B-Side Player explained?

Refers to underrated prospects who people believe have a chance to become more heralded players. Comes from back when we used to listen to 45s vinyl records, and the side with the well-regarded song was considered the "A-side" while the afterthought song was the "B-side."

Thank you!

So - to go further - if a minor league player is projected to be a B-player selection?

It's meant to describe players that end up doing better than they were projected / expected. See this blog post from Dynasty Dugout. To expand on the music analogy the term comes from... "Revolution" by the Beatles was a B-side to "Hey, Jude." Queen's "We Will Rock You" was a B-side to "We are the Champions."

I know personally two of those players from that blog post. Not in a million years would I have expected both to make a ML roster within a year after being drafted.

Over the past few years I have seen players drafted late or signed as free agents and have been successful in reaching ML. I met someone yesterday whose family friend was not drafted, signed as free agent and pitched last year for a NL team.

There are a lot of situations out there where players have blossomed with the help of excellent coaching and tons of hard work on your own.

Thank you - all of this information is helpful!

Mike Piazza...

Only drafted by the Dodgers as a favor to Tommy Lasorda (his godson) and now you know the rest of the story.

Piazza was drafted in the 60th round. Since then MLB has cut to 40 then 20:due to the lack of relevance of those late rounds. 84% of American MLBers come from the top ten rounds. Friends and relatives of organizations were often drafted in those late rounds.

A 17u travel teammate of my son was drafted in the last round by his uncle after college. He hit .200 in short season and was released.

Piazza hit for power in A ball. He started hitting for average in AA and AAA.