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In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team or nursery club, is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point. This system can be implemented in many ways, both formally and informally.

The term is also used as a metaphor for any organization or activity that serves as a training ground for higher-level endeavors. For instance, sometimes business schools are referred to as "farm clubs" for the world of business.

Contracted farm teams[link]

Baseball[link]

In the United States and Canada, Minor League Baseball teams operate under strict franchise contracts with their major league counterparts. Although the vast majority of such teams are privately owned and are therefore able to switch affiliation, those players under contract with the affiliated Major League Baseball team are under their exclusive control, and would move to the MLB club's new affiliate. Not all players on a minor league team are under contract with the MLB club; however, the parent club has the exclusive right to "purchase" the contract of a non-contract player at its affiliate.

Minor league teams are usually based in smaller cities and players are typically paid significantly less than their Major League counterparts.

Most major league players start off their careers by working their way up the minor league system, from the lowest (Rookie) to the highest (AAA) classification, with the rare exceptions usually being those players signed from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Jim Abbott, Al Kaline, and Dave Winfield are notable exceptions to this, however. This process is formally referred by most MLB teams as "player development". However, minor league affiliates are often informally referred to as "farm teams" and a major league player's misfortune of being sent back to the minors is sometimes described as being "farmed out".

The farm system as it is recognized today was invented by Branch Rickey who -– as field manager, general manager, and club president –- helped to build the St. Louis Cardinals dynasty during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. When Rickey joined the team in 1916, players were commonly purchased by major league teams from independent, high-level minor league clubs.

Rickey, a keen judge of talent, became frustrated when the players he had scouted at the A and AA levels were sold by those independent clubs to wealthier rivals such as the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants. With the support of Cardinal owner Sam Breadon, Rickey devised a plan whereby St. Louis would purchase and control minor league teams from Class D to Class AA (the highest level at the time), thus allowing them to promote or demote players as they developed, and "grow" their own talent.

The talent pipeline began at tryout camps that St. Louis scouts conducted throughout the U.S. "From quantity comes quality," Rickey once observed, and, during the 1930s, with as many as 40 owned or affiliated farm teams, the Cardinals controlled the destinies of hundreds of players each year. (The reserve clause then bound players to their teams in perpetuity.)

The Cardinals would win nine National League pennants and six World Series championships between 1926 and 1946, proving the effectiveness of the farm system concept. Indeed, the second club to fully embrace such a system, the New York Yankees, used it to sustain their dynasty from the mid-1930s through the middle of the 1960s. When Rickey moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers as president, general manager and part-owner in 1943, he proceeded to build a hugely successful farm system there as well. Moreover, the teams that ignored the farm system in the 1930s and early 1940s (such as the Philadelphia A's and Phillies and the Washington Senators) found themselves falling on hard times.

The existence of the minor league system is due in part to MLB's ability to include a reserve clause in its contracts with minor league players, which gives the major league team exclusive rights to a player even after the contract has expired. In a landmark 1922 Supreme Court decision, Federal Baseball Club v. National League, baseball was granted a special immunity from antitrust laws. Despite the advent of free agency in 1976, which led many to predict the demise of the farm system, it still remains a strong component of a winning baseball strategy.

Ice hockey[link]

The teams of the National Hockey League also have their own farm teams. They are primarily in the American Hockey League. For example, the Binghamton Senators are the farm team for the Ottawa Senators. However, many teams have additional affiliates in the ECHL.

Unlike baseball, not all the players on the rosters of the minor league teams are owned by an NHL team. In fact, the majority only have a contract with their minor league team.

Internal feeder teams[link]

Association Football[link]

In many clubs, there will be internal feeder teams. These may be age restricted teams, such as an 'Under-18s' team, or an 'A team'. For example, in international association football, national teams also operate youth sides, - see England national under-21 football team, for example.

In many sports, these feeder teams will compete in their own leagues, though in some cases they compete with other 'full teams' at a lower level. In Spain, B-teams can compete in the lower leagues; Villarreal B (affiliated to Villarreal CF) currently competes in the Spanish Second Division, for example.

In some countries, such as New Zealand, major teams are organised as regional franchises, and local club sides within these regions become automatic feeder clubs for these regional teams.

