Skill Development vs. Game Readiness

Throughout a player’s time in the minor leagues, they are constantly pushed in different directions as they progress through levels of play. Coaches at the lower levels are primarily focused on helping players improve, with an emphasis on skill development. This involves enhancing a player’s physical abilities and honing the specific skills required to continue their ascent to the highest levels of play.

At the lower levels, the focus is on helping players hit the ball harder, throw nastier pitches, and make defensive plays that meet the standards of professional baseball. A significant effort is put into developing a player’s toolset to “defend against a lack of skill,” helping them become more well-rounded and adaptable.

However, a notable shift occurs as players approach the AA and AAA levels. The focus transitions from purely skill development to game readiness. At this stage, players begin to place greater emphasis on game-day preparation. They study how pitchers will attack them, think more deeply about their personal challenges, and prepare for specific game situations.

While it may seem like there is a dichotomy between skill development and game readiness, these two areas often overlap. For example, a player being thrown out going from first to third can sometimes be a teachable moment worth celebrating for its aggressive nature and potential for growth. At other times, the same situation might be reviewed from a game management perspective, as one would on a big-league staff, analyzing what could have been done differently to improve the player’s future outcomes as they move through the ranks. In these situations, the player is often pushing their limits in terms of base-running skills but can learn from the situational outcome of such an aggressive play.

There is a common belief that as players advance, they often lack the situational awareness needed to become big leaguers. This area often receives criticism.

Stories surface like this all the time: taking secondary leads, looking in for signs, throwing to the right base, hitting the right cutoff man, and taking the correct route on a fly ball may often be inconsequential in the box score — at least in the minors. However, for some Cardinals players, deficiencies in those areas have required corrective action by coaches in the majors, where failure to execute on such finer points is often a recipe for disaster.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5798267/2024/09/27/st-louis-cardinals-jordan-walker-john-mozeliak/

The priorities of teams and players early in their careers typically center around rapidly improving skills, which can push situational learning to the side. This is acceptable for players at the beginning of their careers, as mistakes at lower levels often carry little repercussion for the organization or team. The issue is that players aren’t always given enough time to develop these skills or aren’t instructed enough in sessions to examine the different leverage points that the game presents.

The problem often isn’t that the skills aren’t being taught, but that the speed at which they need to develop is incredibly fast. As players progress through the minor leagues, the emphasis should shift from physical development to maintaining performance while learning what the game demands. Baseball is unique in that the season is long and arduous, making it challenging to maintain consistent performance. Moving players toward understanding what is necessary to succeed over 162 games should be a primary focus in their development.

It would seem that the speed of progression or at least the change in progression has made it hard for teams at potentially adjust how they go about instructing players on situation gameplay. In 2019 and when you look back at the 5 years prior to see where players spent the majority of their minor leagues :

We can see a decent spread but a gradiual progression as they move up the ranks of the minor league system. We can see that players who qualified to be Rookie of the year in 2019 had spent more time spread around the minor leagues with more time at each and specficially the lower levels. This model was more of a gradual build up for players. Allowing them to experience each level of play and to make situational mistakes that allow for steady growth.

Now lets jump to 2024:

We start to see a stark difference when it comes to where rookies spent time. We see that much more of the concentration was at the highest level of the minor leagues. With almost 60% of their time being spent at AA and AAA. While in 2019 that was only 45%. So players are moving much after through the ranks which is probably a good thing in a lot of ways.

I’ve come to think of it as a funnel: as players ascend, situational baseball becomes increasingly important. The speed of players ascent through the minors has become more rapid. Which causes issues for the levels at the top of the pyramid here.

Subsequently, the emphasis should shift toward game situations and creating awareness around the different scenarios where players need to “answer the bell.” While situational gameplay may not be the primary focus at lower levels, it becomes critical during a player’s finishing school at the upper levels. Coaches cannot afford for a player to reach the big leagues without knowing how to handle specific situations.

Players now advance through AAA so quickly that they often cannot adequately learn these scenarios, which places the responsibility of situational gameplay learning on the AA level. It should be a combination of experiences at these higher levels that pushes players to learn more. It is unfair to expect a AAA staff to immerse a player in a variety of situations, sometimes in as little as a month of games. The issue for some teams is that they wait to instruct at AAA, which is what they used to do for their players. Treating the level as a place where players can fine-tune what they developed at the lower levels. However, in 2024, players are spending very little time in AAA, and more consideration needs to be made to push this ‘finishing school’ mentality down one level, where players spend significantly more time.

For example, here are the 2024 Rookies and where they spent their time in the minor leagues:

There is a decent spread in some spots but we can see that there is a large percentage of players that are spending a higher percentage of their time in AA rather than AAA. Especially for players that are younger, or not blocked by MLB talent. As we look deeper lets look at which players spent more time in AA than AAA:

For fairness let us look at the the list of players who played more in AAA than AA:

The league as a whole seems to be almost split on how to handle players at the upper levels of play in 2024. We see from the following that more players in the 2024 Rookie Class play more games in AA than they did in AAA. Which starts to really paint the picture for a need to move this idea of focusing more on the situational part of the game at a higher point at a slightly lower level of play.

Ultimately, understanding where each player stands in their development — whether they are honing their physical skills or being tested in game situations — is crucial for both players and coaches. Clear communication regarding the objectives of each developmental stage can empower players to contextualize their mistakes and successes, providing them with a roadmap for continuous improvement.

As the structure of minor league development evolves, teams must ensure that players receive adequate time and instruction to master situational awareness before reaching the majors. This may necessitate pushing situational gameplay instruction to lower levels or implementing a more structured developmental process to help players comprehend the situational demands of the game.

Ultimately, understanding where each player stands in their development process — whether they are refining their physical tools or being tested in game situations — is crucial for both players and coaches. Clear communication about the goals of each stage of development can help players contextualize their mistakes and successes, providing them with a roadmap for improvement. As the structure of minor league development evolves, teams must ensure that players are given enough time and instruction to master situational awareness before reaching the majors.

This could mean pushing down instruction based on situational gameplay to lower levels more heavily or taking time to implement a more structured development process to help players understand the situations that the game demands of them. By pushing this learning process down to the AA level and providing players with more opportunities to practice under game-like conditions, teams can better prepare their prospects for the rigors of the major leagues. After all, it’s not just about having the skills to succeed, but also knowing how and when to use them that makes a player truly game-ready.