Minor League Assets Too

[MFS62]

My daughter is already checking out the schedule to see when Binghamton visits Hartford this year. It wasn't until very recently that we found that there will be AA baseball in Hartford this year.

Go Yard Goats!



Later

[Edgy MD]

I don't know how permanent the realignment of the minors is supposed to be, but they really have something close to an ideal setup, with the top three minor league teams all within the state, and within driving distance if you're willing to go that route.



The two teams operating out of St. Lucie are now adjacent to one another in levels, as the St. Lucie Mets are now representing A, or Low A, instead of High A, and low A is going to mean something considerably lower now that there aren't two Short Season A teams in between that level and Rookie ball.



This really works in one way because teams prefer their spring training facilities for rehab assignments, especially initial ones for players coming off a long layoff, allowing them to get game action but stay close to the rehab trainers and facilities. They've often spent a couple of weeks playing with the FSL league St. Lucie Mets when they're at home, and the Gulf Coast League GCL Mets when they're at home. That allows them to stay off of buses and under observation, but it forces them to jump up and down across several levels of competition. Now, not so much.



The big downside — and I'd ask Sandy about his plan for this if I was in on a press conference — is how they're going to manage debuting twice as many first-year pros this season with 25% fewer slots to fill.

[Willets Point]

I made a list of cities and towns in New England that had minor league baseball teams in fairly recent years and still have ballparks and I want someone entrepreneurial enough to make an independent league out of them. I'd have put Bridgeport on the list too, but the city is converting their ballpark into an amphitheatre.



Brockton, MA

Burlington, VT

Lowell, MA

Norwich, CT

Old Orchard Beach, ME

Pawtucket, RI

Pittsfield, MA

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I just wanna go on record that it sucks they're also retiring the league names under descriptive bullshit names that you know will soon have a sponsor stapled to:



Triple A East Brough To You By Taco Bell

[Willets Point]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: I just wanna go on record that it sucks they're also retiring the league names under descriptive bullshit names that you know will soon have a sponsor stapled to: Triple A East Brough To You By Taco Bell

I did not know this! The International League and the Pacific Coast League have over a century of history. That's tragic.

[MFS62]

Willets Point wrote: I made a list of cities and towns in New England that had minor league baseball teams in fairly recent years and still have ballparks and I want someone entrepreneurial enough to make an independent league out of them. I'd have put Bridgeport on the list too, but the city is converting their ballpark into an amphitheatre. Brockton, MA Burlington, VT Lowell, MA Norwich, CT Old Orchard Beach, ME Pawtucket, RI Pittsfield, MA

Will there be a team in New Britain, CT this year?

Later

[Willets Point]

There's a collegiate league team. I'm thinking New Britain is too close to the Hartford Yard Goats to support their own pro team.

[Frayed Knot]

Willets Point wrote: I did not know this! The International League and the Pacific Coast League have over a century of history. That's tragic.

To some degree, sure.

On the other hand, the International League hasn't has a team outside the US borders in years and the Pacific Coast Lg, in recent years, has

hosted teams from sites such as New Orleans and Memphis ... kind of making it not really a PCL anymore. And part of this re-org is to

regionalize things a bit better.

So the new set-up is:





AAA East - consisting of:

- Northeast: Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Syracuse, Worcester

- Midwest: Columbus, Indianapolis, Iowa, Louisville, Omaha, St Paul (new), Toledo

- Southeast: Charlotte, Durham, Gwinnett, Jacksonville, Memphis, Nashville, Norfolk



AAA West

- East: Albuquerque, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Round Rock, Sugarland (TX, new)

- West: Las Vegas, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Tacoma









AA North

- Northeast: Binghamton, Hartford, New Hampshire, Portland, Reading, Somerset

- Southwest: Akron, Altoona, Bowie, Erie, Harrisburg, Richmond



AA Central

- North: Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas, Springfield, Tulsa, Wichita

- South: Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Frisco, Midland, San Antonio



