Post by mainstreet on Aug 17, 2017 4:26:26 GMT
This can provide a quick reference guide to compare various professional baseball leagues from around the world. Leagues in the same cell are roughly equivalent in terms of quality of baseball. I am not going to claim to be the ultimate authority on this, however I have compiled this from watching lots of baseball, as well as tracking interviews regarding players in specific leagues, and watching the flow of players.
For convenience, I have included three columns. The first column is numeric, serving as a quasi "division" indicator a la what is seen in world soccer. The second column indicate the official level nomenclature as considered by the Minor/Major League Baseball System, although only actual Minor Leagues have these tables. The goal, here, is to compare the Minor Leagues to the rest of the world. Country of league will be included except for CAN/USA-based leagues.
*Minor League Baseball considers the Liga Mexicana to be AAA level, however that is due to crowd sizes and populations of the cities; baseball experts generally find the league to be closer to AA quality.
^Despite all of these US leagues being officially classified as Rookie-ball, the Pioneer and Appalachian Leagues are likely to be a bit higher quality than the AZL, GCL, and DSL.
Please note that not being on this list does not mean a lack of professionalism. There are many independent leagues that pop up in the US and Canada and they can be difficult to track. These leagues can vary in quality from the A+ to below the R level. Also, many leagues around the world are difficult to track; however, if a *top* league for a country is not listed here, that probably means its quality is generally thought to be lower than Rookie-ball, as best as I can determine. This can still be professional however. If anyone believes I have made a mistake (especially an omission), please do mention it.
Notable Exception: The Caribbean World Series feeder leagues are deliberately excluded from this list. Players from all levels on this table can often find themselves participating in the Caribbean winter league circuit, making the system volatile from year to year and quite pointless to attempt to pin down a level. I would anticipate on *average* these leagues being AA.
For convenience, I have included three columns. The first column is numeric, serving as a quasi "division" indicator a la what is seen in world soccer. The second column indicate the official level nomenclature as considered by the Minor/Major League Baseball System, although only actual Minor Leagues have these tables. The goal, here, is to compare the Minor Leagues to the rest of the world. Country of league will be included except for CAN/USA-based leagues.
| Division | Classification | Leagues |
| 1 | MLB | American League National League |
| 2 | AAA | Pacific Coast League International League Nippon Professional Baseball (JPN) |
| 3 | AA | Eastern League Southern League Texas League Korean Baseball Organization (KOR) Serie Nacional (CUB) Liga Mexicana (MEX)* |
| 4 | A+ | California League Carolina League Florida State League Chinese Professional Baseball League (TPE) Hoofdklasse (NED) |
| 5 | A | Midwest League South Atlantic League TheABL (AUS) Serie Federalie (ITA) |
| 6 | SS | Northwest League New York-Penn League 1st Bundesliga (GER) Extraleague (CZE) |
| 7^ | R | Pioneer League Appalachian League Arizona League Gulf Coast League Dominican Summer League (DOM) Division de Honor (ESP) |
*Minor League Baseball considers the Liga Mexicana to be AAA level, however that is due to crowd sizes and populations of the cities; baseball experts generally find the league to be closer to AA quality.
^Despite all of these US leagues being officially classified as Rookie-ball, the Pioneer and Appalachian Leagues are likely to be a bit higher quality than the AZL, GCL, and DSL.
Please note that not being on this list does not mean a lack of professionalism. There are many independent leagues that pop up in the US and Canada and they can be difficult to track. These leagues can vary in quality from the A+ to below the R level. Also, many leagues around the world are difficult to track; however, if a *top* league for a country is not listed here, that probably means its quality is generally thought to be lower than Rookie-ball, as best as I can determine. This can still be professional however. If anyone believes I have made a mistake (especially an omission), please do mention it.
Notable Exception: The Caribbean World Series feeder leagues are deliberately excluded from this list. Players from all levels on this table can often find themselves participating in the Caribbean winter league circuit, making the system volatile from year to year and quite pointless to attempt to pin down a level. I would anticipate on *average* these leagues being AA.