Minor League Baseball News

[McCall]

3 hours ago, BigEd76 said:

I did it that way because the seven West teams need to be placed into the Texas League and the Cardinals can't be moved to the Southern

But MLB would still prefer to have some teams have little geographical distance with affiliates and some with bigger distances than all with bigger distances. The California/west teams are gonna have far away Double-A affiliates regardless. Having a team give up one only about 40 miles away would only add to the "problem".

[BBTV]

Just curious - anyone know what affiliated team (as of 2019) is farthest away from any MLB team?  Not furthest from its parent club, but from literally any other MLB team?

 

 

[McCall]

Here's a Double-A possibility I thought of. Not sure this would actually happen, but it would involve increasing the Texas League to 12 teams, with affiliates of all 8 "west" teams, both Texas teams and both Missouri teams, which are all the organizations closest to the Texas League footprint. I brought in 2 outside teams to fill this out, the Kansas City T-Bones of the American Association and an expansion team in Fort Worth (essentially replaces Jacksonville from the Southern League who is going up to AAA). The Southern League would drop to 8 and host the affiliates for Central teams from Minnesota to Cincinnati, and the 3 "southern" teams, Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Miami. I only dropped the Jackson Generals because the other teams created a better footprint. Jackson could actually fit into the Texas League. They're in west Tennessee and the Arkansas Travelers are not too far away. And really, the distance between them and the other North teams is still closer or similar to that of the Texas teams. Plus, they could stay Arizona's affiliate with NWArk remaining Kansas City's (the T-Bones would not be brought into the league in this scenario). The more "northeastern" teams would land the 10-team Eastern League. I dropped Harford and Richmond just because, from the talk around here, they seem to be the odd teams out. Not necessarily dropped altogether, just from AA.

I left a lot of affiliations as they currently are and filled opened affiliates with opened MLB clubs, purely on a speculative basis.

[BigEd76]

Looks OK, but that would mean two more teams would be cut, and having both Hartford and Richmond drop to single A would cause a bit of a jam in the MAL and SAL, especially if Carolina is going all-Carolina

[McCall]

17 minutes ago, BigEd76 said:

Looks OK, but that would mean two more teams would be cut, and having both Hartford and Richmond drop to single A would cause a bit of a jam in the MAL and SAL, especially if Carolina is going all-Carolina

I just chose those two for now. If there are other EL teams better suited to move down, then they can. It seems right now all 3 leagues are planned to be 10, so they'd have to lose 2 anyway. With this plan, it's really the Southern League losing 2 teams (Jacksonville and Jackson) with the Texas League picking up those 2 vacancies.

[BigEd76]

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

Just curious - anyone know what affiliated team (as of 2019) is farthest away from any MLB team?  Not furthest from its parent club, but from literally any other MLB team?

 

 

 

Without researching, I'm gonna guess one of the three Montana teams in the Pioneer since none are expected to survive the cut

[flasah]

22 hours ago, BigEd76 said:

AAA INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

NORTH = Buffalo (TOR), Lehigh Valley (PHI), Rochester (PIT), Scranton/WB (NYY), Syracuse (NYM), Worcester (BOS)
SOUTH = Charlotte (CWS), Durham (TB), Gwinnett (ATL), Jacksonville (MIA), Norfolk (BAL), RIchmond (WSH)
WEST = Columbus (CLE), Indianapolis (MIL), Louisville (CIN), Toledo (DET)
(Geography makes 6/5/5 tough, and yes I have Richmond being promoted to AAA with the potential of a new stadium, shifting PIT to Rochester and MIL to Indianapolis. I also tried to make this a 20-team league but a 5/5 split in the PCL was tougher than I thought.)

AAA PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE
EAST = Iowa (CHC), Memphis (STL), Oklahoma City (LAD), Omaha (KC), Round Rock (TEX), St. Paul (MIN), Sugar Land (HOU)
WEST = Albuquerque (COL), El Paso (SD), Las Vegas (OAK), Reno (AZ), Sacramento (SF), Salt Lake (LAA), Tacoma (SEA)
(I kept debating over Round Rock and Nashville, but the proximity of Round Rock and Arlington just made more sense.)

