MLB to Small Town America: Drop Dead

Most people who attend MILB games don't care about the level, or even the game itself. Cheap beer, cheap eats, cheap night of family entertainment. Fresno will probably have better rivalries with opponents from Cali than the Memphis Chicks or San Antonio Missions.

 

What many facets of this realignment, this being the most overt but not the only one, demonstrate is that neither MLB nor its clubs give a rat's ass if their minor league affiliates make money. If they do, most of the money goes to local owners (who are getting screwed six ways to Sunday), and the losses are comparably miniscule especially considering they just ran an entire season with no gate revenue, and easily socialized. The point is it's far more important that the Twins have a 10th reliever 12 stops away down the Green Line than it is that the Rochester Red Wings are worth watching. I'd condemn this, but MLB isn't even particularly original with it, as the NHL and particularly the NBA have been doing this with their affiliates for some time.

Hell, the Detroit Pistons are moving their G-League team from Grand Rapids, which is a three-hour straight shot down I-94, to a gym they're gonna share with Wayne State University, for this reason. It's kind of a European soccer "B team" model now.

 

It's getting more common than you think. The Mariners have had Tacoma as their Triple-A affiliate for years (although Tacoma's been there even longer than the M's, I think). The Braves bought their AAA affiliate and moved it to suburban Atlanta. The Padres wanted to do the same thing a few years ago, but they couldn't get a ballpark deal done in Escondido.

 

Pawtucket, R.I., where the Red Sox AAA team has been for decades, is less than an hour's drive from Fenway. Same for Worcester, where the AAA team will be this year. Lowell, which was the home of the Sox high A team (now slated for elimination) is a 30 minute drive to Fenway. This is not a new development.

 

And as noted uptopic, it's even more common in the G-League, where there is fewer shuttling of players between the parent club and the G-League. Golden State's team is in Santa Cruz, Sacramento in Stockton, the Lakers are in the practice facility, Clippers in Auga Caliente and the Suns in Prescott, just to name a few.

 

It's all part of the Euro-soccerization of American pro sports. Euro sports (as well as Japanese baseball) have had reserve teams for many years (Bill Veeck mentioned Japanese baseball having ' JV teams' in his 1960s books).

My bet is within 10 years in MLB, each franchise will have its major league team, a reserve team playing in a very close location of not the same location, and a prospect team playing at the spring training HQ.

Everything else will be independent/ unaffiliated leagues. Players will be purchased/ drafted from those Indy teams or have periodic free agency windows.

From the standpoint of the MLB owners, you don't need 150 players under contract; you need your 30-man active roster, 30 more on the "JV" roster, maybe 20 more "prospects" you want to intensively develop; the rest can all be "replacement-level" players you can pick up essentially for free.

 

On the "not an hour's drive away" side of the ledger, it looks like New Orleans' G league team will move to Birmingham once the renovation of the mid-70's vintage BJCC Arena is finished. The same bond issue that is funding the construction of the stadium which will become UAB Football's new home field is also paying for the complete gutting and renovation of the arena.

 

There are rivalries in minor league baseball?
I live near a Double-A team and most of the time when I go to a game I don't even know who they're playing before I get to the ballpark. I'm sure the players have guys and teams that they grow to hate over the course of the season, but most of them don't stick around long enough to elevate it to a rivalry.

 

The Pioneer League is being saved, as an indy pro league. Since the draft is being consolidated to 20 rounds, they will get pretty much the same talent.

Pioneer League to live on as pro indy league

Some of the NY-P League will be a summer wood-bat league.

MLB Draft League to launch with five teams

Not the best solution, but better than no baseball at all for these cities.

 

My $2.02:

1. As much as MLB has trumpeted bringing baseball back to the inner city, and having a Jackie Robinson Day, and allowing social justice messages on the backs of the pitcher's mounds, the moves that have been occurring in the minors (even in the last couple of years before this upheaval) have affected not only communities of color, but the poor. Trenton, Fresno, Rochester, New Orleans, and communities in the Appalachian League? This does not look good for the rich team owners.

2. Repurposing short-season A ball as collegiate summer wooden-bat leagues (Appalachian and the New York Penn League) makes NO SENSE. Wikipedia lists 72 active collegiate wooden-bat leagues.

3. Why get rid of short-season A ball's 30 teams and institute a draft league of just five teams? Isn't that pretty much the same thing? Is the Draft League going to expand or just be there for one year to placate the city fathers of Trenton, State College, and the like?

I may have more brain crumbs on this in a few days, but let's see how things shake out.

 

All of this is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Like, the net result of all of this means less baseball players under professional oversight. MLB talent evaluators aren't perfect - Pujols went in the 13th round, Piazza in the 62nd, etc. The less draft rounds and minor league teams and organizations you have, the greater chance you lose athletes to other sports or overlook late developing and unheralded players.

Also, never forget - Most MLB owners are fucking awful. It is a group of folks that is so drab and unimaginative overall that baseball's Trump - George Steinbrenner - was legitimately one of its top-third owners, because at least that fucker wanted to win. Most MLB owners just seem happy to collect luxury tax checks, and to hold the municipality they play in hostage every 10 to 20 years via threats to move if they don't get a new stadium and/or significant tax breaks.

 

Today appears to be the day.

I know the Midwest League is dumping Burlington, Clinton and Kane County. That would give them an odd number, which may be solved by Bowling Green going (back?) to the Sally League. Clubs are tweeting their affiliations throughout the day.