The Cardinals and the minor leagues
The Cardinals franchise is often credited with developing the modern concept of the farm system under Branch Rickey in the early twenties. After several years of scouting players, only to have other teams buy them at a higher price, Rickey decided the time had come to implement a scheme he had been considering for a while. He convinced club owner Sam Breadon to move the Cards into Sportsman's Park in 1920 as tenants of the AL Browns, and then sold Robison Field (formerly New Sportsmans Park, where Chris Von der Ahe moved the club in 1893) to the city of St. Louis. (Beaumont High School was built on the site.) The money from the sale was used to purchase shares in three minor league clubs - Fort Smith in the Western Association, Houston in the Texas League, and Syracuse in the International League.
At that point, major league clubs owning part or all of some minor league clubs was not unusual. Nor was the practice of placing players with minor league clubs for a few years to prepare them for the majors that uncommon, although it was done on a player-by-player basis for players who were expected to be brought up to the majors after a period of time. Rickey's plan was on a larger scale. He was the first set up a hierarchical system for player development, with teams at all levels. Players would move up the chain, with only the best making it to the majors.
By 1926, the system paid its first dividends, as the Cards won their first World Championship since the days of the Browns in the 1880s. The 1926 club featured a lineup dominated by players who came up through the burgeoning system - Jim Bottemly, Chick Hafey, Taylor Douthit, Tommy Thevenow, Les Bell, Ray Blades, Flint Rhem, and Bill Hallahan, to name a few.
By the end of the twenties, the Cardinals controlled all or part of between 5 and 10 clubs, while the majors as a whole owned or controlled 29 minor league clubs. In
the 1930s, the Cards system reached its maximum extent, topping out at between 25 and 35 clubs (depending on which sources you believe) late in the decade. To illustrate the extent of the Cardinals operation, consider the case of the Nebraska State League. In 1933, the Cardinals reached an agreement with the league whereby the Cardinals gave $2000 to each of the four teams, and in return, got the rights to acquire up to two players from each club at the end of the season. In 1934, they extended to agreement to get first rights to any players at the end of that season. Commissioner Landis objected to this practice, and in response in 1935 the Cardinals simply purchased 23 of the 52 players in the league. In 1936, they signed two of the clubs (Norfolk and Mitchell) as affiliates, an arrangement they maintained for several more seasons. (See A History of Nebraska Baseball for more information.
This talent pool fueled the Cards to their first World Series title in this century in 1926 and ensured continued success through the next two decades. The success of the Cardinals farm system may best be illustrated by the 1942 World Championship team, which had only two players who were not developed in the Cardinals farm system. In addition, the Cardinals were able to trade or sell excess talent from their system to improve the club. (Rickey received a percentage of all player sales, which probably contributed in part to the number of sales during this period.)
The size of the farm system shrunk down to less than ten clubs during the war years of 1943-1945. In the latter half of the 40s and well into the 50s, the Cards maintained at least 15 clubs in the minors, continuing the practice that had made the team a dominant club in the National League. (One of the few franchises with as many or more clubs than the Cardinals throughout the 40s and 50s was the Dodgers - then under Branch Rickey - who also had a fair amount of success during that time span.) By 1961, all but one major league club had trimmed back their farm system to under 10 teams (that club, the Dodgers, trimmed down below ten in 1962), and through the 60s most clubs maintained between 5 and 9 farm clubs each year. The Cards reached a low of 5 clubs in 1963, and again from 1974-1976 and 1979-1980. For most of the 1980s and 1990s they maintained seven or eight clubs. They are now holding at eight or nine, including clubs in the Dominican Summer League.
Cardinals minor league affiliates as of the end of the 2018 season
AAA - Memphis Redbirds (Pacific Coast League)
AA - Springfield Cardinals (Texas League)
A+ - Palm Beach Cardinals (Florida League)
A - Peoria Chiefs (Midwest League)
A - State Collage Spikes (New York-Penn League)
Rookie - Johnson City Cardinals (Appalachian League)
Rookie SS - Gulf City Cardinals (Gulf Coast League)
Dominican - DSL Cardinals Red and DSL Cardinals Blue
Baseball-Reference has a listing of
Cardinals minor league affiliates. It seems to miss some teams that I have found referenced elsewhere, but it is
a place to start in looking into minor leaguers for the Cardinals.
Minor league stat database
In 1946, the minor league system reorganized following World War II. The highest level, previously known as AA, was designated as AAA. There were three such leagues - the American Association (which merged into the other two leagues in 1997), the International League, and the Pacific Coast League. The teams at the second highest level (the Texas League and the Southern Association, which were designated as A1 in 1936) became known as AA. The Mexican League, not a part of the minor league system, was ranked as AA starting in 1955. Lower levels were identified as levels A through D.
After the 1962 season, minor league baseball changed to classifications again, closer to what is in existence today, spurred in part by the demise of the Southern Association after the 1961 season (along with the general drop in minor leagues over the preceding decade). The three leagues in Triple A remained unchanged (and the Mexican League advanced to AAA level in 1967). The Eastern League moved up to AA in 1963, and a new Southern League formed for the 1964 season. These two leagues, along with the Texas League, still comprise the AA level today. The remaining leagues were all classified as A level, with the exception of a few Rookie Leagues. The short-season A classification (also know as low A, or A-) started in 1966, while Advanced A (also known as High A or A+) was established as a classification in 1990. Foreign Rookie Leagues were started in the Dominican Republic in 1985 and Venezuela in 1997. These are the classifications in use today.
The minor league database contains stats for the Cardinals' minor league farm clubs from 1919 through 2018. The data mostly comes from Baseball-Reference, and is not complete. In some places, there is contradictory information or inconsistencies as to whether or not a club was affiliated with the Cardinals. What is presented in these pages is my interpretation of the minor league affiliations of the Cardinals since 1919, which is the first year Baseball-Reference identifies a club as affiliated with St. Louis.
Cardinals Farm Clubs from 1963 - present