There's something missing this year, and it's not just fans in the bleachers

It never really seems right. You hear the fake crowd noise and wonder if it's fooling the players, because it's not fooling you. Now and then, maybe for a moment, you forget. Then a foul ball bounces off the empty seats, reminding you that nobody's there. It's just not right.

Don't get me wrong. In just two weeks, I have become hooked on the role that baseball is attempting to retake in my life. Baseball at night means less time doom-scrolling the internet, or watching cable news retread our tribal hatreds, 24/7. I'm lucky that the Yanks have played relatively well: If the team tanks, I might return to the misery news networks, and it won't do my heart any good.

Still, something is missing, and it's not fannies in seats. Last night, as the Yanks pounded Atlanta, it was on display. 

Okay, close your eyes and set the Wayback to winter of 2017...

It's four years ago. The Yankees have the second most fruitful minor league system in baseball, behind only the - gulp - Braves. This stems from the Great Tanking of 2016, when Cooperstown Cashman traded Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltran, Rudy Giuliani, et al, for a new beginning. For the sake of our parlor game, let's recap our top 15 prospects that winter, according to MILB's John Sickels. 

1. Gleyber Torres
2. Clint Frazier
3. Blake Rutherford (now in White Sox system)
4. Jorge Mateo (in A's system)
5. Justice Sheffield (in Mariners system)
6. James Kaprielian (in A's system)
7. Chance Adams (in Royals system)
8. Domingo Acevido (Yankee non-roster candidate)
9. Albert Abreu
10. Aaron Judge
11. Miguel Andujar
12. Dillon Tate (now in Orioles system)
13. Dustin Fowler (mired in A's system)
14. Ian Clarkin (out of baseball)
15. Jordan Montgomery

Quick outlook: The Yankees would go 7 for 15 - succeeding with Gleyber, Judge, Andujar, Montgomery, Sheffield (traded for James Paxton), Tate (traded for Zack Britton) and - let's be hopeful - Frazier. 

We squandered Fowler, Kaprielian and Mateo for Sonny Gray. Likewise, we turned Rutherford and Clarkin into Todd Frazier and Tommy Kahnle (sort of a win, I suppose.) 

Worth noting is the depth of the Yankee system. An "HM" group includes Tyler Wade, Tyler Austin, Giovanni Gallegos, Chad Green, Jonathan Holder, Nick Solak, Jake Cave, Nick Goody, Kyle Higashioka, Billy McKinney... all of whom will reach The Show. Not bad, overall. So much hope for the future... the Yankees seem destined to win again.

Of course, the top-rated franchise - whom we watched last night - is led by prospects SS Dansby Swanson, 2B Ozzie Albies, OF Ronald Acuna and pitchers Sean Newcomb and Mike Soroka - all of whom now play for Atlanta.

Why am I mentioning all this? Well, that's what's missing. 

Along with the empty bleachers, baseball's empty minor leagues keep reminding us of this alt-COVID universe. In the old days, the daily reports from Scranton, Trenton, Charleston, Tampa and even Pulaski offered me to somehow picture a future worth inhabiting. If the Yanks lost three out of four in Tampa, I'd scour the minors for a few young nobodies - most would never reach the majors - who hit HRs or pitched well. They'd give hope, even if it was as fake as last night's crowd roar.

Without the minors, baseball is a ghost ship. There is no future. The so-called "taxi squad" plays in Scranton, without eyeballs, and there are presumably workouts in Tampa for low level prospects. There are no daily updates on Jasson Dominiquez - the 17-year-old OF phenom - or even Clarke Schmidt, who is one more JA Happ bombing from a call-up. We have only the TV games. 

I say this because, before the pandemic, MLB was doing its best to shrink the minor leagues - the last bastion of rural America's love for the game. My fear is that when we're done with this ongoing crisis - maybe next year? - the lords of the game will seek to kill off vast sectors of the minors, which they'd happily see NCAA sports factories replace. (Note: Financially stressed NCAA programs might have something to say about this.) The baseball world is going to change incredibly next year. Not for the better, I suspect.

So... my point? I miss the minors. I miss the cheesy mascots. I miss the stupid promotions, the Dollar Beer Nights, the fireworks. I miss the veterans on rehab, who absolutely hate being stuck here. I miss the kids, the families, the bad hot dogs. I miss the daily boxes. 

If baseball pulls this off - if we have a full season and a world series - it will be a great achievement. But if the minors die, it will be a national tragedy. Just sayin.'