2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

I get why minor league franchises move from place to place - but what are some of the reasons teams change their affiliations? Seems pretty rare for the same minor league franchise to keep their major league affiliation for longer than 10 years.

 

And what happens to the prospects on the minor league teams that change affiliations? If the Cardinals' A team changes affiliations, do the Cardinals keep the prospects they had on that team? Where do those prospects go? What players replace them?

 

Yeah, Rusty, having covered some minor league teams, I'm almost positive that they do. The contracts are the property of the major league club, which then assigns them to wherever. That's why you see so much roster turnover and players getting called up or sent down midseason.

So if the Cardinals' have a farm team in Peoria and that team switches affiliations and becomes a White Sox farm team, all of the players will be sent somewhere else by the Cardinals' brass. And the White Sox have to provide the new players for next year's team.

At the lower levels of minor league ball, there is almost constant player turnover anyway, which is why writing previews and making predictions is such a crap-shoot. More than once I've talked to managers and coaches for a preseason story who admitted they barely knew the names of the players they had been given, much less who could do what or how well.

 

The players belong to the MLB organization. When teams change affiliation, all the players change. Affiliations changes are a zero-sum game, so if the Cardinals' AA affiliate jumps to another organization, then the Cardinals will find another AA team and the players will go there.

Major league teams generally want good weather, easy travel to scout prospects, and a combination of ballpark/climate that fits with the development philosophy. The minor league teams want teams that will provide them with winning teams, high-profile prospects or built-in fans from a nearby MLB organization.

When affiliations become open, there's generally a few teams that have had slight changes in priorities for whatever reason, and that creates a sort of game of musical chairs.

Example, A-ball, 2012:

When suburban Chicago Kane County's affiliation agreement with the Royals ended two years ago, the new Cubs management team wanted them over Peoria (whose affiliation had also run out) because of the proximity to the Cubs' main office. That left Peoria open again, and they rejoined the Cardinals (Peoria draws best when they have the Cubs or Cardinals, because the local fans want to see their team's prospects). The Royals, who had been evicted from Kane County, moved their A-ball operations to Lexington, which had been opened up when the Astros took the Cardinals' old team, the Quad Cities River Bandits.

For another example, the Cubs' A+ team is Daytona in the Florida State League. The weather is notoriously awful in the FSL, and all the rain-outs can be an annoyance when you are trying to get your prospects regular playing time. But there are only two other A+ leagues. The Carolina League, where the weather is barely any better and affiliations rarely open up; or the California League, which is notorious for tons of bandbox ballparks that can screw with players' approaches. So they stay in the FSL, for now.

 

Rusty's trolling.

I hope...

 

Location plays the biggest role. So does familiarity. Fresno's been the Giants' AAA team since day one, but for years the Giants also had their Cal League team there. it's about a 3-hour drive from SF to Fresno for the top brass (if they only had a team in Tahoe ...), compared with, say, the Mets having a team in Vegas.

 

Yeah, the Braves' Triple-A team was in Richmond for decades, but they moved it to Lawrenceville, Ga. (about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta) a few years back specifically so it would be more convenient for call-ups, rehab assignments and the like.

 

It's all geography nowadays. Red Sox farms are AAA Pawtucket, R.I. (had that for at least 40 years), AA Portland, Maine and high A Lowell, Mass.

 

The Giants so terribly hated having their Double A team in Connecticut that they made a habit of moving guys directly from high-A San Jose to Triple A Fresno. I believe both Posey and Lincecum skipped Double A entirely.

 

Also re Lincecum: just caught up to this interesting factoid. There are four pitchers who have two Cy Young awards, two World Series rings and a no-hitter. Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Jim Palmer and Tim Lincecum.

 

The Braves have also made a point of trying to directly own all their farm teams, which they do now with the exception of High-A Lynchburg. Also, Richmond wasn't a AAA city, and it was gonna need a new ballpark if it wanted to keep AAA ball.

But in an opposite sort of move, the Braves' AA team moved from Greenville, just up 85, out to Pearl, Miss., probably close to 10 years ago now. Again, that was because the ballpark in Greenville sucked (out loud). They ended up building another, much nicer one for a SAL team.

 

Greenville is now a Red Sox lower A farm.