LMU 5,940 Posted September 18, 2018 Confirmed. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JTernup 291 Posted September 18, 2018 17 minutes ago, LMU said: Confirmed. This is going to be so inconvenient for the Nats when they're in the middle of blowing a division race... 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LMU 5,940 Posted September 19, 2018 2 hours ago, JTernup said: This is going to be so inconvenient for the Nats when they're in the middle of blowing a division race... Yep. No direct flights. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wings 1,969 Posted September 19, 2018 5 hours ago, LMU said: I walked by the Fresno ballpark back in April. It's in a lovely neighborhood of pawn shops, a casino, and urban blight. The Mediterranean restaurant/brewery was excellent though so there's that. As a midsize city as it is, Fresno should still probably be in the Cal League. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
buzzcut 246 Posted September 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Wings said: As a midsize city as it is, Fresno should still probably be in the Cal League. Who'd replace it in the PCL? I don't know who'd fit the bill that isn't a PCL reject. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oz615 22 Posted September 19, 2018 (edited) On 9/8/2018 at 6:55 PM, Wings said: PCL Tacoma Sacramento Reno Fresno Salt Lake Las Vegas Albuquerque El Paso Round Rock San Antonio Oklahoma City Wichita Omaha Iowa Memphis Nashville It still bug me to this day as to why Nashville is in the PCL as the only team East of the Mississippi River. i just wish it was an for Nashville (and Memphis) could be in the IL. Edited September 19, 2018 by oz615 Specifiying the post. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wings 1,969 Posted September 19, 2018 Maybe we should have more than 2 AAA leagues. Cut down on travel. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leopard88 2,449 Posted September 19, 2018 11 hours ago, LMU said: Yep. No direct flights. Fresno seems like one of those cities that Southwest would serve. Maybe the Lerners can make some calls. P.S. I just discovered that the Fresno airport code is FAT. That's rather unfortunate. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NicDB 2,380 Posted September 19, 2018 Supposedly it's to make AAA ball more like MLB where there's two leagues. But the idea of a minor league that spans three time zones is ridiculous... I'm looking at you too, AHL. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AstroBull21 1,878 Posted September 19, 2018 16 hours ago, nickp91 said: Did the Rangers not want San Antonio? Or were they caught sleeping while the Brewers were aggressive? A new ballpark has yet to be approved for San Antonio. It thought the Rangers passed due to this reason. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wings 1,969 Posted September 19, 2018 Pacific Coast League Albuquerque El Paso Fresno Las Vegas Reno Sacramento Salt Lake Tacoma American Association* Indianapolis Iowa Louisville Memphis Nashville Oklahoma City Omaha Round Rock San Antonio Wichita *if they can get the name back International League Buffalo Charlotte Columbus Durham Gwinnett Lehigh Valley Norfolk Rochester Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Syracuse Toledo Worcester 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kroywen 2,241 Posted September 19, 2018 With all these changes in AAA affiliations, I tried to create a 'platonic ideal' of AAA affiliates, with the intent of minimizing distance from each ML team to their AAA affiliate. Think I did pretty well with it. AAA Team ML Affiliation Albuqueque Arizona Buffalo Toronto Charlotte Miami Columbus Cleveland Durham Washington El Paso San Diego Fresno Los Angeles (2) Gwinnett Atlanta Indianapolis Chicago (2) Iowa Minnesota Las Vegas Los Angeles (1) Lehigh Valley Philadelphia Louisville Cincinnati Memphis St. Louis Nashville Chicago (1) New Orleans Tampa Bay Norfolk Baltimore Oklahoma City Kansas City Omaha Milwaukee Pawtucket Boston Reno Oakland Rochester Pittsburgh Round Rock Texas Sacramento San Francisco Salt Lake City Colorado San Antonio Houston Scranton New York (1) Syracuse New York (2) Tacoma Seattle Toledo Detroit The Florida teams, by necessity, get a bit screwed, since there's no AAA teams anywhere close to them. The San Diego/El Paso combo is by far the worst, but some southwestern ML team was inevitably going to draw the short end of the stick. Other than that, almost every affiliate would be a few hours drive or a couple hours flight away, tops. No Fresno-to-DC affiliations, at least. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LMU 5,940 Posted September 19, 2018 Looks like a classic needs to make a return. 9 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
