to help the minors, but in return they wanted some sort of agreement for the procurement of players that went beyond the traditional one.  With the minors down to a handful of leagues and teams by the mid 30s, more and more minor leagues and teams were becoming subservient to the majors.  The Cards, Yankees, and Dodgers all built vast farm systems during this period, buying interests in teams across all levels of the minors.  The Cards, with no major league competition to the south or west, held tryout camps that drew thousands of prospective recruits, with which they stocked their minor league teams.
   Baseball Commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis was less than thrilled with this development, especially with the optics caused by major league clubs sometimes owning shares of multiple clubs in the same league.  He had "freed" several players in the 20s and 30s who teams had "covered up" - that is, they transferred them from one farm team to another, to avoid having them exposed in the draft Landis had instituted, whereby major league teams could draft a minor league player if he played on the same minor league team for two consecutive seasons.  In 1938, he "freed" 70 players from the Cardinals system who had been "covered up."  Matters came to a head when Landis and Dodgers GM Branch Rickey had a memorable exchange when their competing philosophies clashed when Rickey was summoned to Landis' office later that year.  Landis was of the view that talent should be allowed to bubble up from the bottom of the minor league pool naturally, whereas Rickey believed that the farm system would allow a team to nurture and teach a player how to play the game the Dodger way, even if that player was "blocked" by a better or more experienced player.  While Landis was concerned about the future and autonomy of the minors, he could do little to stem a tide that had already turned.  Out of economic survival, the minors were on their way to becoming branch plants of the major league, their reason for being not to win games for their fans, but to supply players for the teams above them, up to the majors.

   The onset of World War II, of course, did not help the minors' plight.  With the shortage of manpower caused by the war, the minors had only 66 teams in total, and drew less than 6 million fans, an all-time low.  Armed with player development and financial agreements that they had procured in the  Depression, however, the minors were poised for a tremendous comeback at the end of the war.

Checking Up on the Top 10

   The season is almost a month old, and sample sizes are stating to get bigger, so it's a good time to check in on the progress of Clutchlings' Top 10 Blue Jays Prospects. Current age in parentheses.

#1 Aaron Sanchez (20)
   Has more than justified his top ranking.  Pitching in High A with Dunedin of the Flordia State League, Sanchez has had a couple of brilliant outings.  So far, he's 1-1, with a 3.16 ERA over 5 starts.  25 IP, 16 H, 8 BB, 22 K, 0.94 WHIP, .170 OBA.  Sanchez has touched 98 with his fastball, and D-Jays pitching coach Darold Knowles claims his change-up is major-league ready.

#2 Marcus Stroman rhp (22 this week)
   20 days left in his prohibited substance suspension.  Stroman pitched in a couple of games for the Jays near the end of spring training, and had a couple of hitless outings.  Pitched well in a relief stint against the Phillies the weekend before the season started.  Probably headed to AA New Hampshire, but could reach the majors by the summer and help the Jays' bullpen, unless the club elects to stretch him out as a starter.

#3  Roberto Osuna lhp (18)
   The youngest player in the Midwest League, he has been dominant at times.  1-1, 2.95 ERA, in 18 innings.  Has given up 12 hits and only 3 walks, while striking out 26.  0.83 WHIP, and a .178 OBA.  Osuna has been as advertised.

#4 Daniel Norris lhp (20)
   Norris command and location issues from last season have continued to dog him at Low A Lansing.  He has alternated 1-2-3 innings with frames where he falls behind on hitters, and his fastball gets hit hard.  0-2 with a 9.56 ERA, Norris has given up 22 hits and 11 walks in 16 innings, while striking out 13.  2.06 WHIP, and a .328 OBA.  Norris' last start was his best outing of the year, giving up only a run on 3 hits over 4 innings.

#5 Sean Nolin rhp (23)
   Ticketed for AA New Hampshire, Nolin suffered a leg injury toward the end of spring training, and is on the minor league disabled list.

#6  D.J. Davis of (18)
   Davis is currently at extended spring training in Florida.  Likely heading to short season Vancouver in mid-June when their season starts.

#7 Matt Smoral lhp (19)
   After missing last season with a foot injury, Smoral will likely start the season with one of the rookie level teams, either in the Gulf Coast League, or with Bluefield in the Appy League. Pitch count and innings will be very limited in his first pro season.

