We have met the enemy and he is us.

Low-A understandably always has the lowest fielding percentage among full-season levels, but its current .961 fielding percentage is 10 points worse than its worst performance of the previous three seasons.

Perhaps guys who in the past would have been playing Rookie or short-season A-ball are having to play full-season A now.

This doesn't tell me that players are bad, it tells me that coaching is bad.

Maybe guys showed up at their single A assignment and found out their team was AAA now

Baseball is ####### up everything.

In 2017, 2018 and 2019, full-season minor league teams had either a .976 or .977 fielding percentage every year. This year, the collective fielding percentage is sitting at .970.

So about 1 extra of every 200 playable balls per team is leading to an error. What's that, maybe one extra error a week? All you need is a couple guys at Class A playing like Jeter did there at 19 years old with 56 errors (average of 4 errors every 9 games).

From the article

“It’s god awful,” said one pro scout. “Tons of strikeouts, bad at-bats, bad defense. Sloppy play in general and lots of plodding games. It’s hard to watch.”

It’s not that players didn’t work during their extra-long layoff, but with baseball there are aspects that can easily be worked on alone (increasing strength, velocity, bat speed, power) and others that can’t easily be replicated without getting out on the field and getting into game or game-type situations.

“I know what minor league guys did for 18 months,” said a second pro scout. “They trained to increase velocity and spin and they trained to increase exit velocity. That’s it. No one picked up a glove.”


Even if a player did pick up a glove, there’s no easy way to work on the timing required to know whether to try to throw to second or third on a ground ball or take the easier out at first base. A catcher can catch some bullpens, but that doesn’t replicate the experience of managing a game. And not every catcher has had pitchers around to practice receiving low-90s sliders.

“We grade tools. A lot of things about playing the game are skills,” said a third scout. “Skills require practice. Baseball is a game sport, not a practice sport. The pandemic has exposed a lot of things. One thing it has exposed is the limits of just the lab. You have to play games to get a feel for the game.”

“It’s god awful,” said one pro scout. “Tons of strikeouts, bad at-bats, bad defense. Sloppy play in general and lots of plodding games. It’s hard to watch.”

Wait.... is the scout talking about minor league games or Major League Baseball here?

The holocaust that eviscerated the minors has reduced the number of low-minor teams in New York State to two: the Brooklyn Cyclones and my Hudson Valley Renegades. There were six NYS teams in the old New York-Pennsylvania League last season; a total of 23 cities in NY state (not all at the same time, of course) have had teams in the NY-Penn.

Sad, really.

There's also the Long Island Ducks, depending on your definition of low-minor.

One thing it has exposed is the limits of just the lab. You have to play games to get a feel for the game.

It's almost as if several levels of minor leagues might be useful. I wonder if Manfred would consider that.

“The game is getting fast on some guys.”

Just bring them up to the majors then. Problem solved.

“Skills require practice. Baseball is a game sport, not a practice sport. The pandemic has exposed a lot of things. One thing it has exposed is the limits of just the lab. You have to play games to get a feel for the game.”

This kind of reeks of "something the old guard wants to be true" rather than "something that is true."

Does seem a little silly. A left fielder that might get 4 chances a game needs to stand out in left field for 70 minutes to get a feel for the game?

There’s teamwork stuff and all but there’s plenty of practice and drills you can do. Whether players making peanuts during a pandemic can afford to devote all their time to that is another question.

“Skills require practice. Baseball is a game sport, not a practice sport. The pandemic has exposed a lot of things. One thing it has exposed is the limits of just the lab. You have to play games to get a feel for the game.”

That statement rings true to a certain extent. I do think "the lab" has its limits - for hitters, facing live pitching and pitch sequencing is important, and vice versa for pitchers. I think you can get 90%, maybe 95%, of the way there in fielding just with practice. However, the ball is going to come off the bat differently in game situations and of course situational awareness is tough to duplicate. But it does seem like it would be a lot easier to work on hitting (bat speed and strength) and pitching (arm strength and spin rate) in a pandemic world. Fielding drills are going to need at least one other person willing to work with you, and probably two.

I do think that "baseball is a game sport, not a practice sport" is probably an overreach. Baseball seems like a practice sport more than most other sports where teamwork and on-field chemistry play a lot bigger role.