B-Rich 849 Posted September 19, 2018 13 hours ago, oz615 said: It still bug me to this day as to why Nashville is in the PCL as the only team East of the Mississippi River. New Orleans is also east of the Mississippi River, as is the AAA baseball stadium in Metairie. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sc49erfan15 1,659 Posted September 19, 2018 4 minutes ago, B-Rich said: New Orleans is also east of the Mississippi River, as is the AAA baseball stadium in Metairie. To be fair, New Orleans is every direction but south of the Mississippi River. 5 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pmoehrin 947 Posted September 19, 2018 18 hours ago, buzzcut said: Who'd replace it in the PCL? I don't know who'd fit the bill that isn't a PCL reject. The only city that really strikes me as being a possible replacement would be Boise. Metro area is about 700K and growing which is perfectly suitable for a AAA market. Plenty of disposable income in the surrounding area. No other sports to really compete against. The only cons I could see would be how isolated the market is and the lack of a AAA ready ballpark, but the market itself seems like it could hold some promise. Beyond that, you have Canadian cities like Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton which could work provided the right situation and ownership, but any of them would be a stretch. Same goes for Honolulu. Why a non-California team would even bother with a market like Fresno is beyond me, but as long as you have more AAA teams west of the Mississippi than you have MLB teams west of the Mississippi, you're always going to have at least one team left holding the bag looking stupid at the end. In recent years its been the Mets more often than not. 2019 will be Washington's turn. It will be fun watching Fresno change affiliates three times over the next decade. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LMU 5,940 Posted September 19, 2018 16 minutes ago, pmoehrin said: The only city that really strikes me as being a possible replacement would be Boise. Metro area is about 700K and growing which is perfectly suitable for a AAA market. Plenty of disposable income in the surrounding area. No other sports to really compete against. The only cons I could see would be how isolated the market is and the lack of a AAA ready ballpark, but the market itself seems like it could hold some promise. Beyond that, you have Canadian cities like Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton which could work provided the right situation and ownership, but any of them would be a stretch. Same goes for Honolulu. Why a non-California team would even bother with a market like Fresno is beyond me, but as long as you have more AAA teams west of the Mississippi than you have MLB teams west of the Mississippi, you're always going to have at least one team left holding the bag looking stupid at the end. In recent years its been the Mets more often than not. 2019 will be Washington's turn. It will be fun watching Fresno change affiliates three times over the next decade. Fresno's the new Las Vegas except replace God awful facilities to God awful location. Portland should be up there except for A-they may be getting too big to settle for AAA, and B-the ballpark issue. There was the proposed Escondido project a few years ago that fell through leaving the Padres to go to El Paso. The only real options moving forward would be moving lower level markets up to AAA. Spokane has a larger seating capacity right now than Tacoma. Brooklyn and Staten Island could work if the Yankees and Mets wanted to put the AAA club in their backyards. The Eastern and Southern Leagues would be much easier to pluck from as Hartford, Richmond, Birmingham, and Jacksonville could definitely support AAA baseball plus it would be easier to find A and AA markets as replacements. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pmoehrin 947 Posted September 19, 2018 52 minutes ago, LMU said: Fresno's the new Las Vegas except replace God awful facilities to God awful location. Portland should be up there except for A-they may be getting too big to settle for AAA, and B-the ballpark issue. There was the proposed Escondido project a few years ago that fell through leaving the Padres to go to El Paso. The only real options moving forward would be moving lower level markets up to AAA. Spokane has a larger seating capacity right now than Tacoma. Brooklyn and Staten Island could work if the Yankees and Mets wanted to put the AAA club in their backyards. The Eastern and Southern Leagues would be much easier to pluck from as Hartford, Richmond, Birmingham, and Jacksonville could definitely support AAA baseball plus it would be easier to find A and AA markets as replacements. Portland will never be considered for a AAA team again. Any efforts relating to minor league baseball are being focued squarely on promoting and expanding the Northwest League. Portland is all in on getting an MLB team and I would say it’s all but a foregone conclusion they will get an MLB expansion team within the next ten years. The Mets and Yankees could and should work out a deal where they both play in the NYC metro area. In addition to being an upgrade for both of those franchises it would also open up two other markets. Why they haven’t is a question you’ll have to ask the teams about. And yeah there’s plenty of potential AAA markets at the ready that you mentioned. All you need to do is pull one or two teams out of the PCL and you would solve a lot of problems. Apparently that’s too difficult. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oz615 22 Posted September 20, 2018 8 hours ago, B-Rich said: New Orleans is also east of the Mississippi River, as is the AAA baseball stadium in Metairie. yeah,but are barely 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NicDB 2,380 Posted September 20, 2018 If we're talking about new AAA markets, can the Brewers have a top level affiliate in Madison? They would need a new facility, but the Madison Mallards are far and away the best supported college summer league club by over 2,000 fans per average attendance. Madison (#80) is also a bigger media market than Syracuse (#85), El Paso (#92), and Reno (#112); and in the same class as Toledo (#78), Rochester (#76), Omaha (#74), and Des Moines (#69). 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites