What is wrong with people? Washington Nats owner, worth $4.3 billion, reduces stipend of minor leaguers from $400 a week to $300

There are too many levels of the minor leagues in baseball as well as too many independent leagues. The talent pool is super diluted and the money being paid out to athletes is super diluted. If they reduced to a single level of minor leagues the pay could be much higher and the athletes would be valued more. The value of minor league baseball players really low, unless you get classified as a "prospect".

Imagine if Basketball, Football and Hockey all had 3 tiers of leagues below the top level in the US. How diluted with the talent pools be across those leagues.

What are they really doing for a persons growth to have a player in the minor leagues for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years. If you can't make it after 5 years in the minors maybe you should be in a different line of work.

Sounds like the Lerner family changed their minds.

Guys, Rojo's frustration is pretty simple. I think this is what he would have done if he was in charge.

There are three separate entities here:

1. Lerner Family

2. Washington Nationals

3. Washington Nationals Minor League Team

Each has their own income, expenses, liabilities, and equity.

I think Rojo wants the Lerner Family to extend a relief package to the Washington Nationals Minor League Team in the form of an "owner contribution." This is better than having the Washington Nationals or the Minor League Team take on the burden of the expense of paying the players while there is no season. The Lerner Family should consider this, and I think they have since they have since resumed the full stipend.

If you do a little math, investing 4.3 BILLION $ and making a measly 5% a year would get you a little over 4 MILLION $ a WEEK! Unless they have 40,000 minor league people they are cutting wages $100 a week, the owner will still have more money next year than he does now.

we have our hero wrote:

nope wrote:

The vast majority of minor leaguers are not prospects, they are just there so prospects have someone to play their games with. Anything they are getting is essentially charity.

so in other words, they are essential to the development of prospects worth tens of millions of dollars and chosen specifically for their ability in that task....got it.

LOL nailed it

Americans' near-sycophantic eagerness to side with parasitic, exploitative billionaires in ways that materially harm 99.99% of the people in their own country (let alone the rest of the world) is truly astounding to me.

I support the move, let's the prospects know that they really gotta want it, work harder if you want to have a cushy life playing a children's game.

In other words , hobby baseball players make more than hobby joggers?

Does everyone know the importance of minor leaguers? Yes, most of you are right that 95% of them are not going to appear in the big leagues. However it is what baseball is all about. When players retire from A ball or even Rookie League ball, they go back to their hometowns and spread the game of baseball. This is as coach, teacher, or even father. If we had only AAA baseball which would make each league roster ~50 players total. That hinders the knowledge and development of the game.

[quote]im at work wrote:

Guys, Rojo's frustration is pretty simple. I think this is what he would have done if he was in charge.

There are three separate entities here:

1. Lerner Family

2. Washington Nationals

3. Washington Nationals Minor League Team

Doesn't Lerner own 2 and 3?