minor league 
noun North American
1A league below the level of the major league in a professional sport, especially baseball.An equally interesting but seldom reported story is the adventure of breaking into professional baseball in the minor leagues....
- The topics of discussion will include college, minor league, and major league baseball.
- The draft was taking players from the big leagues and the minor leagues.
1.1 [as modifier] Insignificant; small-time: a minor-league villain...
- This is for all those nights in two-bit minor-league towns, for all the times he was told he wasn't good enough.
- Liar-liar works magnificently against the TV rookie, the minor-league humanities professor blinking into the camera from a remote studio in the Midwest.
- It's okay to be wrong when you're an assistant professor and minor-league blogger like myself; the rules are different when you are the president of a university.
Derivatives
minor-leaguer
- In the two trades, Oakland received a total of three minor-leaguers.
- In return, you demand hot minor-leaguers who will one day develop into stars and lead you to future pennants.
- Maybe the Yanks do have some insight into the minor-leaguers who can help them after all?