Master Index of Archived Threads


Jumping from AA

Edgy MD Apr 24 2012 09:32 PM

Robert Carson joins a small club in joining the Mets after jumping from AA without a prior stop in AAA. Mets I can recall doing this are Lee Mazzilli, Kelvin Chapman, Jaime Cerda, and Dan Murphy and Nick Evans together. Ron Hodges jumped all the way from A-ball, and Dwight Gooden kind of jumped from A-Ball, but made a two-game stop for the AAA playoffs in between. Any others spring to mind? I'm sure there are several. (Oh, Kevin Elster, of course.)

Gwreck Apr 24 2012 09:35 PM Re: Jumping from AA

Jeff Duncan?

Edgy MD Apr 24 2012 09:48 PM Re: Jumping from AA

Mos' def'. Good one.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 24 2012 10:14 PM Re: Jumping from AA

Jenrry Mejia?

The Second Spitter Apr 25 2012 02:36 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Phillip Humber!

Edgy MD Apr 25 2012 07:06 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Both are correct! We can start a little Leapfrog Society. The sad part is that, in retrospect, none of these guys would go on to demonstrate that their lack of seasoning benefited them. Only Gooden and Mazz stuck. Murphy kinda did, but kinda didn't as he was farmed out to learn new positions. Cleon Jones went from A-ball to a brief taste of the bigs in 1963 before bouncing back to AAA in 1964. Leapfrog!

MFS62 Apr 25 2012 08:05 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Edgy DC wrote: Cleon Jones went from A-ball to a brief taste of the bigs in 1963 before bouncing back to AAA in 1964. Leapfrog! IIRC that was because of a crazy "first year player" rule of the time. There was no draft, so you could sign as many players as you wanted, but could only option one to the minors, the others you had to add to the major league roster for at least one year or lose them. (I don't recall the mechanism for that.) I believe Cleon was the guy they added and Kevin Collins(?) was the guy they optioned. Maybe I have them switched. It was an administrative clusterfuck and they changed the rules shortly thereafter. Later

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 25 2012 08:08 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Yes, many early 60s Mets in that same boat. Dumb rule that was a pre-draft scheme to drag bonuses.

Edgy MD Apr 25 2012 08:46 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Yeah, it was only on players that were deemed "bonus babies." If you made X amount you had to be a big leaguer. Un-American.

RealityChuck Apr 25 2012 11:13 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Greg Goossen jumped from A ball. Nolan Ryan jumped from AA. Both were sent down before sticking, though.

smg58 Apr 25 2012 11:58 AM Re: Jumping from AA

Did Parnell play in AAA before his first call-up?

Ceetar Apr 25 2012 12:07 PM Re: Jumping from AA

smg58 wrote: Did Parnell play in AAA before his first call-up? yup, promoted from AA-AAA-Bigs in 2008.