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Radical Changes to Minor League System Being Contemplated

Fenway

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The Red Sox OWN High A Salem but in theory, they could leave Low A Greenville for Lowell but Greenville has worked out well.
 
Centrum Hockey

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garnetpalmetto said:
Nope. Short Season and Low A are two distinct beasts. Low A would be the South Atlantic League and the Midwest League and Short Season would be, as you note, the New York-Penn League and the Northwest League.

Honestly I think MLB just completely overreached here. Based on MLB's main concerns here's what I would propose and keep in mind this is spitballing, especially the Low-A/High-A realignment:

  • Realignment of Triple A, Advanced-A, and Low-A
    • Triple-A - Iowa, Memphis, and Nashville realign to the International League
    • Advanced-A and Low-A
      • California League and Florida State League stay intact
      • South Atlantic, Midwest, and Carolina Leagues realign as follows:
        • Delmarva, Frederick, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Lakewood, Lynchburg, Salem, and Wilmington to an 8-team Mid-Atlantic League (furthest city pair - Salem-Lakewood (439 miles). Average city pair distance - 202.62 miles)
        • Asheville, Augusta, Carolina, Charleston, Columbia, Down East, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, Kannapolis, Myrtle Beach, Rome, and Winston-Salem to a 14-team Carolina League (furthest city pair - Down East-Rome (541 miles). Average city pair distance - 205.73 miles)
        • Bowling Green, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Great Lakes, Lake County, Lansing, Lexington, South Bend, West Michigan, and West Virginia to a 10-team Ohio Valley League (furthest city pair - Bowling Green-Great Lakes (557 miles). Average city pair distance - 283.51 miles)
        • Beloit, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Kane County, Peoria, Quad Cities, and Wisconsin to a 8-team Midwest League (furthest city pair - Burlington-Wisconsin (351 miles). Average city pair distance - 160.64 miles)
          • Option 1: Ohio Valley League is designated as a High-A League while the others are designated Low-A
          • Option 2: High-A/Low-A designation discarded again - teams can have two Class A affiliates but they must be in different Leagues.
  • Facilites
    • A jointly appointed MLB-MiLB panel will be formed that will be tasked with inspecting and evaluating the facilities of each MiLB team. The panel will be tasked with periodically inspecting, evaluating, and assessing the condition of each facility against a rubric developed by the panel. Facilities will be given report cards and be required to address any and all deficiencies found by the panel. Repeated failure to address those deficiencies may result in MiLB to take punitive action up to, and including, loss of franchise, early termination of PDC by the MLB affiliate, forfeiture of games, or other penalties as the panel sees fit.
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Did you have a realignment for the short season leagues or did you eliminate them.
 
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Centrum Hockey

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garnetpalmetto said:
I'd pretty much leave them unchanged. The New York-Penn League could probably use some trimming but I get the feeling that could happen more organically.
Click to expand...
Brooklyn and Binghampton swapping leagues and keeping a Mets affiliation could probably happen if there is a compromise with no contraction Bingo fits in with Auburn, Batavia,Vermont,Troy. Brooklyn being in AA fits in with the demographics of most Eastern League City's.
 
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SSF

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I cant wait to see the Appy League facility evaluatic rubric haha

Yes, i know MLB wants to eliminate the league, but still, some of those stadiums are interesting.
 
GindyDraws

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Does not help there's a few stragglers helping make the process easy for the executioners. For example, earlier today, the Florida Fire Frogs (one of the teams on the chopping block) posted on Twitter, which has since been deleted, that they still do not have a field in place for 2020 (imagine a file system with folders and when they got to stadium, it was "File Not Found"); team may have been hacked, but the reality that they have yet to solve this issue for 2020 shows a severe level of incompetence for a money loser and a poor performer on the field and in the stands, as they are not owned by the Atlanta Braves, whom they're affiliated with. During last season, they accepted a buyout from their Kissimmee venue from Orlando City SC to vacate their lease early so the soccer club could renovate the venue for their developmental program, which helped ease the fiscal bleeding, but has since made the process of playing a home site the more difficult.

Given MLB's "full steam ahead" mentality towards 2021 being a radicalization of minor league baseball and the fact that this team has yet to figure out what the plan is (they have an idea for 2021 but not 2020), we arguably have minor league baseball's easiest casualty.
 
garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

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JDogindy said:
Does not help there's a few stragglers helping make the process easy for the executioners. For example, earlier today, the Florida Fire Frogs (one of the teams on the chopping block) posted on Twitter, which has since been deleted, that they still do not have a field in place for 2020 (imagine a file system with folders and when they got to stadium, it was "File Not Found"); team may have been hacked, but the reality that they have yet to solve this issue for 2020 shows a severe level of incompetence for a money loser and a poor performer on the field and in the stands, as they are not owned by the Atlanta Braves, whom they're affiliated with. During last season, they accepted a buyout from their Kissimmee venue from Orlando City SC to vacate their lease early so the soccer club could renovate the venue for their developmental program, which helped ease the fiscal bleeding, but has since made the process of playing a home site the more difficult.

Given MLB's "full steam ahead" mentality towards 2021 being a radicalization of minor league baseball and the fact that this team has yet to figure out what the plan is (they have an idea for 2021 but not 2020), we arguably have minor league baseball's easiest casualty.
Click to expand...

The Fire Frogs are definitely a cluster with a month left to go until pitchers and catchers report. I think what will end up happening is the team taking a lease to play out of CoolToday Park (the Braves spring training home in North Port, FL) and a potential purchase of the team by the Braves once a new agreement between MiLB and MLB is signed. It's no secret that for years the Braves have wanted to own their own High-A club so that they own all levels of their player development system and this is the best opportunity for that that's come up since they were talking about purchasing the Lynchburg Hillcats for relocation to Wilmington, NC.
 
