Every year some of the Elite teams like the Ontario Blue Jays play what were referred to as Rookie class teams. These were the players in A ball 1st year. These games I refered to were in 05 and that is when I stopped following it. OBJ played several minor league / college teams that year and did very well.
Their 05 shedule is still on their site.

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He could mean "complex" rookie league, where many hs players go after the draft.Also young latin players and rehab players play there

That is what I was thinking also, until I reread the post and it said they play those games "every Spring."

From everything I have seen during Spring training, every player in a minor league organization is assigned to a team and they play every single afternoon following morning practice. It would not be possible for them to be playing extra games against a high school all star group.

BHD, why don't you give me a link to the schedule.
To my knowledge, there isn't a minor league classification of "rookie league" that is made up from guys who played "A" ball the prior year. In fact, Toronto has their minor league schedule for Spring Training posted and it is made up of AAA,AA,high A and low A and there are no players left after that. A team made up of "A" ball players would smoke a group of high school players, even an All Star group.
I think njbb is correct. This could only be players who are in extended Spring training due to injury or failure to be placed on a team following Spring training, combined with some Latin players who are very young. That would not be representative of any minor league team.

This team beat Connor State in 04.

http://ontariobluejays.com/

For some reason they have not kept the site up the last 2 years.

BHD,
Thanks for the link.
I checked the 2005 schedule for the 18 and under team. Played a lot of games but I don't see any games against a minor league team, at any level.
They played plenty of JC's and some 4 year colleges in the MAC. Am I missing something?

Yes the spring games in Florida are not shown for some reason.
The Rookie team was 1st year A ball players and not injured players. The team for some reason didn't finish the schedule scores in 05 and I can't find the link to 04 which was the year they posted everything including the Minor league games. They have stopped keeping the site up in regards to their schedule. The only thing I can think of is that they lost several players to the JR National team later in the season.
My son played against them in 05 and they had some great players. I know they played several teams 1st rear players which were refered to as Rookie Class teams in the write ups.
I will see if I can find the info.

I am familiar with the Ontario Blue Jays and I have seen them play several times over the past several years in tournaments in Michigan, including AABC Regional Tournaments. They are similar to the elite travel teams that play in the Great Lakes region.

The schedule on that link did not include any MAC teams, however. The Miami University teams were Miami University Community College teams in Ohio. It would be a very rare occasion that an NCAA DI baseball program would compete against a team like this as the game would count against its game limitations, and stats would not count for them. I really don't see any benefit for a DI team to do so.

Spring games in Florida are shown on that schedule; some of them took place at Cocoa Expo.

Spring Training, Clearwater, Florida 18
2004-03-14 G01 - vs. Philadelphia Phillies "A"
L 9-6 stats

2004-03-15 G02 - vs. Indian River Community College
L 20-7 stats

2004-03-17 G03 - vs. Academie Baseball du Canada
L 3-2 stats

2004-03-17 G04 - vs. Academie Baseball du Canada
L 4-0 stats

2004-03-18 G05 - vs. New York Mets "A"
L 3-2 stats

2004-03-19 G06 - vs. Florida Marlins
L 4-0 stats

This is another Elite team. 04 schedule. This team is not as strong as OBJ.
OBJ came in 3rd in their league this last season. I can find lots more teams that played very well against ML A teams.
OBJ beat Connor State the year they won the D1 JC WS.
The question was could D! teams fair well against ML teams and I say yes. I have always believed the jump from college is not that huge. Ayway I hope my son keeps believing that.
OBJ is a top tier team. Look at the tourneys they have won.

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The schedule on that link did not include any MAC teams, however. The Miami University teams were Miami University Community College teams in Ohio.

grateful, thanks for the clarification.
For the games in Fla, during March, that would be in the middle of minor league Spring Training. There would not be any chance they would play a travel team at that point. Those guys are at the field at 7am, practice from 8-11am, or so, take extra work after that, and have daily games at 1pm against other MLB clubs.
BHD, despite how this might have been reported, there is little chance a high school travel team competed against a roster comprised of minor leaguers at any level, especially A ball.

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I have always believed the jump from college is not that huge. Ayway I hope my son keeps believing that.

I think you could be making a huge mistake, if that is your view. I have talked with upwards of 20 or so minor leaguers and read numerous interviews with others. Whether they played at Texas, Vanderbilt, Auburn or other top DI programs, every one has said the jump in the quality of play, of players, and expectation is huge.

