The Minor League Sports Bullshit and Miscellania thread

[HarleyQuinn]

Baseball America released its Farm System rankings.

Top 4: Tampa Bay, San Diego, LA Dodgers, and Atlanta.
Bot 4: Houston, Cincinnati, Colorado, and Milwaukee.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/maineredclaws/status/1228014537934278656
My girlfriend and her friend are going to this game. LORD WILLING, I will get some throwback Red Claws Timelord Bobbleheads for me and Baby Shoes.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Gonna be the greatest bobble head until they make the Tacko Fall one

Spoiler

Though I still love my Thaddiator that you gave me, Kamala

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

MiLB is offering free access to MiLB TV, which has 6,500 minor league baseball games in its archives, until the start of the season.

If anyone is looking for some stuff to fill the time (looking at you, alkeiper)

 

[alkeiper]

MiLB is offering free access to MiLB TV, which has 6,500 minor league baseball games in its archives, until the start of the season.

If anyone is looking for some stuff to fill the time (looking at you, alkeiper)

I just wish I had the time to watch everything I could watch. I'm still working in an office and my child eats up the rest of my spare time. But there are some gems in there worth checking out.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Portland Sea Dogs having a 27% off sale today in honor of what would've been their 27th home opener.

They still have some game worn Portland Whoopie Pies jerseys from last season...Baby Shoes...

 

[Baby Shoes]

I tried looking on their store site but not seeing the sale? Am I doing something wrong? PM me some links so we can be Whoopie Pie brothers or something.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Eastern League and Texas League (both Double A) have canceled their All Star Games.

Chances of any minor league baseball being played this summer are dwindling from slim to nil.

Idk if minor league baseball has had a worse year between all those teams potentially being contracted and now this.

 

[alkeiper]

Eastern League and Texas League (both Double A) have canceled their All Star Games.

Chances of any minor league baseball being played this summer are dwindling from slim to nil.

Idk if minor league baseball has had a worse year between all those teams potentially being contracted and now this.

The AAA All Star game is also cancelled according to the SWB Railriders' owner. And the Cape Cod League cancelled their season. This is bad for the affiliated minors. Potentially crippling for the independent minors.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I had that thought too. Potential contraction might not even matter anymore cause a lot of these franchises won't be able to bounce together after a lost season.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

New England Collegiate Baseball League has canceled its season.


Well, my dreams of seeing a Sanford Mainers game have to wait for another year.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1263472585955778561

 

[Baby Shoes]

I knew people who were making a big deal of getting garbage bags of movie theater popcorn to go so someone will be doing this. Could especially see someone getting this food to pair with some Korean baseball viewing.

 

[alkeiper]

Some venues have professional catering facilities, especially AAA. I've seen Scranton/Wilkes-Barre offer stadium dining experiences for events like Valentine's Day and I know Lehigh Valley has top notch facilities.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/ChrisSedenka/status/1266435145034346497
I genuinely don't know if MLB wants most of the minors to survive this pandemic.

 

[alkeiper]

"50 Summers" is on Amazon Prime and got some attention among minor league observers, so I gave it a shot. It's a documentary on the Omaha Storm Chasers (formerly Omaha Royals). The first minutes were interesting as they had old footage of Omaha baseball from the 1960s. But it dragged on as a history of the business side of the franchise and ultimately why they needed a new stadium of their own separate from the college World Series' new stadium. I found it a real slog to get through the whole thing.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1278070823203504130

Kind of inevitable but the MILB season has been canceled.

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1280602487947358208

Fits in this thread.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1280874899805024257

That might be even better than this.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1301504132013002754

Sad day for baseball. The 42 to 43 teams that are losing affiliation are going to become wood bat college league teams and MLB is claiming that fans won't know the difference.

Maybe people just at the game for the snacks won't the notice but (and @alkeiper can attest in more detail) to anyone with rudimentary knowledge of baseball, it seems like there's quite a drop-off between Single A and summer college baseball.