AA South

- North: Birmingham, Chattanooga, Rocket City, Tennessee

- South: Biloxi, Mississippi, Montgomery, Pensacola









High-A East

- North: Aberdeen, Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, Jersey Shore, Wilmington

- South: Asheville, Bowling Green, Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, Rome, Winston-Salem



High-A Central

- East: Dayton, Fort Wayne, Great Lakes, Lake Country, Lansing, West Michigan

- West: Beloit, Cedar Rapids, Peoria, Quad Cities, South Bend, Wisconsin



High-A West

Eugene, Everett, Hillsboro, Spokane, Tri-City, Vancouver











Low-A East

- Central: Carolina, Down East, Fayetteville, Kannapolis

- North: Delmarva, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Salem

- South - Augusta, Charleston, Columbia, Myrtle Beach



Low-A Southeast

- East: Daytona, Jupiter, Palm Beach, St. Lucie

- West: Bradenton, Clearwater, Dunedin, Fort Myers, Lakeland, Tampa



Low-A West

- North: Fresno, Modesto, San Jose, Stockton

- South: Inland Empire, Lake Elsinore, Ranch Cucamonga, Visalia

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: The big downside — and I'd ask Sandy about his plan for this if I was in on a press conference — is how they're going to manage debuting twice as many first-year pros this season with 25% fewer slots to fill.

There were only five rounds in the draft last year, so the influx might not be as large.

[Frayed Knot]

The other thing new to the minors this year -- in order to cut down on travel and to guard against too much Covid exposure (and, oh yeah, to save $$$$) -- is playing Six Game series.

So Brooklyn, for instance, opens on the road (May 4th) with six straight in Asheville, NC followed by six more a 50 or so mile bus ride south in Greenville, SC . They'll then go home (after

a day off) to host the hated Hudson Valley Renegades (the new MFY franchise at that level so they're hated even though they've never met to this point) for six consecutive days and then

get a visit for six straight from Aberdeen.



In the case of out-of-division games such as Asheville & Greenville, there will be no return visit from that team. Presumably the next year Asheville would go to Brooklyn for all their

games although it's unclear right now if this schedule is a Covid deal, an experiment, or something more permanent.

[Edgy MD]

So basically, teams from The South Atlantic League and The New York/Penn League are operating under some sort of makeshift merger under the less-than-committed-sounding name of The High-A East League.



That's a painful lot of bus-riding.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: That's a painful lot of bus-riding.

But then they'll have six days (unless there are double headers thrown into the mix) to stretch out their legs.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: That's a painful lot of bus-riding.

I think the goal is that there'll be less.

In the Brooklyn example above, the 'clones will have a 14-hours-ish ride to and fro those first two opponents ... but those rides will be some 14 days apart with virtually nothing in between and then not another one for another two weeks.. That might be easier on the butt cheeks than shorter but more frequent trips that occur every three or four days as has been the norm.

[Frayed Knot]

Although the AAA skeds are using the same six-game sets, unlike the High-A league and Brooklyn, those teams are playing no cross-division games even within their own section.

iow, Syracuse will have just five opponents all season long; they'll visit and get visits only from Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Worcester, and S-WB, changing opponents each

Tuesday for a six game chunk before an off day on Monday and then a new/familiar dance partner for the coming week.



Season runs from April 6 thru September 19 (later than in the past)

[Fman99]

Frayed Knot wrote: Although the AAA skeds are using the same six-game sets, unlike the High-A league and Brooklyn, those teams are playing no cross-division games even within their own section. iow, Syracuse will have just five opponents all season long; they'll visit and get visits only from Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Worcester, and S-WB, changing opponents each Tuesday for a six game chunk before an off day on Monday and then a new/familiar dance partner for the coming week. Season runs from April 6 thru September 19 (later than in the past)

I don't sweat this, to be truthful. We go once or twice per homestand so we'll still see a mix of opponents. Live games -- hot dog, cold beer, sunshine, baseball. That's the thing. All the rest is a lot of jibber gobble.