Before I get to yesterday’s game between the Beloit Sky Carp and Cedar Rapids Kernels, I’m going to establish new ground rules for how I cover minor league games. I’ll admit to spending too many words on rated prospects even though I’ve always known that system was rigged.

I don’t mean to imply there is anything wrong with stressing prospect successes or failure on a daily basis or even in the macro sense. I’ve come to the realization that it’s okay to stress great play regardless of a player’s status within the organization. Outside, supposedly non-biased rankings are meant to reflect an amalgam of rankings internal and external. And while some of these writers have hearts of gold, I know that they are often acting on behalf of friends within organizations who benefit from favorable rankings. In my past life as a freelance writer I had the opportunity to speak with several folks in different front offices. Everyone seemed to operate differently where the rankings didn’t sync up at all with their player boards.

I know that several teams used to have all the minor league players in their system on a board. Think anywhere between 190 and 220 players. Some teams would share certain information about how players would move up and down the board. With all of the analytics controlling player development these days, I don’t know if the boards still exist.

I choose not to get hung up if a supposedly top prospect on a team that I don’t have a rooting interest in is trending in the right direction and quickly enough. When I attend a minor league game, I prefer to see anyone play well and succeed. In principle, it doesn’t matter that his biggest success might come in the MWL, hundreds of miles from his home. Yesterday, one of the unranked guys on Beloit had two home runs and a double after starting the season on the schneid. Ten total bases are pretty cool any way you slice it.

For the record, the highly ranked players belly-flopped, but I don’t hold that against them. I also appreciate that some fans will only enjoy the game if their team is victorious. Other fans crave high scoring games and others prefer pitchers’ duels. I try and take each game on its own merits, which isn’t to say that I haven’t endured dozens of duds along the way. Even on those occasions, I’d rather be sitting in a ballpark.