It is also getting more common for football clubs to arrange formal deals with other clubs with which they originally had no connection. The feeder/parent club connection could have many functions, and be very beneficial both for the feeder and the parent club. For bigger clubs, it is common to arrange agreements with the minor clubs in the area. The smaller teams can provide the bigger team (the parent club) with young talents, and the mother club have an opportunity to send their young players away on loan to these teams.

In addition to local connection, it's also getting usual to have feeder clubs in other regions of the country or in other nations, in order to gain further knowledge. Prominent European clubs are often making intercontinental deals with other clubs for the same reason. AFC Ajax have for instance a connection with the South African team Ajax Cape Town, Manchester United have a connection with the Australian team Wollongong Wolves and the Belgian team Royal Antwerp, and Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas have loaned many of their younger players out to their Scottish parent team Heart of Midlothian in the hope of securing them a deal at a bigger club in the future. Having a feeder club in wealthy countries, where football is gaining a gradually better reputation, has also proved to be very beneficial. Countries such as USA, Canada, Japan, China and South Korea are good examples. Alternatively, some clubs within the EU have used feeder teams to sign non-EU players and then naturalize them in an EU country, to overcome visa regulations, for example English team Liverpool F.C. has an agreement with Belgian side KRC Genk.

League-owned farm leagues[link]

Basketball[link]

Traditionally, the NBA did not have a formal farm league. It mainly relies on the elite NCAA to produce NBA players, and thus the latter was often known as the "feeders". Since 2001, the NBA directly owns an entire farm league: the National Basketball Association Development League. The NBA D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001. In March 2005, NBA commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the NBA D-League to fifteen teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with each NBA D-League team affiliated with one or more NBA teams. Although the system has been run for a few years, most of the rookies in NBA are still drafted out from NCAA. At the conclusion of the 2008-09 NBA season, 20 percent of NBA players had spent time in the NBA D-League.

American Football[link]

The National Football League, as of 2010, is the only one of the four major professional sports in the USA that does not have a farm system. Nearly all of its players are drafted from the NCAA.

In the 1930s, the Chicago Bears and New York Giants owned teams in the American Association, which became the first true minor league in professional football. In the 1960s, several NFL teams had agreements with the Atlantic Coast Football League to use their teams as farm teams, though they were not owned by the NFL owners. The most recent official minor league, NFL Europe, was different from most other farm teams in that all prospects were pooled and dispersed among the six European teams, instead of having teams assigned to each other.

Many players in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League later advance to the NFL, but no farming contracts exist among any teams officially. During the mid-2000s, several NFL owners at least partially owned arena football teams, such as Jerry Jones (Dallas), Arthur Blank (Atlanta), Bud Adams (Tennessee), Tom Benson (New Orleans), and Pat Bowlen (Denver), but very rarely did they ever promote or demote any players between the AFL and NFL, due in part to significant differences in the playing schedules and the style of play between outdoor and indoor football. All of the NFL owners backed out of the league when it went bankrupt, was sold off and reorganized.

Independent teams[link]

Some sports allow the operation of independent feeder teams. In professional cycling, for example, feeder teams such as Vendée U and Trek Livestrong, act as a feeders for Bouygues Télécom and Team RadioShack respectively, and compete at levels below the UCI ProTour. Most pro-cycling teams use this format.

Such agreements may be less formal; in English football, for example, the operation of an external feeder team is prohibited. However, casual relationships may exist between teams to allow a sharing larger clubs' resources with smaller clubs, in return for the smaller teams taking young players on loan. This allows both clubs to maintain separate identities, and to exit from the arrangement if necessary. Such an agreement exists between Preston North End and Holker Old Boys, for example [1]. Alternatively, clubs may use teams playing abroad, particularly if they want to follow the progress of players who they cannot sign due to work permit regulations. Please see List of feeder teams in football for a comprehensive list.

Since the debut of the United Football League in 2009, the UFL has acted as an unofficial feeder league to the NFL, benefiting from the fact that the UFL ends its season a month (two months beginning in 2011) before the end of the NFL regular season.

