Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I forgot to add an interesting thing about the Carolina Mudcats. With the Midwest League becoming High-A and the Milwaukee Brewers owning the High-A Carolina Mudcats in the Carolina League, it does seem like they have a dilemma.
It would be nice if their MWL team, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, which they do not own, becomes their High-A affiliate, since they play in Appleton, WI and are only 100 miles away from Milwaukee, but what happens to the Mudcats?
Do they drop to Low-A and join the Sally League, with the Brewers still owning them?
I also heard rumors that some West Coast teams, one of them being the Dodgers, do not like the Northwest League becoming High-A, some want their High-A team to be in the Midwest League, since the Dodgers already have their AAA and AA teams in Oklahoma. Of course the Mariners, make out in this realignment, their short season Class A team, the Everett AquaSox, now becomes their High-A team!
With 120 moving parts, the new MiLB realignment feels like one giant jigsaw puzzle.
These are my current percentage estimates of which MLB team will become the new parent to the Columbia Fireflies, take it with a grain of salt, since I could be totally wrong!
So I saw this proposal on a site I frequent and...I'm not mad at it. There's a couple changes I'd personally make (Nashville to the IL rather than St. Paul being foremost):
As for AAA, I thought they were seriously considering breaking up the PCL and forming a new 8-team central AAA League?
With Jacksonville joining the AAA Class, going to 3 leagues does make it sort of interesting, since putting them in the IL makes the most sense, but they could also be in the new AAA central league.
Here's how I would break AAA up into 3 leagues:
Pacific Coast League
Tacoma
Sacramento
Reno
Las Vegas
Salt Lake City
Albuquerque
El Paso
Oklahoma City
Round Rock
Sugarland
New AAA League
St. Paul
Des Moines
Omaha
Indianapolis
Louisville
Nashville
Memphis
Jacksonville
International League
Worcester
Syracuse
Rochester
Buffalo
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
Lehigh Valley
Norfolk
Durham
Charlotte
Gwinnett
Toledo
Columbus
I guess you could also do three 10-team leagues, but do you put Columbus and Toledo in the new central league? More over Gwinnett and bring in Toledo? Like I said with Jacksonville moving up in class, it gets kinda of tricky breaking up AAA into 3 leagues and make it flow smoothly.
Unfortunately for Minor League fans, the amount of teams and players will continue to shrink. Doubtful you will ever see 40 rounds of the draft again. MLB will continue to look further at collegiate baseball to develop players, while at the same time be able to raise the salaries of those that do play MiLB. MLB's long range goal is to get the minors down to just three or even two levels.
Unfortunately for Minor League fans, the amount of teams and players will continue to shrink. Doubtful you will ever see 40 rounds of the draft again. MLB will continue to look further at collegiate baseball to develop players, while at the same time be able to raise the salaries of those that do play MiLB. MLB's long range goal is to get the minors down to just three or even two levels.
I've heard that as well that, maybe in 10 years, each MLB team will only have a AAA and AA team each, then there will be a bunch of wooden bat summer college leagues and indy leagues. For better or worse, baseball and society in general are changing.
So per Baseball America MLB has pulled a Darth Vader and altered the deal (pray they don't alter them further) and the previous breakdown of 2 AAA, 3 AA, 4 High-A, and 3 Low-A leagues has been changed to 2 AAA, 3 AA, 3 High-A, and 3 Low-A. The crunch is going to come in the Southeast. Essentially the High-A Carolina League and Low-A South Atlantic League are going to get combined, some teams taken out to be put in the new High-A Mid-Atlantic League, and the rest kept in a Low-A league (what that League is named who knows, but I'd assume it'd keep the South Atlantic League name). Given that, the best guess from the blog I previously cited (Mike McCann's Minor League Baseball Source) for the affected leagues is as follows:
Mid-Atlantic League (High-A)
Aberdeen IronBirds (Orioles) (from New York-Penn League)
Asheville Tourists (Braves) (from South Atlantic League)
Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets) (from New York-Penn League)
According to ballpark digest, it’s an American League central team taking over the ballpark
They won't technically be "taking over the ballpark." Again, the Fireflies are an independent organization owned by Hardball Capital. The AL Central team that Ballpark Digest refers to will be the new MLB affiliate for the Fireflies but there's been no talk of the future parent club purchasing an ownership stake in the team. Sorry to be pedantic here, there's just a commonly held misconception that MiLB teams are all owned outright by their parent club. While some are, many/most aren't.
The crunch is going to come in the Southeast. Essentially the High-A Carolina League and Low-A South Atlantic League are going to get combined, some teams taken out to be put in the new High-A Mid-Atlantic League, and the rest kept in a Low-A league (what that League is named who knows, but I'd assume it'd keep the South Atlantic League name).
While I'm definitely not a fan of a 6-team league, having only one in High-A, the Northwest League, instead of three, NWL, Carolina League and the new Mid-Atlantic League makes sense, but I just feel bad for the Carolina League name and it's history which has been around since 1945, just going away!
So this new High-A Mid-Atlantic League may stretch from Newburgh, NY all the way down to Winston-Salem, NC, that's still a large footprint and the new Sally League might go from Salisbury, MD to Rome, GA, also a very large footprint, of course it's still better than going from Lakewood, NJ to Rome, GA.
I guess in the end, there really is no "perfect" solution to realigning the leagues.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
