MiLB getting makeover

[BigMac1212]

After years of minor changes, the 2020 affiliation dance has gone into overdrive. In fact, the whole of MiLB is getting an extreme makeover.

Affiliate Dance: 2020 | Ballpark Digest

Better say goodbye to the old MiLB. There's a new Minor Leagues coming in 2021.

Your thoughts?

Click to read more...

 

[Cas]

Nobody hates baseball as much as the people in charge of baseball.

 

[sabremike]

These greedy pigs are going to end up turning the sport into what boxing or horse racing are today: Nitch sports where non-old people only care about it on a handful of occasion every year.

 

[John Price]

The local club in Hagerstown recently cut ties with the Nats. Very sad. The stadium was old and one of those up for removal (along with Frederick which is still around).

 

[John Price]

That being said I will still continue to go to MiLB games when they allow attendance again because I need my nifty giveaways

 

[Fenway]

https://www.kansas.com/sports/mlb/article247500415.html

Wichita really got screwed

Fresno is screaming

Fresno fights Grizzlies demotion

To me, the most ludicrous move is giving AAA to St. Paul

The 'final' list is supposed to drop in the next 48 hours.

 

[Fenway]

Staten Island Yankees cease operations, sue New York Yankees, MLB

 

[BigMac1212]

^^

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Braves announced they are keeping the same three affiliates (Gwinnett, Mississippi, and Rome) and adding the Augusta Greenjackets which will now be their low-A team.

 

[John Price]

Most teams have announced their affiliations today. Orioles lost Frederick (which was on the verge of being removed anyway) and Nationals took Wilmington.

 

[BigMac1212]

Baseball America has the map of the 2021 MiLB.

Baseball America on Twitter: "We broke down the future of the minors https://t.co/wMJyYyJifq https://t.co/iVRTJ3OaPd" / Twitter

Edit 1: My bad. I forgot to post the image.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I missed that the dust had settled on this...oi.

The list of things I'd spend my money on before independent baseball consists of just about everything I'd be willing to pay for. Good luck with that, leagues that are no longer part of the umbrella.

The Yankees killing a couple teams to promote an independent team from a bedroom suburb makes me queasy, too.

 

[Fenway]

I missed that the dust had settled on this...oi.

The list of things I'd spend my money on before independent baseball consists of just about everything I'd be willing to pay for. Good luck with that, leagues that are no longer part of the umbrella.

The Yankees killing a couple teams to promote an independent team from a bedroom suburb makes me queasy, too.

20 years ago I went to an Atlantic League game in Nashua and was dumbfounded to see this guy playing for Atlantic City

 

[John Price]

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Tri Valley franchise goes independent

 

[garnetpalmetto]

All 120 teams have accepted their PDL invitations. Witness the new landscape of MiLB.

 

[Cas]

RIP Pacific Coast League (1903-2019)

 

[Fenway]

I didn't think MLB could make it worse - I was wrong

 

[Centrum Hockey]

I don’t believe mlb owns the trademarks to the historic league names. The national association still exists as a business entity at the moment.

 

[Fenway]

The bus ride from Greenville, SC to Fishkill, NY will be fun

 

[garnetpalmetto]

The bus ride from Greenville, SC to Fishkill, NY will be fun

At least at the Triple-A levels I'm hearing that this season, at least, there'll only play within the divisions much like the NHL is doing this season. I'd imagine the High-A East might also be a league where that would be the case. Not so sure about leagues with a little more geographic proximity/cohesiveness, like, say, the Low-A East.

 

[Vamos Rafa]

The bus ride from Greenville, SC to Fishkill, NY will be fun

I thought the rule was anything over 500 miles should be travelled by air...commercial, of course.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

At least under the old system (not sure with MLB's changes as part of the PDLs) I believe there was a scheduling out where if they traveled over 500 miles they had to have a scheduled day off. Again, not sure what the new system is like but I recall that being one of the reasons the Carolina Mudcats initially opted to drop from Double-A to High-A and go from being a geographic outlier in the Southern League to being in the much more geographically advantageous Carolina League.

 

[Centrum Hockey]

At least at the Triple-A levels I'm hearing that this season, at least, there'll only play within the divisions much like the NHL is doing this season. I'd imagine the High-A East might also be a league where that would be the case. Not so sure about leagues with a little more geographic proximity/cohesiveness, like, say, the Low-A East.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trenton works its way into the high a east at some point. I heard on a podcast that several teams would have considered putting a affiliate in Trenton but there wasn't any time to negotiate.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I still can't get over how much I despise every aspect of this.

Towns of ~30,000 got promoted to affiliated ball while 11 entire states (9 realistic ones, with due respect to Hawai'i & Alaska) are left with 0 affiliated/fully professional teams. Baseball is hell bent on becoming even more regional than it has been trending for a generation.