Professional wrestling[link]

Professional wrestling utilizes a farm system that allows wrestlers to learn the craft and gain experience in smaller, often regional, promotions before they are "called up" to perform on a national/global stage. Generally called farm leagues or developmental territories, some of the more notable ones for WWE include Heartland Wrestling Association (late 1990s) - which was also a developmental territory for World Championship Wrestling, International Wrestling Association (1999–2001), Memphis Championship Wrestling (2000–2001), Deep South Wrestling (2005–2007), Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2012), Ohio Valley Wrestling (2000–2008, 2011-present for TNA Wrestling). In addition, smaller companies such as Ring of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling, Chikara or the now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling can act as unofficial feeder leagues, seasoning wrestlers until a larger company offers them a contract.

Formula One[link]

Formula One teams often use the most promising drivers from divisions such as the GP2 Series, the former Formula 3000 championship and Formula Two, with all of GP2's Champions going on to F1. Ten drivers on the grid for 2011 have previously raced in GP2. Scuderia Toro Rosso also serves as a sort of farm team for Red Bull Racing. Both are owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull, with Toro Rosso helping to develop cars and drivers for Red Bull Racing. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel drove for Toro Rosso from 2007–2008 and made the move to Red Bull in 2009, replacing the retiring David Coulthard.

NASCAR[link]

NASCAR, the principal body for stock car racing in North America, has an extensive system of developmental series, with the ultimate goal for drivers being a ride in the top-level Sprint Cup Series. Most Cup Series teams are involved in at least one of NASCAR's two other national series, either running vehicles in the junior series or affiliating with teams that run exclusively in those series:

• The second-level Nationwide Series is the main proving ground for potential Cup drivers. Most races are run on the same weekends, and at the same tracks, as Cup Series races, and Nationwide cars are largely similar to Cup cars (though with some differences, most notably less powerful engines).
• The third-level Camping World Truck Series is a pickup truck-based series. Most races are held in conjunction with Nationwide Series races, with many also serving as support events for Sprint Cup races. Relatively few drivers jump directly from the Truck Series to the Cup Series; most spend at least some time in the Nationwide Series first.

Below the two national series are multiple regional series. Cup Series teams generally do not participate at these levels, but extensively scout them for future talent.

• The K&N Pro Series East and K&N Pro Series West, which use stock cars with full fenders similar to those in the Cup and Nationwide Series.
• The Whelen Modified Tour, operating mostly in the Northeast U.S., and Whelen Southern Modified Tour, operating in the Southeast U.S., race open-wheeled cars with bodies similar to those of other NASCAR cars.
• The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in Canada and NASCAR Corona Series in Mexico are national series in the respective countries, also using stock cars with full fenders. A few drivers from the Canadian Tire Series have moved to one of the U.S. national series.

The entry level of NASCAR-sanctioned racing is the Whelen All-American Series, a championship for drivers who compete in weekly races at small tracks, often dirt tracks, throughout the U.S. and Canada. Regional champions and an overall series champion are crowned.

Indoor Soccer[link]

Premier Arena Soccer League is a farm system for the Premier Arena Soccer League PRO League.

See also[link]

• Youth system
• Reserve team
• Cantera

Medal record
Men's baseball
Competitor for  United States
World University Championship
Gold	2006 Havana	National team

Andrew Warren Brackman (born December 4, 1985) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds.^[1] He signed a four-year, $4.55 million-dollar deal with $3.35-million signing bonus as the New York Yankees' first-round choice (30th overall pick) of the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft. ^[2] Brackman is represented by sports agent Scott Boras.^[3]

High school career[link]

Brackman attended Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he was one of the top high school pitchers in the country, and a two-sport standout. He had a career ERA of 1.04, the seventh best in the history of Ohio high school baseball,^[4] and helped lead Moeller to a 28-3 record and the Ohio state championship as a senior. He was ranked as the No. 18 senior in America by Team One Baseball, and listed as the No. 4 prospect in Ohio for the 2004 draft by Baseball America.

