Minor League Baseball

Each team or league in Minor League is an independently owned and operated business. Minor League has official trademarks and uses copyrighted materials so efforts should be taken to ensure a game is official licensed. There should be no need for the noncanon tag to be used.

The vast majority of Minor League teams enter 2 to 6 year contracts to use the name of a Major League team almost always from their same state. Notable exceptions are Leagues from outside the states (such as the Mexican League teams) which may not have any Major League teams in their country to choose from. Other exceptions occur when teams switch leagues or independent status within the Minor League umbrella and may not choose a new name to match. The purpose of the contract system (and a priority of the Minor League in general) is to develop players available to play in Major League on demand.

As of 2009, about 20 Leagues composed of about 246 member clubs in Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the USA make up the population of Minor League Baseball.