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Centrum Hockey

Centrum Hockey

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garnetpalmetto said:
The Fire Frogs are definitely a cluster with a month left to go until pitchers and catchers report. I think what will end up happening is the team taking a lease to play out of CoolToday Park (the Braves spring training home in North Port, FL) and a potential purchase of the team by the Braves once a new agreement between MiLB and MLB is signed. It's no secret that for years the Braves have wanted to own their own High-A club so that they own all levels of their player development system and this is the best opportunity for that that's come up since they were talking about purchasing the Lynchburg Hillcats for relocation to Wilmington, NC.
Click to expand...
Florida Fire Frogs to CoolToday Park for 2020
 
garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

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Centrum Hockey said:
Florida Fire Frogs to CoolToday Park for 2020
Click to expand...

Carnac.jpg


Just call me Garnac the Magnificent. Step 1 down.
 
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garnetpalmetto said:
Nope. Short Season and Low A are two distinct beasts. Low A would be the South Atlantic League and the Midwest League and Short Season would be, as you note, the New York-Penn League and the Northwest League.

Honestly I think MLB just completely overreached here. Based on MLB's main concerns here's what I would propose and keep in mind this is spitballing, especially the Low-A/High-A realignment:

  • Realignment of Triple A, Advanced-A, and Low-A
    • Triple-A - Iowa, Memphis, and Nashville realign to the International League
    • Advanced-A and Low-A
      • California League and Florida State League stay intact
      • South Atlantic, Midwest, and Carolina Leagues realign as follows:
        • Delmarva, Frederick, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Lakewood, Lynchburg, Salem, and Wilmington to an 8-team Mid-Atlantic League (furthest city pair - Salem-Lakewood (439 miles). Average city pair distance - 202.62 miles)
        • Asheville, Augusta, Carolina, Charleston, Columbia, Down East, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, Kannapolis, Myrtle Beach, Rome, and Winston-Salem to a 14-team Carolina League (furthest city pair - Down East-Rome (541 miles). Average city pair distance - 205.73 miles)
        • Bowling Green, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Great Lakes, Lake County, Lansing, Lexington, South Bend, West Michigan, and West Virginia to a 10-team Ohio Valley League (furthest city pair - Bowling Green-Great Lakes (557 miles). Average city pair distance - 283.51 miles)
        • Beloit, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Kane County, Peoria, Quad Cities, and Wisconsin to a 8-team Midwest League (furthest city pair - Burlington-Wisconsin (351 miles). Average city pair distance - 160.64 miles)
          • Option 1: Ohio Valley League is designated as a High-A League while the others are designated Low-A
          • Option 2: High-A/Low-A designation discarded again - teams can have two Class A affiliates but they must be in different Leagues.
  • Facilites
    • A jointly appointed MLB-MiLB panel will be formed that will be tasked with inspecting and evaluating the facilities of each MiLB team. The panel will be tasked with periodically inspecting, evaluating, and assessing the condition of each facility against a rubric developed by the panel. Facilities will be given report cards and be required to address any and all deficiencies found by the panel. Repeated failure to address those deficiencies may result in MiLB to take punitive action up to, and including, loss of franchise, early termination of PDC by the MLB affiliate, forfeiture of games, or other penalties as the panel sees fit.
Click to expand...
MiLB: Player raises shouldn't lead to contraction
MILB put forth a similar proposal to what you stated. Some moves put forth by MLB actually made a lot of sense though Like Fresno to the CA league who no one seems to want to Affiliate with. MILB only seems to be interested in limited realignment unfortunately. MLB Proposal Would Drop Fresno Grizzlies to Single-A Cal League - GV Wire
 
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Fenway

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I trace the explosion of MiLB to 1984 when a lawyer from Bangor, Maine bought a AAA franchise in West Virginia and moved it to Old Orchard Beach, Maine and SI ran a feature story on it.

It's The Maine Attraction

A few years later Bull Durham was a major movie hit and minor league baseball became fashionable.
 

Big Z Man 1990

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Don't say anything at all
I hope the current MiLB structure remains intact.

Because when MLB expands to 32 teams, it's going to cause more minor league teams to be added, naturally.

Right now, only a handful of teams have affiliates in Class A Short Season and Rookie Advanced. I wanted all 32 (when expansion occurs) teams to have affiliates in both levels. This would necessitate creations of all-new leagues in both levels. Class A Short Season I have proposed a new league called the Upper Midwest League, which would have 8 teams in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In Rookie Advanced, I've proposed the 10-team Midlands League, which would be based in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Some of the teams in these proposed leagues would supplant teams in the independent American Association.
 

Big Z Man 1990

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Don't say anything at all
If MLB really wants to make these sweeping changes to the minor leagues, they should at least wait until 2022 at the earliest to make these changes. It wouldn't be fair if say the Wichita Wind Surge, the former New Orleans Baby Cakes, never got to play a game at the AAA level before being demoted, as an example.

Either way, I'm opposed to these changes happening at all. I should say that every MLB team should be required to have exactly one affiliate in the A-Short Season and the Rookie Advanced levels. Most teams only have an affiliate in one of these two levels, and two teams have Rookie Advanced affiliates in both leagues at that level.

This requirement would likely necessitate the creation of a new league at each level. The new A-Short Season league could be based in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the new Rookie Advanced league be based in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
 
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