The Minor League Sports Bullshit and Miscellania thread

[alkeiper]

Baseball America's list is behind a paywall and MLB.com's list is incomplete. But I think this is accurate.

MLB ORG	Triple-A	Double-A	High-A	Low-A
Arizona Diamondbacks	Reno	Amarillo	Hillsboro	Visalia
Atlanta Braves	Gwinnett	Mississippi	Rome	Augusta
Baltimore Orioles	Norfolk	Bowie	Aberdeen	Delmarva
Boston Red Sox	Worcester	Portland	Greenville	Salem
Chicago White Sox	Charlotte	Birmingham	Winston-Salem	Kannapolis
Chicago Cubs	Iowa	Tennessee	South Bend	Myrtle Beach
Cincinnati Reds	Louisville	Chattanooga	Dayton	Daytona
Cleveland Indians	Columbus	Akron	Lake County	Lynchburg
Colorado Rockies	Albuquerque	Hartford	Spokane	TBA
Detroit Tigers	Toledo	Erie	West Michigan	Lakeland
Houston Astros	Sugar Land	Corpus Christi	Asheville	Fayetteville
Kansas City Royals	Omaha	Northwest Arkansas	Quad Cities	Columbia
Los Angeles Angels	Salt Lake	Rocket City	Tri-Cities	Inland Empire
Los Angeles Dodgers	Oklahoma City	Tulsa	Great Lakes	Rancho Cucamonga
Miami Marlins	Jacksonville	Pensacola	Beloit	Jupiter
Milwaukee Brewers	Nashville	Biloxi	Wisconsin	Carolina
Minnesota Twins	St. Paul	Wichita	Cedar Rapids	Fort Myers
New York Yankees	Scranton/W-B	Somerset	Hudson Valley	Tampa
New York Mets	Syracuse	Binghamton	Brooklyn	St. Lucie
Oakland Athletics	Las Vegas	Midland	Lansing	Stockton
Philadelphia Phillies	Lehigh Valley	Reading	Jersey Shore	Clearwater
Pittsburgh Pirates	Indianapolis	Altoona	Greensboro	Bradenton
San Diego Padres	El Paso	San Antonio	Fort Wayne	Lake Elsinore
San Francisco Giants	Sacramento	Richmond	Eugene	San Jose
Seattle Mariners	Tacoma	Arkansas	Everett	Modesto
St. Louis Cardinals	Memphis	Springfield	Peoria	Palm Beach
Tampa Bay Rays	Durham	Montgomery	Bowling Green	Charleston
Texas Rangers	Round Rock	Frisco	Hickory	Down East
Toronto Blue Jays	Buffalo	New Hampshire	Vancouver	Dunedin
Washington Nationals	Rochester	Harrisburg	Wilmington	Fredericksburg

Full season teams left out:
Jackson Generals
Trenton Thunder (joining draft league)
Charlotte Stone Crabs (joining GCL)
Florida Fire Frogs
Burlington Bees
Frederick Keys (joining draft league)
West Virginia Power
Hagerstown Suns
Clinton Lumber Kings
Kane County Cougars
Lexington Legends

The Fresno Grizzlies are still in flux. If reports are accurate they could choose to become the Low A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

Three teams lose AAA status. Fresno, the San Antonio Missions, and the Wichita Wind Surge. Wichita spent one season in AAA and never got to play a game. Sugar Land and St. Paul join affiliated ball, and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp get promoted to AAA!

From a personal standpoint this actually created a gain of drivable upper level affiliates, as Hudson Valley and Somerset are both within a two hour drive.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Bummed that Lowell Spinners lost their affiliation.


I get that they're THE independent league team but I wondering why and how St. Paul got bumped all the way up to Triple A? I thought people were concerned about Worcester Red Sox playing too close to the major league affiliate but St. Paul and Minneapolis are literally next door!

 

[alkeiper]

Google Maps says an 18 minute drive between Target Field and where the Saints play. The closest AAA affiliate prior was the Gwinnett Stripers, a 45 minute drive from Truist Park. I imagine the Twins and Saints wanted it and that's all the justification they require.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Yeah, I guess if they were averaging 8,000 a game as an independent league team less than 20 minutes away from Target Field, upgrading the quality of play isn't going to hurt attendance.

 

[alkeiper]

Figuring out leagues here.

AAA: International League, Pacific Coast League. The addition of Jacksonville gives the IL 15 teams in their geographical footprint. Do they split up Memphis and Nashville?

AA: Eastern League (12 teams), Texas League (10), Southern League (8)

High A: Where things start to get tricky. Thirteen teams move here from the Midwest League, I assume the Midwest League continues. But they will need to add or subtract a team. I don't think there's an obvious choice. (Dayton and Lake County are furthest east). Wilmington and Winston-Salem come over from the Carolina League, WInston-Salem fits in with five teams that come up from the South-Atlantic League, Wilmington fits with three NY-Penn League teams and another Sally League team. Six teams come from the Northwest League. Leaving geographical alignments looking like this in summary...

Northwest (6)
North and Mid Atlantic (5)
South Atlantic (6)
Midwest (13)

Low A: Florida State League (10), California League (7 so far), and then a combined league from the South Atlantic and Carolina Leagues (12)

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

It doesn't seem like Eastern League got effected at all. I was reading a semi-recent article about attendance issues in baseball in 2019 and Double A's attendance has dipped the least in recent years.

