does AA not exist in this world?

Glad it was useful.

For the record, 20-year old Jose Fernandez jumped from high A (Florida State League) to the majors last year. He pitched 173 innings, made the All-Star team and won the NL Rookie of the Year award. So, rare, but it happens, in this case, spectacularly.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?" - Morris Buttermaker

My guess has always been that at Crash's age, his skills had degraded below AAA levels. However, his team still had to pay his contract and jumped at the opportunity to sell when the Bulls' Major League affiliate made the offer to buy it out. Their investment in Nuke, made it worth paying a A player a AAA salary.

A player can acquire a quad-A label in any manner of ways. They are often one-dimensional players that dominate minor league competition with a single above average skill, for example power or speed, but who find that skill blunted when facing major league competition. Or their flaws are exploited by major league opponents to the point that the quad-A player is unable to contribute positively to the team.

Examples of quad-A types are

-hitters with decent hitting ability, but cannot play a defensive position reliably. There are jobs for guys who do nothing but hit, but if that's all you can do, you have to be very, very good at it, not just decent.

-hitters who are spectacular fielders, but can't hit at all (good glove no hit)

-hitters with good power, but who strike out a ton or are extremely slow

-hitters who get by with speed, but lack power

-hitters who feast on fastballs, but can't hit quality breaking pitches (Pedro Serrano effect)

-pitchers with "trick" pitches that fool minor leaguers but get walloped by big leaguers

-pitchers with big fastballs, but who lack movement on their pitches, or have poor control

-pitchers with excellent control, but don't throw hard


Quintessential quad-A players will reliably excel at the AAA level, but consistently fail in the majors due to their significant faults. You can often spot them by their statistics. The guy who hits 25 homers, but has an OBP of .290. The pitcher with the 2.95 ERA who strikes out only four hitters per 9 innings. The reliever who saves 30 games with a 4.00 ERA. Guys like this usually end up shuttling back and forth through their career, mostly as temporary subs and backups. Sometimes a quad-A player can correct those faults and become a viable major league player in their late 20s, but most do not.

And, yes, as a general rule, older more experienced players like Crash will excel against young A ball players. The average A ball player is probably 21 or 22 years old, some are younger. Occasionally, you'll see a guy who is 25, 26 or older playing in A ball and they'll usually do very well. This can excite the fan base who see only see the statistics and think they've found the next All-Star for the big league team, but those players fall to earth (and sometimes below) when matched up with their peers.

Crash is probably a hitter with above average power (he sets the minor league home run record), but who has significant holes in his swing and/or has sub-standard defensive ability as a catcher. His swing would be carved up by major league hurlers ("ungodly breaking stuff, sliders that just explode") negating his power other than the occasional mistake and without sterling defensive ability to fall back on, a big league club would have little use for him.



"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?" - Morris Buttermaker

The current designation has been in place since the mid-60s.

Prior to that, minor leagues were classified A, B, C, D. The same general structure existed, only the nomenclature differed.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?" - Morris Buttermaker