Cubs Thu Oct 10 2013

MLB Missing Chance To Showcase Young Talent

By Chad Ruter

Being a Cubs fan at this particular point in time requires epic amounts of patience. In the months of August and September, you start to convince yourself that the pain will never end, and you might end up as just another Cubs lover who will never see their favorite team win a title.

Then comes October. Playoff teams battle it out, bad teams fire their managers, and the talk of 'next year' starts to flood the airwaves and internet columns. It's also marks the beginning of the Arizona Fall League, where top prospects from around the majors gather for five weeks of stiff competition to either extend a shortened season (Kris Bryant), prove they're recovered from an injury (Jorge Soler and Albert Almora) or try and confirm a solid season wasn't a mirage (Wes Darvill).

For Cubs fans that are sold on a system loaded with prospects, it's baseball they can watch and actually be excited about. Except that the games aren't televised.

In a world where nearly 100 percent of major and minor league games are streamed online, it's pretty absurd that a league stacked with the future of Major League Baseball isn't available for people interested in it. Sure, the league office is wholly concerned about the playoffs this time of year, but many fanbases could care less. If you're a Minnesota Twins fan, you'd almost assuredly rather get a glimpse of superstar prospect Byron Buxton than watch the Tigers play another baseball game.

It can't be that cost prohibitive to televise a league with six total teams for an enterprise that raked nearly $7.5 billion in revenues in 2012. Hell, they could probably make a killing off of it!

In all honesty, nobody cares about the final scores of the games anyway. They care about individual performances by prospects in their own organization. Couldn't MLB work with, say, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Broadcast Communication at Arizona State University right there in Phoenix? I'm sure college kids would love the opportunity to shoot and announce games with Major League talent during the school year (as a former broadcasting major at Western Illinois who broadcasted a ton of games on TV/radio -- I can attest that an opportunity like this would've been awesome).

Instead, Cubs fans have to settle with reading about the results (not to say that the written coverage isn't great -- because it is -- but nothing beats seeing performances with your own eyes). I, for one, would've loved to throw yesterday's game up on my second screen. Bryant was 2-for-3 with a homer, Almora was 4-for-5 with a homer, Darvill homered, and Soler smashed a bases clearing double. What knowledgeable Cubs fan who's psyched for the future of the franchise wouldn't want at least a chance to see that game?

Get on it, MLB.