 

[alkeiper]

The Yankees moved their AA team to Somerset, 32 miles up the road. That’s it.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1341425564759056390

Bah gawd, @Baby Shoes ! It's been a while since I've seen a good highlight reel of washed NBA players balling overseas.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Dustin Pedroiaâs final game â a humble exit from the Red Sox â came on a Double A diamond in Portland - The Boston Globe

Though it was hardly a glorious sendoff, his valiant effort and undying determination sent a message to his young teammates.

www.bostonglobe.com

Good piece on Dustin Pedroia ending his career with the Portland Sea Dogs.

 

[alkeiper]

The new affiliate/league map

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1360259944453443589

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Portland Sea Dogs signed a 10 season deal to remain Red Sox AA affiliate through 2030.

I'd root for them and be partial season ticketholder regardless of affiliation but it makes it all the much sweeter though seeing guys develop throughout their entire career. From beginning to end in Dustin Pedroia's case...although I guess I would have preferred that end at Fenway and not as a hobbled old man back in Portland!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

NASCAR doesn't matter enough to this board for me to bump a thread that's been dormant for three years, just for this shitpost:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1360998681609134087

 

[alkeiper]

Minor league baseball schedules are out. Extremely utilitarian this year. Teams are generally playing six game series with the same off day throughout the season. COVID is limiting the travel teams make, so there are some real quirks there. The Charlotte Knights and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp play each other 42 times this season.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Portland Sea Dogs open on May 4th and per Governor’s approval, will have limited attendance this season. Can’t wait to get back to a game.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Colorado having their AA affiliate be the Hartford Yard Goats (... that's a helluva minor league name but no Rumbling Ponies!) is a little baffling when their other affiliates are in Fresno, Spokane, and Albuquerque.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1363552635056439300

cc @Baby Shoes

 

[alkeiper]

The independent Atlantic League will have a bit of a different look. Since the end of the 2019 season they've lost Somerset (moved to AA), Sugar Land (AAA) and New Britain (became a wooden bat college team). They're adding a franchise in Gastonia, NC, added the Lexington Legends and just announced the West Virginia Power. The Power and the Legends come over from the South Atlantic League. Gastonia was planned pre-pandemic, that's a suburb of Charlotte. Five other clubs form the league, the Lancaster Barnstormers, York Revolution, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, High Point Rockers and Long Island Ducks.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I just saw that Jarret Jack is playing in the G League Bubble (Gubble?), @Baby Shoes . It takes a lot of guts for a vet as tenured as this to do something like this when most would retire. Hope he finds a spot somewhere.

 

[Baby Shoes]

That’s the first I heard on him. I know Michael Beasley and Lance Stephenson had put their names in the player pool and I thought that could make the bubble entertaining on a few levels.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Minor league baseball schedules are out. Extremely utilitarian this year. Teams are generally playing six game series with the same off day throughout the season. COVID is limiting the travel teams make, so there are some real quirks there. The Charlotte Knights and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp play each other 42 times this season.

Triple A season has been postponed from April 6th to May 4th to allow MLB rosters to use Triple A ballparks for expanded roster practices. Single & Double A were already scheduled to open May 4th so this won't effect them.

 

[alkeiper]

Couldn't help myself and now I have tickets to watch the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs play the Worcester Red Sox on May 30.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Sea Dogs haven't announced whether or not they'll have fans in attendance when AA season starts in May but barring astronomically stupid high prices, I'll be there for first game when fans are allowed back. I should have both vaccines by then.

 

[alkeiper]

I'm fortunate that I work at a state hospital, so I was able to get both vaccines fairly early.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Sea Dogs Announce Reopening Plans

Portland, Maine\- Baseball is back at Hadlock Field starting May 4th! We are thrilled to announce we have gained state approval for our 2021 reopening plan and we could not be more excited to safely welcome back our employees, fans, and players to Hadlock Field. As we enter the 2021

www.milb.com

Sea Dogs are going to open at 28% capacity. Literally cannot wait

 

[alkeiper]

The Toronto Blue Jays take residence in Buffalo effective June 1. The AAA Bisons are playing the season in Trenton, NJ. At home they wear Trenton Thunder uniforms, on the road they wear their Bisons gear. Since that makes Trenton a AAA city a trip to see an Ironpigs road game might be interesting. Trenton was supposed to be in the draft league this year, they intend to have a temporary replacement but have not announced one yet.

 

[treble]

Trenton uniforms in Trenton, but still Buffalo batting helmets.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1391769460206407681

...what? I guess that's one way to drum up interest for NBA's new African league.

 

[alkeiper]

Something Really, Really Weird Is Happening In The Low-A Southeast League

The Low-A Southeast experienced an unprecedented opening week. J.J. Cooper wonders why.

www.baseballamerica.com

35 games in, the BB/9 rate in the former Florida State League is 5.8! For comparisons sake it's 3.4 in the majors.

 

[alkeiper]

Yesterday I attended my first minor league game of the season. Two top pitching prospects, Deivi Garcia and Spencer Howard. Both teams combined for 28 strikeouts in 8 1/2 innings. Of course it prompted me to look up the league rates.

2021 Triple A East
IP: 2044 1/3
H/9: 8.3
HR/9: 1.3
BB/9: 4.5
SO/9: 10.3

For comparison, Armando Benitez
IP: 779
H/9: 6.3
HR/9: 1.1
BB/9: 4.7
SO/9: 10.9

Sixteen years ago the K/9 ratio in the International League was 7.0. The league had less runs scored per game. I can't even wrap my head around this anymore.

 

[alkeiper]

Fredericksburg Nationals. 0-15 and every bit of it earned.

Fredericksburg Nearing An Ominous Historical Mark In First Season

Fredericksburg is 0-15 to start the season and owns the fourth-worst run differential in franchise history.

www.baseballamerica.com