He was runner-up for Mr. Basketball in Ohio by the Associated Press, shared Ohio's Division I Player of the Year honors, and was named first-team all-state, as he averaged 20.2 points and 6.5 rebounds as a senior. He led his conference in scoring and field-goal percentage (.654), and was second in free-throw percentage (.882). He was rated the No. 42 prospect nationally by Insiders.com, and No. 43 by PrepStars following his senior season.^[5]

College career[link]

Andrew Brackman playing basketball for North Carolina State University

Brackman attended North Carolina State University where he played two seasons as a dual-sport athlete, in basketball and baseball. During his freshman basketball season (2004–2005), he played center and forward averaging 7.4 points and 3.5 rebounds.^[6]

In his freshman baseball season, he was 4-0 with a 2.09 ERA in 10 appearances as both a reliever and later, as a starting pitcher. He was starting pitcher of the first game of the 2005 ACC Baseball Tournament, striking out five batters in seven innings to earn the victory against the Miami Hurricanes. He was named a second-team preseason All-America player by Baseball America for 2006.^[5]

After the Wolfpack was defeated in the 2006 NCAA tournament second round by Texas, Brackman chose not to return to the basketball team the next season, and instead focused on developing his pitching with hopes of doing well in professional baseball.

Brackman suffered a stress fracture to his hip in his sophomore year of baseball limiting him to only seven games and a disappointing 1-4 record with a 6.09 ERA.^[7][8] In the summer of that year, he pitched for the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod League earning a 1-0 record with a 1.09 ERA.^[7] This effort led to Baseball America ranking him the league's number two prospect.

Brackman's junior year at NC State saw a return to his freshman-year numbers: in 13 games he struck out 74 batters in 78 innings with a 3.81 ERA and a record of 6-4, but due to elbow injuries, he did not pitch in either the ACC nor the NCAA tournament. ^[9]

Professional career[link]

New York Yankees[link]

Brackman's injury record hurt his draft value, and he was not selected until the 30th pick of the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft.^[10] Following the draft, the Yankees signed Brackman to a guaranteed $4.5 million deal for four years including a $3.55 million signing bonus spread out over six years.^[11] The club also held options over Brackman for the 2011, 2012, and 2013 seasons which would have boosted the total value of his contract over $13 million if he met his bonus requirements.^[11] As specified by his contract, the Yankees placed Brackman on the 40 man roster.^[2]

The Yankees recommended that he see Dr. James Andrews in Alabama to address his lingering elbow concerns. Later in August 2007, he underwent Tommy John surgery.^[9] Brackman began the 2008 season on the 60-day disabled list, a procedural move to keep him on the 40-man roster. Despite this setback, the Yankees still considered him a "blue-chip prospect".^[12] On February 1, 2008, Keith Law of ESPN ranked Brackman in the top 100 baseball prospects of 2008,^[13][14] and both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus list him as in the Yankees' top ten prospects for 2009.^[15][16]

Brackman spent 2009 pitching for the Class A Charleston RiverDogs, where he struggled.^[17] Baseball America named him the Yankees' tenth best prospect for 2010.^[18] Brackman had a strong 2010 season with the Class A Advanced Tampa Yankees and Class AA Trenton Thunder.^[19]

The Yankees optioned Brackman to AAA at the beginning of the 2011 season.^[20] Going into 2011, Brackman was rated the third-best prospect in the Yankees organization by Baseball America.^[21] After struggling in the early part of the season, Brackman altered his mechanics, which produced improved results.^[22] As a result of his turnaround, Brackman was promoted to the Yankees in September. ^[23] Brackman and fellow prospect Dellin Betances made their MLB debuts on September 22, 2011.^[24] Brackman allowed one hit and no runs pitching an inning and a half in middle relief against the Tampa Bay Rays.^[25]

Following the 2011 season, the Yankees declined his 2012 club option, making him a free agent.^[26]

Cincinnati Reds[link]

On January 4, 2012, Brackman signed a one-year contract with the Cincinnati Reds.^[27][28]

Pitching style[link]

Brackman consistently throws a 92-97 mile-per-hour fastball^[29] that has touched 99 mph. He complements this pitch with a two-seam fastball, knuckle curve, and a changeup. His knuckle curve is thrown at 78-81 mph.^[29] His height and overhand action give his pitches a desirable "downward plane".^[30]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• The Book on Andrew Brackman from "ScoutingBook.com"
• River Ave. Blues Blog Prospect Profile of Brackman