 

[alkeiper]

Impacts I see as far as the teams:

1. Stability. I'm reasonably confident an affiliated minor league team will come back next season. But in the last decade or so I've seen the Newark Bears, Camden Riversharks, Atlantic City Surf, Bridgeport Bluefish fail in the Atlantic League. Is this arrangement even going to work? And a lot of these teams are suffering financially from a lost season to begin with.

2. Prestige. Not every team has a nearby parent club like Binghamton. Some are outright random. How many Oakland A's fans are there in Vermont? But it's still affiliated baseball and that carries weight.

3. Competition. This may surprise fans. The average age of players in the rookie leagues is between 20-21, and short season A about 21. A lot of high school kids. Experienced college players may actually perform better. I think the greatest benefit might be not having an organization constantly shuffling players in and out. A minor league team that stays together?

4. Free labor. MLB is getting into the realm of summer college ball formerly occupied by Baseball U and Perfect Game. They're presumably charging ticket prices for the benefit of growing players who'll someday be major league talent. And the players being college players are playing for free? Pay the goddamn players.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1328774640433500160

 

[alkeiper]

A lot of moving parts in minor league baseball obviously. Baseball America has a chart of what is confirmed, which is little...

2021 Minor League Baseball Affiliation Chart (baseballamerica.com)

We do however have a basic idea of what is occurring. The short season leagues (NY-Penn, Appalachian, Pioneer, Northwest) are gone. Florida State League going from High A to Low A. South Atlantic League likely splitting into two leagues and becoming High A.

There are a few leagues being set up that mirror the Baseball U and Perfect Game Leagues that are becoming increasingly popular. One announced today will feature college draft eligible players in Williamsport, State College, Trenton, Mahoning Valley, West Virginia and TBA. Another for freshmen/sophomore will take the place of the Appalachian League.

The Fresno Grizzlies are losing their AAA team. They have until today to either drop any litigation accept a Low A team (Colorado Rockies) or get nothing. Harsh.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

It's definitely possible that MiLB will be able to start in April (especially if they cap attendance) but it seems improbable at this point since we have no idea what's going to happen with vaccine (although presumably will be out by then and available a chunk of country).

Portland Sea Dogs' schedule has been out for over a month and tickets have been on sale for next season by this point in most normal years but I doubt we'll get anything concrete about the 2021 season before the New Year understandably.

I'm assuming they'll come back as a Red Sox affiliate though! I'd be pretty mad if they all of a sudden became the Texas Rangers Double A team or something!

 

[alkeiper]

Portland staying with the Red Sox (and as an affiliated minor league team) is probably assured, I haven't heard rumors to the contrary. The danger with minor league teams is their agreements are essentially blown up. So unless they fit into the new scheme, their teams are in jeopardy. The biggest intrigue with the Sox is what happens with Lowell. They may stay in the organization as a High A team, abandoning Salem (VA).

 

[alkeiper]

The Pioneer League is transitioning into an indy league.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Portland staying with the Red Sox (and as an affiliated minor league team) is probably assured, I haven't heard rumors to the contrary. The danger with minor league teams is their agreements are essentially blown up. So unless they fit into the new scheme, their teams are in jeopardy. The biggest intrigue with the Sox is what happens with Lowell. They may stay in the organization as a High A team, abandoning Salem (VA).

I'm being facetious. Portland Sea Dogs are consistently one of the highest grossing minor league teams so I feel like chance of them losing affiliation is about as high as me learning how to do a cartwheel at the age of 32.

Lowell is a very successful team too and it makes more geographical sense to have their team there Vs Salem, VA but I also have no idea how many High A teams there will be in the Northeast Vs how many there will be in the South.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1336122845995429893

Do they think this is the GD Bachelor here?

 

[alkeiper]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1336122845995429893

Do they think this is the GD Bachelor here?

More or less. Minor league teams just lost a season and have no schedule to sell while MLB holds the sword of damocles over their heads.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

And considering the optimistic timeline of things returning to normal is late Summer 2021, I feel like there's more than a decent chance we'll get heavily truncated if not entirely canceled again season. It's a lot harder for minor leagues to operate with limited or no attendance like the majors do, I'm assuming.