MLB: New PBA Proposal would Eliminate 25% of Minor League Baseball in 2021

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Ultimately when I want each level of organized baseball to expand to 40 teams, the new Pawtucket team would move up to AAA to serve as the affiliate at that level for Hartford's MLB expansion team. It's about time the Red Sox had real competition in New England.

bloody unlikely....

 

[Centrum Hockey]

He's not entirely wrong regarding the New Britain/Hartford situation. There's a reason the Atlantic League team in New Britain that replaced the now-Yard Goats dropped down to summer collegiate ball after only a couple of years. They just couldn't keep up in the market with the Yard Goats and their newer, more centrally located (if delayed) ballpark. It really is the same market and is still being served by the same franchise, albeit in a new ballpark and with a new name.

This is different from the Pawtucket/Worcester situation, where the team went from one sub-market to another within the same larger metro area. Unlike Hartford/New Britain, the Providence/Pawtucket market is now open. I don't agree, however, that there's going to be that much of a push for a new ballpark if it's not for a Red Sox affiliate.

Technically Worcester's territory includes the Providence metro so its not a open market.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

MLB: New PBA Proposal would Eliminate 25% of Minor League Baseball in 2021

MLB: New PBA Proposal would Eliminate 25% of Minor League Baseball in 2021

Updated these posts to reflect today's announcement

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Here's what I would like the schedule formats to be:

Triple-A Central and East (32):
18 games against each division opponent (90), 9 games against each cross-division opponent (54)

Triple-A Central (40):
24 games against each division opponent (72), 9 games against each cross-division opponent (72)

Triple-A East, Four-Team Divisions (40):
24 games against each division opponent (72), 10 games against three cross-division opponents (30), 7 games against 6 cross division opponents (42); one five-team division will not be played in a given season (this alternates every year)

Triple-A East, Five-Team Divisions (40):
18 games against each division opponents (72), 10 games against three cross-division opponents (30), 7 games against 6 cross division opponents (42); one four-team division will not be played in a given season (this alternates every year)

The Triple-A East schedule would be set up so that each team plays each of their division rivals 108 times (if in a five-team division) or 144 times (if in a four-team division) over a 6-year period. Over the same amount of time, each match-up between a team from each of the four-team divisions would be played 48 times, as would a match-up between a team from each of the five-team divisions. Match-ups of a team from a four-team division against a team from a five-team division would be played 24 times over a 6-year period.

Triple-A West (32):
20 games against six opponents each (120), 24 games against one opponent (24)

Triple-A West (40):
21 games against each division opponent (84), 12 games against each cross-division opponent (60)

Double-A Northeast (32):
18 games against each division opponent (90), 10 games each against three cross-division opponents (30), 6 games each against three cross-division opponents (18)

Remaining Double-A Leagues (32), All Double-A Leagues (40):
22 games against each division opponent (88), 10 games against each cross-division opponent (50)

High-A Northeast (32), High-A West (32), Low-A West (32):
19 games against 6 opponents (114), 18 games against one opponent (18)

High-A Southeast (32):
27 games against two opponents (54). 26 games against three opponents (78)

High-A Central (32), High-A West (40), Low-A West (40):
18 games against each division opponent (72), 12 games against each cross-division opponent (60)

High-A Northeast and Southeast (40):
24 games against each division opponent (72), 15 games against each cross-division opponent (60)

High-A Central (40), Low-A Southeast (40):
15 games against each division opponent (90), 6 games against each cross-division opponent (42)

Low-A Southeast (32):
18 games against each division opponent (90), 7 games against each cross-division opponent (42)

Low-A East (32):
20 games against each division opponent (60), 9 games against each cross-division opponent (72)

Low-A East, North and Tarheel Divisions (40):
17 games against two division opponents (34), 16 games against two division opponents (32), 6 games against each cross-division opponent (66)

Low-A East, South Division (40):
15 games against two division opponents (30), 14 games against three division opponents (42), 6 games against each cross-division opponent (60)

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I've also proposed a realignment of the independent partner leagues for when MLB expands to 32 teams:

