Minor League Baseball News

[sam the man]

The Mets unfortunately now have their AAA team in Vegas, which causes difficulties,  for calling up players (trans continental flights...), for acurate valuation of players (offense centric Pacific leuge) What would be their options for getting  a more conveniently located affiliate? Can they just open an expantion team in the International leuage? What east coast/mid west citys are there that can suport a AAA team dont already have one?

[Sec19Row53]

No they can't unless they buy the AAA franchise from whoever owns it.

[Dalcowboyfan92]

It made about as much sense for the Blue Jays' to have their AAA affiliate in Las Vegas and not Buffalo. The thing is with the International League all the teams with AAA affiliates in that league are all on the East Coast with the team farthest west is Minnesota.

 

The Mets would need to buy the rights of a team like Rochester from the Twins; but that's money the team doesn't want to spend right now; most likely.

 

The Mets have greater problems with their team than worrying about why their AAA baseball team plays in Las Vegas, Nevada.

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, Dalcowboyfan92 said:

The Mets have greater problems with their team than worrying about why their AAA baseball team plays in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

Of course, but that doesn't mean that the organization can't address several problems at once.

 

And they will need to; the Las Vegas 51s are the affiliate nobody wanted, so the Mets may have trouble pulling away from them.   But there are only 30 AAA clubs, one for each MLB club, so Wilpons will have to wait for another big league club to drop its affiliation and then try to swoop in.

[dfwabel]

At least in Las Vegas there are direct flights to/from each MLB city. When the call up is in say El Paso, Des Moines, Fresno, Reno, or Omaha you're likely connecting, unless the Mets are in a hub when on the road.

[Sec19Row53]

1 hour ago, Gothamite said:

 

Of course, but that doesn't mean that the organization can't address several problems at once.

 

And they will need to; the Las Vegas 51s are the affiliate nobody wanted, so the Mets may have trouble pulling away from them.   But there are only 30 AAA clubs, one for each MLB club, so Wilpons will have to wait for another big league club to drop its affiliation and then try to swoop in.

I'll bet the Brewers would make that trade - Las Vegas for Colorado Springs.

[Gothamite]

27 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

I'll bet the Brewers would make that trade - Las Vegas for Colorado Springs.

 

They'd be crazy to do so - even if the Sky Sox are staying in Colorado Springs, it will be because they were able to improve facilities.  Vegas has one of the worst ballparks in the minors.  We're talking raw-sewage-in-the-dugout worst.  Terrible-field-causing-injuries worst.  No indoor batting cages.  A tiny weight room.  Outdated facilities that MLB clubs don't want any part of.

 

As it stands now, the Las Vegas 51s are possibly the least attractive option for big league clubs to develop their players.

[BeerGuyJordan]

With the NHL and NFL coming to town, what's the likelihood the 51s relocate?

[Gothamite]

3 minutes ago, BeerGuyJordan said:

With the NHL and NFL coming to town, what's the likelihood the 51s relocate?

 

Depends - is there a place for them to go?

[AnPheitseog]

Dont forget, the Mets have affilates in Binghamton(AA) and brooklyn. Easy enough for rehab starts, and it isnt like NYC doesnt have a major airport.

 

No issues really

[TBGKon]

7 minutes ago, BeerGuyJordan said:

With the NHL and NFL coming to town, what's the likelihood the 51s relocate?

 

4 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

Depends - is there a place for them to go?

I know a city outside of Vegas (Summerlin?) was working to potentially build a new ballpark for the 51s.

 

 

[TBGKon]

Just now, DiePerske said:

Dont forget, the Mets have affilates in Binghamton(AA) and brooklyn. Easy enough for rehab starts, and it isnt like NYC doesnt have a major airport.

 

No issues really

Only issue is the stadium in Vegas...which is why they're usually the last one standing.

[Gothamite]

5 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

I know a city outside of Vegas (Summerlin?) was working to potentially build a new ballpark for the 51s.

 

I know that's been talked  about, but I don't know how likely that is.  But other than possibly moving to the Vegas suburbs, I don't know that there's a place in the United States for them to go right now.

 

4 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

Only issue is the stadium in Vegas...which is why they're usually the last one standing.

