History

The lifeblood of a major league baseball team is it's farm system. Down on the farm is where young ball players hone their craft in hopes to realize their lifelong dream of playing in the major leagues. The Arizona Diamondbacks have several minor league affiliates that provide an environment for these young players to develop their skills and hopefully progress to the point where they can help the Diamondbacks be competitive.

Many people assume that minor league affiliates remain attached to a major league club perpetually but that is not the case. Although the major league and minor leagues try to maintain some type of long-term affiliation and loyalty, there are changes that happen from year to year. Here you will find the list of teams that make up the Arizona Diamondbacks farm system from year-to-year. Select the year to see who the affiliates were for that season.

On November 18, 1997 officials from the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays met at the Phoenix Convention Center where they would draft the teams that would take the field the following March. Below are the players who were selected in the 1997 Major League Baseball expansion draft along with the teams those players came from.

Leading up to the 1997 Major League Baseball expansion draft, league officials from the National and American Leagues met with the Office of the Commissioner to develop a set of rules by which teams could protect players on their 40-man roster and conversely, what players would be made available for selection by the two expansion teams. By the end of the draft both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays would have a roster to begin play in 1998.

Twenty-eight years ago Arizona Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Jerry Colangelo found himself in a similar situation. He was the acting General Manager of the Phoenix Suns basketball team who along with the Milwaukee Bucks were awarded expansion franchises. Prior to the season the Bucks and Suns front office met to carry out an expansion draft to determine what players from other organizations would make up their team. On that fateful day in 1969 Jerry Colangelo called the toss to determine who would receive the first pick. He lost the coin flip to the Milwaukee Bucks who used the number 1 pick to select a lanky center named Lew Alcindor who went on to become a Hall of Fame player. Lew later changed his name; you might have heard of him, he now goes by the name Kareem Abdul Jabar. The Suns with the second pick selected Neal Walk who played for the Suns from 1969 to 1974 but was never able to reach the accomplishments of Abdul Jabar. “The coin did come up heads, and then the commissioner, Walter Kennedy, flipped it over on his wrist, and it was tails,“ Colangelo said in a very serious tone.

The road to landing a Major League Baseball franchise is long and filled with many events and even more individuals. But getting a team is only part of the journey. Here you will find a chronological listing of events that act as milestones and markers along the path that has made baseball possible in the Arizona desert.