#8  Adonys Cardona
   Extended spring training.  Probably heading to Bluefield in late June.

#9  John Stilson rhp (22)
   Also on New Hampshire's disabled list.

#10 Santiago Nessy
   With Lansing of the Midwest League, has been lauded for his work ethic. Has caught the bulk of the Lugnuts' games.  Hitting .250/.302./.350, with 0 HR and 7 RBI. Placed on Lansing's 7-day DL last week.
   

Overwhelming Osuna

    Roberto Osuna may be the youngest player in the Midwest League (and one of only a handful of players born in 1995 playing full-season ball at the moment), but he turned in another dazzling performance on Thursday night that belied his young age.
   Osuna limited Quad Cities to one run over 4 2/3 innings before reaching his pitch limit, allowing just one hit and one walk, while striking out 8.  His youthfulness may have shown up a bit with 4 wild pitches, but he was dominant on the night, striking out Carlos Correa, the top pick by Houston in the 2012 draft, twice, once swining, and once looking.
   The visiting Lugnuts scored 4 runs in the 6th, en route to a 6-2 win over the River Bandits.  Osuna did not figure in the decision.
   The outing lowered Osuna's ERA to 2.95.  In 18 1/3 innings this spring, he has surrendered 12 hits, walked only 3, and struck out 26.  Osuna has a WHIP of 0.83, and Midwest League batters are hitting only .176 against him.
  With the parent club struggling, it's comforting to know that help is on the way one day.  Having pitched only 43 innings in his professional debut last year, however, it's doubtful that Osuna's timetable will be moved up.  He's likely to spend much of the season in the MWL, with a possible promotion to High A Dunedin a possibility later in the season, where his innings and pitch counts will continue to be strictly monitored.

The Meteoric Rise of Dave Stieb

"We didn't like him as a hitter, but he sure as hell opened our eyes when he started pitching"

-Jays VP Bobby Mattick, after scouting Dave Stieb in college

   It's not unusual for a light-hitting infielder or outfielder (or even a catcher) to be converted to pitching.

Baseball history is full of players with plus arms whose struggles at the plate (most often in the minors) led their organizations to convince them that their future was on the mound.  Hall of Famer Bob Lemon was switched to the mound when he couldn't hit major league pitching - he even played centrefield the day another converted outfielder, Bob Feller, hurled a no-hitter. Trevor Hoffman, Joe Nathan, and Troy Percival are all recent examples of players who found success on the mound after meeting with little success as an everyday player.  And with baseball's increased reliance on power arms in the bullpen, teams are not hesitant to encourage strong-armed position players to make the switch.  For the Toronto Blue Jays, no turnaround was more dramatic or more rapid than that of Dave Stieb, the winningest pitcher in club history.

   Growing up in Southern California, Stieb's parents would not allow him or his brother Steve (who later caught in the Braves organization) to pitch, fearing the wear and tear on their arms.  So, Stieb took to the outfield, while his brother picked up the tools of ignorance behind the plate.  After high school, Stieb played for San Jose Community College for two years, then followed Steve to Southern Illinois University.  In his one and only season with the Salukis, Stieb led the team in hitting, hits, extra base hits, homeruns, and RBI, and led them to the NCAA's Midwest Regional.

  Despite Stieb's hitting heroics, he hadn't garnered a lot of attention from professional scouts prior to the 1978 draft.  Blue Jays executives Bobby Mattick and Al LaMacchia (who had over 90 years' experience in OB between them) decided to drop in to catch a Salukis game in Carbondale early one May on the recommendation of scout Don Welke.

  And to be blunt, they didn't come away impressed with Stieb the outfielder.  Speaking in a May, 1983, Sports Illustrated article, Mattick admitted, "I didn't like his swing."

  Both executives were likely checking their watches as the game wore on, thinking about their next stop on their cross-checking tour, when something happened in the 6th inning that changed the course of the Blue Jays' history. With the Salukis' starting pitcher wearing down, Stieb jogged in from the outfield to take over duties on the mound. Mattick and LaMacchia looked at each other in disbelief, and decided to stick around for another inning or so.

