The student news site of Davis High School

The Dart

The student news site of Davis High School

The Dart

The student news site of Davis High School

The Dart

The NFL Draft
Jordan Taula, Journalist • May 2, 2024
Please Sleep
Julia Adams, Journalist • May 2, 2024

The MLB Farm System

The+MLB+Farm+System
The sudden rise from teams such as the Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and theArizona D-backs has some people scratching their head. Why are team like them now fightingfor a spot in the world series knocking out some of baseballs superpowers such as the LosAngles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves. This success for some teams can be credited to theirfarm system.The farm system in the Major League Baseball consists of the different levels that theplayers advance through. So, when a kid goes number one over in the MLB draft, we often timesdo not see them in the big leagues for a few years and often times player don’t even make itthere. Unlike the NFL draft when a player is the 1st pick in the 1st round, we can plan on seeingthem on the field by the next year. In the MLB these players have to fight each other up to theleague. They will start at rookie ball these are the kids who were drafted out of high school gobecause of how young they are. Next the is single A, then double AA, and then triple AAA. Allthree of these are fairly the same but as you move up in these leagues the competition gets better.The pitching gets faster, and the ball is getting hit harder. So how does this help teams?Well, when a team continues to lose and lose and lose some more, they earn them selvesthe high draft picks so these terrible team are getting some absolute studs. Let’s take theBaltimore Orioles for example this is a team who hasn’t been good since Cal Ripken Jr. whoretired in 2001. So after so much failure they have year after year gotten high draft prospectsyear after year, but due to this farm system set up we haven’t been able to see these players untiljust recently and they are some studs.A player such as Adley Rutschman is a great example of this. Adley was an absolutework horse at Oregan State University. Rutschman went 1st overall in the 2019 draft and we justnow have gotten to see his talents in the Show. He was in the farm system for 3 years, but this isa great thing because baseball is so hard.When asked Deion Sanders said that the hardest thing that he ever had to do during hisathletic career was hit a baseball. In college baseball they use different baseball, and they usemetal bats and pitchers are throwing around 90. If they were to go straight to the league it wouldnot be fair at all. They would have to face veteran pitchers who have spent several years in theleague mastering their craft. And they would have to use wood bats. The difference betweenmetal bats and wood bats is huge. Metal bats are often lighter, with a bigger sweet spot, and amore forgiving barrel making them easier to hit with. They also put up higher exit velocitynumbers. Wood bats are rigid and stiff they will hurt your hands if you don’t hit it perfect, andthey don’t have this fancy technology to help, so this is a major adjustment.Rookie ball is an amazing thing. This is the start to this major adjustment. And once theybegin to succeed in here they will move on to low A Minor league baseball and this is where thecurve balls get better and the pitchers start to throw harder and after spending time there they arepushed to there limits this is where they struggle. Once they show progress and they begin to

succeed they are pushed up to double A and it’s the same things they will struggle and once theybegin to succeed they move up to triple A, and often times players will spend a really long timehear. Many players give up at this point as well because they just are not good enough to make itto the Show.So with all of this in mind we understand how a team can go from 0 to 100 real quick.This is because they get all of these high draft picks and then they develop them. Its almost likethe stock market. They let them sit for a while and when they feel that they have reached thathigh potential they will pull them up. And we are seeing this in action right now with BaltimoreOrioles. They may have not advanced to the playoffs but they were a terrible team just a fewyears ago but with a super strong farm system they have acquired and worked with many greatplayers that are going to help them out big time and we saw that this year. Where they just cameup short to the Texas Rangers who went through the same process. The farm system is a greatthing for baseball because it give players time to adjust and master there talents so that they areready for the big leagues.

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About the Contributor
Wyatt Horning
Wyatt Horning, Journalist
I am Wyatt Horning, I am a senior at davis high school. Some of my interest would include baseball, lifting, and pickleball. I am a catcher, first baseman, and DH for the Davis High school baseball team. I moved to kaysville at the age of 12 and have lived here ever since. People would say that I am smart and funny. I enjoy hanging out with friends and playing baseball.