A Fan's Guide to the Midwest League

Frequently Asked Questions

Some questions keep coming up. This page attempts to answer those.

What I'm trying to do

This site is mainly about Midwest League history. Effective August 31, 2010, this website is no longer being maintained. If you're interested in picking up the project, finding a way to contact me (Joel Dinda) should not be difficult from Google; drop me a line.

In 1996, MWLguide was the only on-line source that attempted to cover the Midwest League in any detail. Few teams had a web presence, and only two or three newspapers were offering local coverage of their teams. This is no longer true. There is abundant information about every team on the web:

• Box scores are now posted daily on several websites.
• Nearly all of the teams have very good or excellent websites.
• All MWL teams have some media coverage on the web; some of that coverage is excellent.
• Baseball America now shares much of the magazine's minor league content with the web community, albeit not entirely for free.
• Each day's scores are usually available by bedtime.

Almost none of these services existed in 1996, when I began writing about the league; one of my intentions was to fill that gap. It's clear that I no longer need to fill that role.

My thanks to everyone for their encouragement over the years. It's been a fun project.

Finding career records for individual players

The Minor League Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is building a detailed Baseball Encyclopedia. While the site is still under construction, it's already the world's best single source for minor league player information.

Tryout camps, scouts, and similar issues

Midwest League teams get their players from major league teams and do not directly hold tryouts.

The best way to get into the minors is the be an excellent player on a high school or college team; all big league teams employ scouts whose responsibilities include finding promising amateur players. Big league teams host tryout camps, sometimes at minor league parks. There's a list of pages about Recruiting, Scouting, and Tryouts on Skilton's Baseball Links. The Frontier League, an independent league which operates in Midwestern cities, has some information about how they sign players on their site.

Getting a job with a Midwest League team

Talk to the General Manager for your local team. Every team has a public phone and an email address; see the team's website. Good luck!

Identifying prospects

I don't do prospects; I watch baseball games. If the players I've watched make the big leagues, I'm delighted, but that's not why I watch Midwest League baseball. I even wrote an essay about the prospect question.

Privacy Policy

MWLguide never asks for or reveals identification information.

Obviously the Rosters are an exception.