   This wasn't the first time Stieb had come into a game in relief.  Earlier in the season,SIU  pitching coach Mark Newman had watched him throw batting practice, and decided to work with Stieb a little bit more.

According to Head Coach Richard "Itchy" Jones, 

  "After working with him for a day or two, Mark told me Dave already had a better breaking ball than any of our starters.  And he had great velocity.  We didn't find out he could pitch until April 1st.  Shows how smart we were."

Sports Illustrated, "A Rare Bird: The Natural," by Ron Fimrite, May 16, 1983

   Stieb only threw a total of 17 innings for Southern Illinois that spring.  Mattick and LaMacchia saw two of them, but that was enough.  In June, the Blue Jays selected Stieb in the fifth round of the draft.  Mattick says that staying to watch Stieb pitch was one of the smartest things he had ever done (this from a man who once scouted and signed Frank Robinson).

    "Stieb knocked our eyes out.  He was absolutely overpowering.  We didn't like him as a hitter, but he sure as hell opened our eyes when  he started pitching."

SI, "A Rare Bird: The Natural"

   Stieb, of course, had never pitched at any level prior to his brief stint with the Salukis, and he still envisioned himself as an outfielder first.  The Blue Jays assigned him to High Class A Dunedin of the Florida State League after the draft, and he played his first game there on June 29, 1978.  Manager Dennis Menke was given instructions to have Stieb take a regular turn in the starting rotation every 5th day.  The day after a start, he was to DH, and then could play the outfield on the other days in between starts.  Stieb, a fiery and intense competitor, bristled at the idea of pitching at first:

  "It was hard for me to fathom why they wanted me to be something I wasn't.  I don't think I even knew how to figure out an ERA in those days.  I still felt I could make it as a hitter."

SI, "A Rare Bird: The Natural"

   The results of a summer spent at Dunedin were impossible to ignore:  Stieb the everyday player hit an underwhelming .192, while Stieb the pitcher sported a record of 2-0, with a sparkling 2.08 ERA.  Reluctantly, Stieb realized that his path to the big leagues was as a pitcher, and he reported to Instructional League that fall to complete the makeover from the outfield to the mound.  Working every day for several weeks with Mattick, Stieb worked on expanding his repertoire of pitches, which at first consisted of a "heavy" fastball that sunk on righthanded hitters, and a slider he had picked up from Coach Newman at Southern Illinois.  Mattick worked with him on his control, and taught him a changeup.  Recalls Mattick:

    "We didn't monkey around with his mechanics at all.  He has the same delivery he has today as he had then.  He was a natural, one in a million.  He had such a desire to excel.  He had that good slider.  That's not a tough pitch to pick up.  It's all in the release, and he had that from the start.  It's a funny thing, but most converted infielders and outfielders have good control, especially if they've been used to throwing at a target.  Someone who has been a pitcher from High School on up may actually have more problems.  It's all in what they call the rhythm.  I call it a feel.  Dave had that feel."

SI, "A Rare Bird: The Natural"

   The next season, Stieb reported to Dunedin again to repeat High A ball, but as a pitcher.  His rise was as fast as it was unexpected.  He went 5-0, and was promoted to Triple A Syracuse in May, where he went 5-2, with a 2.13 ERA.  Stieb was called up to the Major Leagues on June 29th, a year to the day from his minor league debut, and about 14 months since the accidental discovery of his pitching prowess by Mattick and LaMacchia.  In his rookie season, Stieb went 8-8, with a respectable 4.31 ERA.  In 1981, he became the first Blue Jays pitcher to post a winning record, and appeared in his first All Star Game.  Stieb appeared in 6 more All Star Games, starting in 1983 and 84.  Stieb was a workhorse, averaging an astounding 275 IP from 1982-85.  

