Minor League Baseball Spring Report 2007 Released by Minor League News (MLN Sports)

Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) May 12, 2007 -- Minor League News (MLN) announced the completion of its MLN Spring 2007 Baseball Report in this month's issue of MLN Sports Zone, the electronic magazine of minor league and independent professional sports. In addition, MLN announced that the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals were named the winners of the first MLN 2007 Spring Farm award for their exceptional development of players in Spring Training.

Minor League News reporters fanned out over the Cactus League and Grapefruit League this spring to review the players on the lower end of the major league 40 Man Roster, the non-roster invitees to major league camp, the all-important winter, early or step camps and the roll-outs of full-minor league pre-season action.

Just as with the MLN FAB50 Baseball 2006 rankings that occur mid-season, the editors of Minor League News believe that professional baseball careers are a bit like murders: You need the means, opportunity and motivation to make it to the major leagues.

Most players are long in the means, and struggle with the motivation. It is the movement, though, through that narrow window of opportunity on MLB clubs loaded with big-budget players and multi-million dollar contracts, that can mean the difference between a major league career and a lot of time in the minors.

Every spring brings surprises. This season, the New York Yankees surprised by jump-starting their farm system. Steinbrenner & Co. are in search of more future franchise players with a "Yankee-made" tag.

The Boston Red Sox struggle with the balance between the check book and tapping the power of their farm system, searching for the right mix to bring another World Series title to Beantown.

The Minnesota Twins go deep with one of the richest talent pools in baseball, while the grass is looking mighty sparse in talent-drought laden Florida.

The World Champion, St. Louis Cardinals win the MLN Spring Farm 2007 award for running the tightest ship in spring. While 2006 was a great year for the Cardinals in the major leagues, it was a rough year for the farm system. The Cardinals made a lot of moves in the off-season to shore up the farm, and you'll meet some of the key players who may change their minor league outlook for 2007.

We will introduce you to the rising stars, like the Twins' Chad Span, the prospects hitting free-agent signing barriers, like Brandon Webb of the Red Sox, and players seeking greener turf and a shot at the big leagues, like the Los Angeles Dodgers' Mitch Jones.

You will also meet fresh faces from the Double-A leagues and below who sprang up on our radar this spring, like rising Cardinals pitchers Kevin Ool and Troy Cate. Cate moved through the lower classes of Cardinals baseball like a tornado, delivering a .57 ERA with a crisp .70 WHIP in Springfield and 1.54 with a .78 WHIP in the High Class-A Florida State League with the Palm Beach Cardinals.

Like Star Wars, the Papelbon saga continues, as the next two installments of the family pitching trilogy move on their organizations. We'll tell you which one looks more like Jon, at least on the mound.

Each major league club has its own Spring Report, which are broken down by Cactus League or Grapefruit League. A few clubs, like the Mets, Cardinals, and Twins, have expanded photo features and in-depth introductions to many of the players who will grace your minor league parks this summer.

It's all available NOW at the new MLN Sports Zone, the oldest continuously publishing all-minor, all-sport electronic magazine. Since 2000, we've featured the players who have the MAJOR ATTITUDE™ to make their way to the major leagues in baseball, hockey, basketball and football.
View the complete story now


MLN Sports Zone is a publication of MLN Sports Group LLC. Other MLN publications include:

The MAJOR BLOGS of Minor League News -- Minor league and independent sports news critics and blogs from the leading journalists in this slice of sports;

MLN - The Raw Feed -- The national sports newswire dedicated to minor league and indy game highlights, box scores, transactions and more.

The Open Source Sports Directory -- A wiki-based catalog of every minor league and indy player from 1900 to the present that you help build.

For display advertising, please see our advertising information.