AA:
North:
Fargo-Moorhead
Sioux City
Sioux Falls
Winnipeg

South:
Cleburne (replaced with Abilene after expansion of MLB to 40 teams)
Kansas City
Lincoln
Muskogee (new team)

FL:
East:
Charleston
Florence
Lake Erie
Washington
Wild Health

West:
Champaign-Urbana (new team)
Evansville
Gateway
Lake Country
Milwaukee (Franklin)

Atlantic (32-team):
Big Apple:
Long Island
New York (Pomona)
New Jersey
Sussex County
Staten Island

North:
Burlington
Ottawa
Quebec
Tri-City
Trois-Rivieres

South:
Gastonia
Hagerstown
High Point
Lancaster
Southern Maryland
York

Atlantic (40-team):
North:
Burlington
New York (Pomona)
New Jersey
Sussex County
Staten Island
Trois-Rivieres

South:
Gastonia
Hagerstown
Lancaster
Peninsula
Southern Maryland
York

Windy City League (new league formed from Chicago area teams in AA and FL):
Chicago (Rosemont)
Cook County (name changed from Windy City to avoid confusion with the league's name)
Gary
Joliet
Kane County
Schaumburg

Pioneer:
North:
Billings
Boise (leaving upon expansion of MLB to 40 teams)
Glacier
Great Falls
Idaho Falls
Missoula

South:
Grand Junction
Northern Colorado
Odgen
Rocky Mountain (leaving upon expansion of MLB to 40 teams)
Scottsdale (expansion team to replace temporary loss of spring training)
Tempe (expansion team to replace temporary loss of spring training)

Some of these teams I am projected to move into affiliated baseball further down the road.

 

[PCSPounder]

Didn’t take long for Baseball to pull more strings.

Eugene Emeralds begin search for new home venue

Baseball left the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in the dust because the San Francisco Giants wanted to affiliate in Eugene. The problems in Eugene have been known from the start, though Volcanoes Stadium hadn’t exactly aged gracefully. Volcanoes is 24 years old this year, PK Park is 11 in theory, 10 in reality.

Mind you, everything about Baseball’s move indicated that they were primarily playing the ballpark game to the hilt. This is no surprise, but still a SMH moment.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Salem-Keizer I have rejoining the minors as an AA team in a new league in the West when one day MLB expands to 40 teams. Obviously, as I stated, cities are going to build more new stadiums to either gain new affiliated minor league teams, keep the current classifications of the ones they have now, or move to a higher classification. Some cities currently with minor league teams obviously would have major league dreams. The reorganization of the minors is just the first step in getting this new wave of minor league stadiums to be built.

San Jose as an example should look to build a new, AAA-ready stadium so that they could try and get their minor league team promoted to that level. A good company to buy naming rights to such a venue would be eBay, which has its headquarters in the city.

 

[PCSPounder]

Salem-Keizer I have rejoining the minors as an AA team in a new league in the West when one day MLB expands to 40 teams. Obviously, as I stated, cities are going to build more new stadiums to either gain new affiliated minor league teams, keep the current classifications of the ones they have now, or move to a higher classification. Some cities currently with minor league teams obviously would have major league dreams. The reorganization of the minors is just the first step in getting this new wave of minor league stadiums to be built.

San Jose as an example should look to build a new, AAA-ready stadium so that they could try and get their minor league team promoted to that level. A good company to buy naming rights to such a venue would be eBay, which has its headquarters in the city.

Um, the search for MLB stadiums 31 and 32 is so laborious (if not vaporware) that the chase for 40, eh, I think you’re wasting time on something that won’t happen in our lifetimes.

Baseball will eventually contract a bit. Thing is, if you haven’t been watching the tea leaves during this pandemic, so will nearly all other sports. The only building spree we’re seeing right now is in American soccer (more so at lower levels), and that has a ceiling, too. Only questions is how long before that turns.

