Triple-A (baseball) - Purpose

Purpose

Triple-A teams' main purpose is to prepare players for the Major Leagues. ESPN wrote in 2010:

Winning is nice, but secondary. It's much more important for a young prospect like outfielder Xavier Paul to get regular at-bats against lefties, or work on dropping down sacrifice bunts with a runner on first, than it is to take three of four from the Portland Beavers.

Both young players and veterans play for Triple-A teams:

There are the young prospects speeding through the organization on the fastest treadmill, the guys who used to be young prospects who are in danger of topping out in Triple-A, the 30-somethings trying to get back to the majors after an injury or a rough patch, and the guys just playing a few more seasons because someone still wants them and they still want to.

Players at this level who are on the 40-man roster of a major league team can be invited to come up to the major league club once the major league roster expands on September 1 (though teams will usually wait until their affiliates' playoff runs are over, should they qualify). For teams in contention for the post-season, these players create the flexibility needed to rest regular starters in late regular season games. For those not in contention, recalling such players gives them an opportunity to evaluate their future players under game conditions.

Read more about this topic:  Triple-A (baseball)

Famous quotes containing the word purpose:

    “War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.”
    —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)

    “A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?”
    —George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    “I have sought his aid—but if after endeavoring to do my best in the light which he affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise.”
    —Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)