One last thing, and I imagine this point has already been made. I strikes me that it must have been, at some point:

People often discuss which Minor League transition is the biggest jump. In this Scout.com roundtable from a few years ago, most of the experts argued that the biggest jump is from High A to Double-A, and I’ve heard as much elsewhere.

But the biggest jump of all almost has to be from Triple-A to the Majors, no? Is that just common sense? Here’s how I figure:

There’s no talent ceiling in the Majors. Dominant players at every level can advance to the next level, until they reach the big leagues, but dominant players at the big league level have no place else to go.

If in some weird scenario a guy as good as Josh Johnson is in Triple-A — and I mean Josh Johnson now, not when he was in Triple-A — he’s only going to make his way around the International League once, tops. Awesome players stay in the Majors for as long as they’re awesome (and then some).