I think a 5/5 PCL is pretty obvious:

PCL West: Las Vegas, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake, Tacoma

PCL East: Albuquerque, El Paso, Oklahoma, Round Rock, Sugar Land

 

with a 7/7/6 IL:

IL West: Columbus, Indianapolis, Iowa, Louisville, Omaha, St. Paul, Toledo

IL South: Charlotte, Durham, Gwinnett, Jacksonville, Memphis, Norfolk, Nashville/Richmond

IL North: Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Scranton/WB, Syracuse, Worcester

[rams80]

On 11/14/2020 at 1:33 AM, schlim said:

I really hope every community affected by this reorganization remembers what is happening right now when baseball tries to pass the hat in a couple years after announcing MLB expansion plans, requiring eight more MILB teams (and accompanying modern facilities).

 

It's going to be the most depressing manipulation of civic pride and dumb local politicians for the biggest grift since Shelbyville's monorail convinced Springfield's citizens to open their own pursestrings.

 

Nah fam, if MLB has any designs on getting that many shiny new stadia after the number COVID's likely to do to municipal budgets over the next decade, they are flat out deluded.

[AnPheitseog]

12 hours ago, BBTV said:

Just curious - anyone know what affiliated team (as of 2019) is farthest away from any MLB team?  Not furthest from its parent club, but from literally any other MLB team?

 

 

Quick research on AA, since I misread.

 

Amarillo is 5h22 away from Dallas(Arlington doesn't change it much) and is the furthest in AA.

[DEAD!]

11 minutes ago, _J_ said:

Quick research on AA, since I misread.

 

Amarillo is 5h22 away from Dallas(Arlington doesn't change it much) and is the furthest in AA.

Little did I know how far El Paso and Albuquerque are from Phoenix.

[BigEd76]

Just checked and Great Falls MT is 10 hours away from Seattle and 11 hours away from Denver

[sportsfan7]

Obviously they aren't around anymore, but the Hawaii Islanders played in the PCL from 1961-1987.

[DustDevil61]

6 hours ago, BigEd76 said:

Just checked and Great Falls MT is 10 hours away from Seattle and 11 hours away from Denver

Bummer. I was hoping it wouldn’t have been a Pioneer League team, and one with such a great identity and story (that actually fits the locale!):

 

https://news.sportslogos.net/2015/09/05/truly-trippy-the-story-behind-the-great-falls-voyagers/

I hold out hope that some Pioneer League teams can find a home in the NWL and those that don’t can live on as summer collegiate wood bat (maybe independent) teams; I’m not sure who, though.

 

[BigEd76]

The only three that might have a chance are the two over 8000-seat capacity (Rocky Mountain and Ogden) and the one already owned by an MLB team (Grand Junction). The other five have capacities of 5K and under and don't fit geographically.

[BigEd76]

Rumor of the day: the SAL West Virginia Power (Charleston WV), who were on the original rumored hit list, will be demoted to the Appalachian League

[McCall]

Sugar Land, unsurprisingly, to become Astros’ Triple-A affiliate while also purchasing a stake in the Skeeters.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chron.com/sports/astros/amp/Sugar-Land-Skeeters-Houston-Astros-AAA-affiliate-15732118.php

[The_Admiral]

"Houston Astros, we are giving you the closest thing we can give to a death penalty because you have compromised the sacrosanct legitimacy of our athletic contests"

"Okay Do you still want our specific instructions on how to tear down the minors and rebuild them into something that benefits the Astros?"
"Yes!"

[flasah]

On 11/15/2020 at 6:48 PM, DustDevil61 said:

Bummer. I was hoping it wouldn’t have been a Pioneer League team, and one with such a great identity and story (that actually fits the locale!):

 

https://news.sportslogos.net/2015/09/05/truly-trippy-the-story-behind-the-great-falls-voyagers/

I hold out hope that some Pioneer League teams can find a home in the NWL and those that don’t can live on as summer collegiate wood bat (maybe independent) teams; I’m not sure who, though.

 

 

On 11/15/2020 at 10:52 PM, BigEd76 said:

The only three that might have a chance are the two over 8000-seat capacity (Rocky Mountain and Ogden) and the one already owned by an MLB team (Grand Junction). The other five have capacities of 5K and under and don't fit geographically.

 

Rocky Mt. and Grand Junction are actually the farthest away from the nearest NWL team, both over 600 miles. I don't think any of the PL teams are really a good fit in the NWL.

[McCall]

Rochester to become Triple-A affiliate of the Nationals.

[Sec19Row53]

Not sure if it has been mentioned here, but San Antonio will be dropping from AAA to AA and won't be affiliated with the Brewers (per Brewer beat reporter Twitter).