I understand what you are saying but this was 1st year A ball players during the 2 mpnth spring training. At the time they played I did see the rosters and they were ligit players. I assume that is why they called in Rookie Class .

Senior Chris Emanuele at home plate after homering in the first inning of NU's exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox.

This was against the ML club at the same time of year. They held their own for a good part of the game. They had a full roster.

quote:

the jump in the quality of play, of players, and expectation is huge.

21 infielddad

Thank you for posting the 2004 schedule. Using that and your prior posts, I have a sense of the games/competition. In Spring Training, the MLB teams only use designations of Low A to AAA. Low A is the players from the Rookie leagues the prior year, who were lower round picks or free agents, mixed with some very young Latin players.
Either the Phillies, Mets, etc split a squad of those players or played a game with that type of squad.
What you also need to know is that, unfortunately, most of the non Latin players from those Low A teams in Spring Training either get released the first week in April or by June following the draft. Those games would not be played against minor leaguers who get an assignment in April and play either High or Low A Ball for the next 144 games. If your impression is that those games are reflective of the level of play in the minor leagues, you could be making an enormous mistake. What you watched was a group of players who had huge dreams that didn't last more than a few more weeks, in many instances.

My belief is that if he believes he can do it he will. He has alraedy faced ML players and has done very well.
We have lots of experience with ML players as our city had a team for almost 10 years. We were invoved with them on a daily basis. He threw with them and saw what they had.
He worked out with ML players under Ron Davis ( former NYY great). I will be the last one to tell him he can't do it.
Whats the worst that can happen ? get beat up ! He has done that and still believes.

Bobble, those would have to be second year players unless none of them signed following the previous June's draft. Rookie teams are not formed until after the draft; thus the short season leagues.

There are also several minor leaguers who get released at the end of spring training each spring. Some stay in extended spring training awaiting an assignment or waiting until June to be placed on a short season roster or get released.

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I will be the last one to tell him he can't do it.

BHD, I have absolutely no argument with that statement.
What I am proposing is the view that the "jump isn't significant" may not be helpful. This is not a situation where past experience is a good predictor of future success.
When you get to minor league ball, you have to improve the quality of your play every single day. If you don't, you eventually get passed by others who do and you get released. They play 144 games for a reason. Rest assured that your son, and every other playing minor league ball must have a very positive outlook. While the improvement in the quality of play is significant, some of the players are able to make those adjustments and move up the ladder. Our son has "survived" minor league ball for 3 years. This off season, he conditioned with a passion I have never seen before. There is one reason: he knows he needs to be bigger, stronger, faster, and better to move to the next levels of play. He has absolutely no sense of security that what he did before means anything beginning March 5.

INFD which ML team is your son at? The Jays had their A team here for 10 years until the owners sold it to an outfit in NJ for millions. We also had a Pirate team here for a few years 10 miles from where I live. My son's elite team played there in their ball park for the last 2 years before college.
We have been around ML ball for years and know that it is tough but so is college.

BHD,
Our son is with the Blue Jay's organization.

I honesty think that D-1 baseball compare fairly to short season baseball with a light advantage for pro baseball over college. The ideal situation for me is to get a scholarship at a D-1 school, play 3 or four years, and them to sign professional. To sign for professional baseball means 1 to 5 % of chance to become a ML baseball player. Going to school means 90% opportunity of become a professional person, and still the 1-5 % chance of become a ML baseball player.

I believe common sense should tell you that once you get beyond a certain level in the minors, the teams are without a doubt better than the best D1. After all, the minors are composed of the best of these players from years before. They are also comprised of the best players in high school from back when these college players were in high school who have made it through a couple of years of pro ball.

However, I am not convinced that the lowest level of the minors is better than the best D1. The reason is that, while there are some outstanding former college players, there are a lot of very young players labeled with "potential" .

Anyone who is around the game, knows that professional baseball drafts on "potential" and "projection". While it serves them well eventually, the lowest level is filled with these players who are bigger on "potential" than actually "have game".

I'm sure we've all seen guys who get drafted ahead of guys we know can play the game. Unfortunately these guys either couldn't quite run quite fast enough, couldn't throw quite hard enough, or weren't quite big enough. The only thing they can do is play the game.

So until these pro players who are thought to have so much "potential" and "projection" are weeded out, I'll put my money on the top D1 team who are filled with guys who we know can play and compete.