 

The stadium, and all of the training facilities.  They're beyond terrible, totally unworthy of professional athletes, and no major league club wants to subject its players to them unless it's their last option.

[AnPheitseog]

10 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

I know that's been talked  about, but I don't know how likely that is.  But other than possibly moving to the Vegas suburbs, I don't know that there's a place in the United States for them to go right now.

 

 

The stadium, and all of the training facilities.  They're beyond terrible, totally unworthy of professional athletes, and no major league club wants to subject its players to them unless it's their last option.

I feel like, if they wanted to, the mets could force and pay for improvements to the field.

 

Then again, as long as the mets dont come back to buffalo, they can do whatever they want

[Gothamite]

5 minutes ago, DiePerske said:

I feel like, if they wanted to, the mets could force and pay for improvements to the field.

 

Perhaps.  But that's not how affiliation agreements work.

 

What the Mets should be doing is looking for a AA franchise they can buy, either a share or outright.  That would force somebody else to partner with Vegas.

[kroywen]

What's really unfortunate is that if Vegas had a modern ballpark, they'd actually be a really attractive AAA affiliate for ML teams in the Southwest. Vegas is located closer to the Dodgers, Angels, Padres, and D-Backs than each of those teams' current AAA affiliates, and there would never be an issue with getting flights from Vegas to those cities (and the drive from Vegas to those cities would be relatively easy, by Western standards at least).

 

I highly doubt we'll ever see improvements in the Vegas situation unless an ML decides to buy the 51s, and pour money into a new stadium. The chances are of that are incredibly low though. Neither the county nor the state are going to want to sink money into a AAA ballpark when they're building a new football stadium and hockey arena (and their fiscal situation isn't great anyway), and no ML team or MiL owner is going to want to pay for an entire AAA ballpark either.

 

Frankly, MiLB might be best off abandoning the Vegas market and relocating the team elsewhere (i.e. to a city with an open checkbook), but I don't see that happening in the near future.

 

(FWIW, the condition of Cashman Field also serves as a minor hindrance to the potential relocation of a Major League team to Las Vegas. It would obviously serve as the temporary venue of a relocated team - likely with hastily-constructed stands to increase capacity - and given that the stadium isn't even up to AAA standards, I can't see any ML owner willing to play there for any amount of time. Obviously, I think there's much bigger stumbling blocks to MLB relocation to Vegas - gambling, a transient population, lack of a strong economic base, etc. - but the poor condition of Cashman Field does not help matters.)

[TBGKon]

Ideally, the places to look at IF Vegas were to relocate would be somewhere there's a successful lower level team. 

 

I'm curious if one of the three teams in the California league in the LA outskirts would have AAA success, like in Lake Elsinore, Rancho Cucamonga, or Inland Empire.

 

Im wondering if the Padres, Angels, or maybe Dodgers would consider a partnership to buy the 51s.

[cmm]

They can't do anything until the next round of PDC musical chairs, which will happen in September 2018.

[BeerGuyJordan]

If they were to relocate, the only three markets I think are worth entertaining are Portland, Inland Empire or Vancouver. None of those have a ballpark up to AAA standards, though.

[kroywen]

1 hour ago, AstroBull21 said:

Ideally, the places to look at IF Vegas were to relocate would be somewhere there's a successful lower level team. 

 

I'm curious if one of the three teams in the California league in the LA outskirts would have AAA success, like in Lake Elsinore, Rancho Cucamonga, or Inland Empire.

 

Im wondering if the Padres, Angels, or maybe Dodgers would consider a partnership to buy the 51s.

 

I could see an Inland Empire location working out well in AAA. How do the territorial rights play out in Southern California? I know that Los Angeles, Ventura, and Orange Counties are shared territory between the Dodgers and Angels - do San Bernardino or Riverside fall into either team's territory? It doesn't seem to, based on this document via SABR, but that's also from the early 90s, and may not be comprehensive anyway.

 

The other thing with the Inland Empire is that there have been periodic rumblings of the Angels considering it as a future ballpark location. As of February, it sounds like they're committed to renovating Angel Stadium, but I'm sure they'd like to keep their options open around the region, in case negotiations with Anaheim fall through. They may not be keen on a AAA team relocating to the Inland Empire, especially if it results in a new or renovated MiL ballpark.