farm league

plural farm leagues

1. ball gamesOne or more minor league teams owned by a baseball franchise and used as a training and testing ground for rookies, who, if they perform well, move on to play in the main major league team.

   Now, understand, you would probably go in the farm league before going up in the majors.

   2014, Jerry Hall, Simply, Jim, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   The Yankees entered the farm league business in 1929 when they purchased Chambersburg in the Class D Blue Ridge League.

   2005, Lance A. Berger, Management Wisdom From the New York Yankees' Dynasty, →ISBN

   Still, the Colonial League experiment was successful enough in its first season for the Federals to become interested in pursuing it as a farm league for its excess players.

   2009, Robert Peyton Wiggins, The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, →ISBN, page 229

2. broadlyhobbiesA minor league team from which scouts recruit players for the major league.

   Scenarios were floated that the CFL and WLAF would merge or that the CFL would revert to a fall schedule and become a farm league for the NFL.

   2005, Steve O'Brien, The Canadian Football League, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Now the CEO of Isiah International Inc. has his sights set on nothing short of establishing an official farm league for the NBA, establishing a system similar to the one which currently operates in Major League Baseball.

   1999 November, “It's a whole new league”, in Black Enterprise, volume 30, number 3, page 28

   Heading into their third year, a minor league coach judged the Capitals to be an “average hockey team”—by the standards of a farm league club.

   2015, Chris Elzey, David K. Wiggins, DC Sports: The Nation’s Capital at Play, →ISBN, page 237

3. broadlyA position or venue from which talent is recruited for showing potential.

   Hire from the farm league. I constantly counsel church leaders to hire from within.

   2011, James Emery White, What They Didn't Teach You in Seminary, →ISBN, page 29

   2 more examples

   An industry source told MP3.com that the site is "supposed to be a farm-league thing.

   1999 November, “UMG May Use Web Site For A&R Purposes”, in CMJ New Music Report, volume 60, number 642, page 9

   Assessing the historical record, former presidential aide and student of the Presidency Theodore Sorensen once quipped that some Presidents use the Executive Office “as a farm league, some use it as a source of experts and implementers, and some use it as Elba."

   2011, Harold C. Relyea, Executive Office of the President: An Historical Overview, →ISBN