   And while his hitting days were behind him when he reached the bigs, Stieb had two memorable at bats as a pitcher.  The first came in August of 1980, when the Blue Jays finished a game from the night before that was suspended after 15 innings.  Stieb became the first Jays pitcher to ever have a plate appearance, and battled Minnesota reliever Albert Williams before flying out to centre. The next came in the 1981 All Star Game, when AL manager Jim Frey had run out of pitchers in a close game. With the AL holding a slim 4-3 lead over the NL heading into the top of the 9th, Frey summoned closer Rollie Fingers to try to hold the lead.  Fingers was unable to, as the NL touched him for a pair of runs, giving way to Stieb with one out.  Stieb threw the final 1 2/3 innings, and came to bat with one out in the bottom of the 9th.  On the mound for the NL was Bruce Sutter, a dominant closer from the late 70s/early 80s who had popularized the split finger fastball.  Despite not having picked up a bat in over a year, Stieb acquitted himself well, hitting a line drive down the left field line that just went into the seats foul before striking out (the NL held on to win, 5-4).

   Stieb took a pair of no-hitters into the 9th inning on consecutive starts in 1988, only to have the no-hit bids broken up.  The following year, he took a perfect game into the 9th, and got the first two outs, only to lose it on a bloop single.  He recorded the Jays' first and only no-hitter in 1990.  Stieb was a member of the Jays first World Series winner in 1992, but was not an integral part of it, the toll of almost 3000 innings on his arm having added up.  He was released by the White Sox the following season after having filed for free agency.

While throwing batting practice as a guest instructor in spring training in 1998, Stieb was encouraged to make a comeback after his nasty slider had returned.  Stieb started 12 games in the minors, and had dazzling stats, but had mixed results in his return to the big leagues: 1-2 record in 50 innings, with a 4.83 ERA .  He retired for good after that season.

  Stieb was ranked the 67th top pitcher of all time by baseball-reference.com

History of the Minor Leagues Part 3: The Golden Years 1904-29

        This is the fourth installment of my (brief) history of the minor leagues.  I won't pretend that this is an exhaustive study of the topic, which is far more detailed and complex than I can adequately describe and give justice to.
  I have leaned quite heavily on a few excerpts about the minors from Bill James' first Historical Baseball Abstract, which is one of the greatest books ever written on the topic, in my opinion.
   

Ox Eckhardt

The minor leagues grew and prospered alongside the majors after the signing of the National Agreement in 1903.  No longer were they subject to roster raiding, although, of course, the sale of top players was an important source of revenue.
   Some leagues held out joining the new NA, fearing it was just another attempt at establishing yet another major league, but that fear quickly passed, and the minors expanded rapidly. In 1912, the AA classification was added at the top of the system to reflect that expansion. World War I and the brief but intense growth of the Federal League presented a huge challenge to the minors, and by the end of WWI they had contracted down to only 9 leagues.
  By the 1920s, however, as the rest of America prospered, so too did the minor leagues.  The minor league teams (and remember, this was more a term used by sportswriters in major league cities) viewed themselves and their leagues as independent. There were no formal agreements for player acquisition between the majors and minors. This was the era of minor league dynasties in then-minor league cities like Baltimore, St Paul, Fort Worth, and San Francisco.  15 of milb.com's top 100 minor league teams played in this era.  By the end of the decade, the number of teams and leagues had doubled.  Modern fans might wonder how these teams were able to succeed year after year in the face of the pressure to sell their top players to major league clubs.  According to Bill James, when people ask why minor league superstars like Ox Eckhardt (who logged a career batting average of .367) "didn't get a chance" to play in the majors:

   "He's not a player who might have done things if he'd had the chance; he's a player who did things. He played baseball.  He made a good living playing baseball.  His picture was on baseball cards; he was a local celebrity....if he hit .370 one year, the reason that he wanted to hit .380 the next year was not so he would get called up to a higher level, but so he would get a better contract, just as if he were a 'major leaguer' so his team might win the pennant."

    The truth is, that while the major leagues were growing in popularity across the country, player salaries did not keep pace, and the players increasingly rebelled at the tight-fisted treatment they received from the owners, which reached its peak with the Black Sox scandal of 1919.  Many minor league players were happier playing there; some had been to the majors, but the majority felt that they were treated better (and in some cases, paid better) in the minors.
   At the same time as the minors were flourishing, major league teams were becoming frustrated with the process of procuring talent from those leagues.  The legendary Branch Rickey, then GM of the St Louis Cardinals, was growing tired of scouting a player, only to lose him to wealthier teams.  With the help of owner Sam Breedon's deep pockets, Rickey began buying interests in teams (often several in the same league) across the minors, making it easier for him to acquire a player when the time was right.  Rickey coined the term "farm club," when he compared developing players on minor league teams to "growing players down on the farm like corn."  At one point in the 1930s, the Cards had as many as 30 farm teams (modern day teams have 5 or 6).  With this elaborate system of amassing talent in place, St Louis won 6 World Series titles between 1926 and 1946.
   With the stock market crash of 1929, and the Great Depression which followed, like most American businesses, the minors experienced considerable financial pressures, and their independence on major league baseball to help keep afloat increased.
 