As someone who eyeballed old Municipal several times and never went in, a question: what is San Jose’s motivation to go AAA? Caveat to this: The California and Florida leagues are being set up to host most of the best young players right out of school. None of the reorganization changes the MLB tendency to use AAA as more a stockpile.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Um, the search for MLB stadiums 31 and 32 is so laborious (if not vaporware) that the chase for 40, eh, I think you’re wasting time on something that won’t happen in our lifetimes.

Baseball will eventually contract a bit. Thing is, if you haven’t been watching the tea leaves during this pandemic, so will nearly all other sports. The only building spree we’re seeing right now is in American soccer (more so at lower levels), and that has a ceiling, too. Only questions is how long before that turns.

As someone who eyeballed old Municipal several times and never went in, a question: what is San Jose’s motivation to go AAA? Caveat to this: The California and Florida leagues are being set up to host most of the best young players right out of school. None of the reorganization changes the MLB tendency to use AAA as more a stockpile.

San Jose is in a good market. I'm pretty sure the Giants would love having their AAA in the same metro area as themselves compared to Sacramento which is its own thing. Several other MLB teams have AAA in the same market.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I know that Montreal should demolish Olympic Stadium outside the tower, and build a new retractable roof stadium incorporating the tower.

 

[PCSPounder]

San Jose is in a good market. I'm pretty sure the Giants would love having their AAA in the same metro area as themselves compared to Sacramento which is its own thing. Several other MLB teams have AAA in the same market.

Are the Giants willing to pay for that ballpark? They already have to manage their own park, and hey, it’s really not a thing in California anymore to get subsidies for spectator facilities.

Let me revert back to the Eugene issue to solidify the point. The discussion regards the Emeralds centers on the club looking for a site, plus the irony that what the Giants are leaving behind in Keizer might have satisfied MiLB requirements more than PK Park does (never mind Volcanoes wasn’t getting any fresh coats of paint). We don’t know if Elmore Sports Group will ask the city for money. We don’t know if Eugene will tell ESG to pound sand.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I think if the Wind Surge fail in Wichita as a consequence of being demoted without playing a game in AAA I could see them moving to Jackson, Tennessee. That city just lost its longtime AA team, the Generals, and I would think that city would embrace being part of AA more than Wichita might.

 

[Liebo]

@Big Z Man 1990 You're assuming that a community won't support a team because it was demoted from Triple-A to Double-A? Even though the fans never saw the Triple-A team play? Even though the market hasn't had Triple-A baseball in 37 years? And more importantly, even though the city boasts a gorgeous new ballpark?

Your predictions are a fine exercise regarding circumstances that will never happen--aggressive MLB expansion. That's all well and good, but listening to some of your rationales is difficult. Why would a team leave Wichita, a metro area with more than 600,000 people with a brand-new stadium, for Jackson, Tenn., a metro with 115,000 people and a fine enough ballpark opened in 1998? It's wholly illogical. You suggested San Jose should build a Triple-A ballpark so the Giants' top affiliate could play there. But why? The San Jose Giants have a long history playing in what amounts to a dump of a ballpark. The stadium could use updating, but they get by based on proximity. Where would the money come from now that the State of California has effectively turned off the spigot of public money for minor league facilities? The Giants already self-funded construction of a major league ballpark, why would they subject themselves to doing so for a Triple-A team?

And by the way, Montreal isn't building a new MLB ballpark any time soon. The Rays are using Montreal as leverage, the same way Tampa was used as leverage to construct about a half-dozen MLB parks. Tampa ended up getting the Rays because of a lawsuit that threatened baseball's antitrust exemption. If the Rays end up anywhere, my top destinations are Tampa, Orlando, Nashville, or, if MLB's antitrust exemption finally falls (in part because of the minor league purge), the New York metro area. Montreal will enjoy the dalliance, but there's not a fit with MLB anymore.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

MLB ideally doesn't want any team to relocate. They know Montreal deserves a second chance, but they would rather do it with expansion.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I have faith that Wichita might get back into AAA at some point, which would require more expansion teams added to MLB.

 

[Centrum Hockey]

I have faith that Wichita might get back into AAA at some point, which would require more expansion teams added to MLB.

Wichita wanted a AA Central/Texas league team in the first place but they lost out to Amarillo.