Why did MIA have Stanton in AA instead of AAA?

[44Fishy]

I've been hearing about Marlins' prospect Mike Stanton for a while now and just saw he's about to be promoted to the bigs from AA-

I remember Villanueva was also in AA before he was brought up a few years ago-

 

I've always wondered why these guys weren't in AAA if they were close to being major league-ready-

Is it all about building up their mentality that they can dominate at that level and give them a healthy dose of confidence?

[TheCrew07]

AAA really isn't a step up in competition for hitters, it's a step sideways to a different type of pitching. The hitters in AAA are move advanced than AA so the move to AAA is more of a step up for pitchers.

 

I'm fine with players jumping past AAA if they are performing at a very high level and are going to play everyday. I would think that a 1.167 OPS is raking at such a high level that I'd be willing to see if the player can make the jump directly to the majors.

[JohnBriggs12]

My gosh, there's been numerous players that have jumped from AA and lower to the big leagues.

 

Robin Yount jumped from Rookie level NY/Penn league to the majors. Molitor jumped from single A Midwest League to Milwaukee. Some guys bypassed the minors all together, notably Al Kaline in the 50's and Bob Horner in the 70's.

[homer]

Pujols never even played AA and he only played three games in AAA. Miguel Cabrera went straight from AA to the majors.

[logan82]

John Olerud went straight to the majors and only played in 3 MiLB games in his career.

[battlekow]

It's common these days to use AAA as a kind of holding tank for bench guys and 6th/7th starters, with real prospects often skipping straight from AA to MLB. Staton's situation isn't unusual.

[44Fishy]

Ok, I hear you that it's a more common scenario than I thought-

But I don't really understand the reason why guys like Stanton are not in AAA-

 

Are you saying the reason legit hitting prospects are stashed in AA is the team wants to use the AAA roster for guys with options who can be called up and sent down as needed, whereas they prefer to keep a sure-fire prospect at AA is to provide him with some stability and not mess with his head about being jerked up and down?

 

I thought maybe it had something to do with 40-man rosters-

(I'm not even sure if guys in AA can be on the 40-man roster)

[TheCrew07]

The 40 man roster has nothing to do with minor league assignments. Cody Scarpetta is on the 40 man and pitched for WI last season and is pitching for BC this season, A and A+ respectively.

 

I don't really understand the reason why guys like Stanton are not in

Simply put because real prospects don't spend much in AAA at all anymore, so many people think the pitching in AA is actually better than AAA. The true prospect pitchers are in AA, the guys that throw gas, locate it, and have plus secondary stuff, As BK noted AAA has become more of a storage area for fringe MLB talent, AAA isn't about development anymore.

 

Mike is only 20 years old, he was far and away the best hitter in the Southern League, and the Marlins could use his bat. If he succeeds everyone is happy, if he struggles a bit he gets dropped back to AAA. He's just been that good that he's getting the call straight from AA, I don't think anything more needs to be said.

[homer]

Dude was slugging .726. That's 171 points higher than the next highest guy. Wow.