Minors

Minor league baseball refers to professional baseball leagues in North America that compete at levels below that of Major League Baseball. more...

Home
All Star Game
Anaheim Angels
Arizona Diamondbacks
Atlanta Braves
Autographs-Original
Baltimore Orioles
Baseball & Softball Items
Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Defunct Teams
Detroit Tigers
Florida Marlins
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Los Angeles Dodgers
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
Minors
Montreal Expos
Negro Leagues
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Oakland Athletics
Other
Other MLB Items
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Playoffs
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners
St. Louis Cardinals
Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Texas Rangers
Toronto Blue Jays
Washington Nationals
World Series

All the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses, but all of the best-known leagues are members of Minor League Baseball, an umbrella organization for leagues that have agreements to operate as affiliates of Major League Baseball. Several leagues, known as independent leagues, do not have any links whatsoever to Major League Baseball, and thus are not members of Minor League Baseball (the organization). The most prominent of these leagues is the Northern League.

Each league affiliated with Minor League Baseball is composed of teams that generally are independently owned and operated, but always, with the exception of the Mexican League, directly "affiliated" with (and occasionally named after) one major-league team; some affiliations stay relatively constant, while others change from year to year. For example, the Omaha Royals (briefly renamed the Omaha Golden Spikes from 1999-2001, but changed back to Royals in 2002) have been the Class AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals since the Royals joined the American League in 1969, but the Columbus Clippers changed affiliations for the 2007 season from the New York Yankees to the Washington Nationals. However, a small number of minor league teams are directly owned by their major-league parent, such as the Springfield Cardinals, owned by the St. Louis Cardinals, and all of the Atlanta Braves' affiliates except for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans; this effectively locks these teams down during affiliation shuffles.

The purpose of the system is to develop players available to play in the major leagues on demand.

Today, 20 minor baseball leagues operate with 246 member clubs in large, medium, and small towns, as well as the suburbs of major cities, across the United States and Canada.

Minor league baseball also goes by the nicknames the "farm system," "farm club," or "farm team(s)," because of a joke passed around by major league players in the 1930s when St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey formalized the system, and teams in small towns were "growing players down on the farm like corn."

History

Baseball evolved in the mid-to-late 19th century from an amateur pastime into an organized professional sport.

Fully and openly professional baseball teams arose in 1869. The earliest professional association, the National Association of 1871 to 1875, comprised all fully professional teams. This proved unworkable. There was no way to ensure competitive balance, and financially unsound clubs often failed midseason. This problem was solved in 1876 with the formation of the National League, with a limited membership which excluded less competitive and financially weaker teams.

Read more at Wikipedia.org