Quote:
Originally Posted by Milwaukee City
The way I am told it is AAA is just for aging players with little to no shot of making the big leagues and for MLB players to get rehab and of they need a spot start they just call up a guy from AAA and that High A and AA is where the real prospects lie because the jump from AA to AAA is basically the same thing. From what I understand when a team signs a college player he gets put into Low A or High A and then after a couple of years makes the jump to AA and usually from there spends a year or two in AAA then off to the majors. AM I right about this? it also seems lately a lot of minor league guys spend most of their time in AA and never see AAA. What's the point of having a AAA squad then? maybe for the Mike Fiers' of the world a 30 yr old starter that finally get's it.
I like to consider myself a smart baseball fan, but I just don't know much about the minors and how it exactly works.
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Well, you can rely on what you are told or you can gather your own information and come to your own conclusions.
Let's look at some recent Rookies of the Year and see if they spent time in AAA before playing significant time in the minors
Mike Trout: 20 games in AAA
Bryce Harper: 21 games in AAA
Jeremy Hellickson (starting pitcher): 30 games in AAA
Craig Kimbrel (relief pitcher): 50 games in AAA
Neftali Feliz (starting/relief pitcher): 25 games in AAA
Buster Posey: 82 games in AAA
Andrew Bailey: 1 game in AAA
Chris Coghlan: 25 games in AAA
Out of the last ROY winners all of them spent at least some time in AAA. 4 of them (Hellickson, Kimbrel, Feliz and Posey) spent what I'd consider significant time (half a season or more) in AAA.
I'd
generally agree that the best prospects don't spend much time in AAA.
You'll see that AAA rosters typically have a mix of young prospects and older players. Teams generally have some veteran guys around in case of injury to a major league player. They stash these guys in AAA.
Let's look at the
Albuquerque Isotopes roster
Catchers:
Jesus Flores - 28 with 300+ games of major league experience
Matt Wallach - 27 his first season above AA: considered a fringe prospect for the Dodgers
Steve Cilladi - 25 his first season above A ball.
Infield:
Scott Van Slyke - 26 has 27 major league games. Recently removed from LA's 40 man roster
Alfredo Amezaga - 35 has 584 major league games.
Rusty Ryal - 30 has 134 major league games
Elian Herrera - 28 has 67 major league games
Brian Barden - 32 has 119 major league games
Dee Gordon - 25 has 143 major league games. Was one of LA's top prospects. His stock fell after a poor year last year.
Osvaldo Martinez - 25 has 34 major league games
Outfield:
Tony Gwynn Jr - 30 has 605 major league games
Matt Angle - 27 has 31 major league games
Alex Castellanos - 26 has 16 major league games. One of the Dodgers; top 20 prospects
Nick Buss - 26 his first season in AAA. A non-prospect for the Dodgers.
I wont run through all of the pitchers, but it's more of the same.
There are a couple of top Dodger prospects in 23 year old Matt Magill and 24 year old Chris Withrow along with guys like 35 year old Peter Moylan (295 major league games) and 33 year old Sean White (105 major league games).