While players and team officials quickly headed home, Girardi stayed and researched the Marlins for three hours, poring over player contracts, minor-league prospects and the like.

In that season, the Marlins traded their young set-up reliever Trevor Hoffman and two minor-league prospects to the San Diego Padres for third baseman Gary Sheffield.

Then Carter talked of how the 32-year-old Scioscia has a year remaining on his contract and he reeled off the names of minor-league prospects the Dodgers might consider instead of him.

A more feasible solution to baseball's competition problem would be to carry out a draft system in which the financially poor baseball teams could pluck away the young minor-league prospects of the wealthy teams.

They did not even get Travis Dawkins, a good-hitting shortstop who is considered the Reds' best minor-league prospect.

The highest-level players involved in Qualifiers 1 and 2 were minor-league prospects ranked among the top 20 in their respective organizations.

Billy Wyatt (Harmon) was once a very talented high school baseball player and minor-league prospect.

They tried to get Dave Parker from Cincinnati, but they refused to trade any of their top four minor-league prospects and the Reds traded Parker to Oakland.

The great Kharlamov died in a car crash in the 1980's; his son is a minor-league prospect for the Washington Capitals.

The highest-level players involved in Qualifiers 1 and 2 were minor-league prospects.