Two Prospects, Two Different Paths of Development

   Righthander Tyler Beede, out of Lawrence Academy HS in Massachusetts, and Lefthander Daniel Norris, a product of Science Hill HS in Johnson City, Tennessee, were drafted 1-2 by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2011 draft, Beede in the first round with the 21st pick, and Norris at #74 in the second round.  Both were among the highest-ranked prep pitchers heading into the draft.
   Having attended summer baseball camps at Vanderbilt University since he was a freshman in High School, Beede was adamant that he preferred to go the collegiate route.  His bonus asking price was said to be in the $3.5 million range.  Norris himself had committed to Clemson University.  Beede had sent a letter to all major league teams prior to the draft stating that his intention was to attend Vandy.  Norris, for his part, saw his draft stock fall because he similarly was seen as bound for college.  The Blue Jays took a gamble and selected them both.
   As the mid-August (now mid-July) deadline for signing approached, Beede stuck to his demands.  It's rumoured that the Blue Jays and Beede wound up about $1 million apart.  15 minutes before the deadline, Norris signed for $2 million, while Beede spurned the Jays' final offer in favour of Vanderbilt.  The signing of Norris took some of the sting out of the failure to reach an agreement with Beede, who now won't be draft-eligible until 2014.
   So, Beede headed off to college in August, and Norris, who signed too late to see action in 2011, had to wait until the spring before starting his pro career.
   It's interesting to see where both are in terms of their development now.  Pitching in the strong SEC, Beede, who struggled early in his first collegiate season, began to come into his own come regionals time, and made the regional all-tournament team.  In his freshman campaign, Beede compiled a 1-5 record, with a 4.52 ERA.  In 71.2 innings, he gave up 78 hits, walked 36, and struck out 68.  Command was a bit of an issue, and batters hit .287 against him. Beede appeared in 16 games, starting 5 of them.
  Flash forward a season, and as Beede enters the final weeks of his 2013 sophomore campaign, he has become a solid part of Vandy's starting rotation. Beede is a perfect 10-0 on the season, becoming only the 9th pitcher to reach that plateau in school history.  In 65.2 innings,  he has given up 36 hits, with walks still a bit of an issue (38), and 67 K's.  Hitters are batting a paltry .164 against Beede this season.
   Norris remained  in Florida for 2012 extended spring training, reporting to Bluefield of the Short-Season Rookie Appalachian League in June. His first season, like Beede's, was one of ups and downs. Norris posted a 2-3 record in 11 appearances (10 starts) with Bluefield, posting a 7.97 ERA.  Still, Norris showed enough promise to warrant a late promotion to Short Season Vancouver.  Some scouts feel that Norris' inflated ERA was due to a couple of big innings, which came about as a result of his inability to get ahead in the count.
  Norris was promoted to Low A Lansing of the Midwestern League this season, and while it's early, the results again are mixed.  Norris can breeze through one inning, then struggle the next.  Thus far at Lansing, he's 0-1, with an unsightly 12.00 ERA over 12 innings.
   So, who's ahead on the development curve ? At the moment, the answer is clearly Beede, but having gone the college route, he's thrown 137 innings to Norris' 54 over the past two seasons, so perhaps the comparison isn't completely accurate.  And while Norris' mechanics and delivery were changed, (as is the case with many high school draftees) in extended spring training last year, Beede has been left pretty much to continue to pitch with the delivery he used in high school.  This could lead to bad habits, command issues, and even injuries down the road. Then there's the question of pitch count and the protection of young arms at the collegiate level, where the emphasis is not necessarily on development.
    As a result, the jury is still out on who is ahead in real terms of development.  The Blue Jays hope by August that Norris has at least pulled even.