November 15, 20205 yr Is in progress. Twins are pulling out of Rochester hoping for St. Paul. Nationals are leaving Fresno maybe for Richmond. The upshot is that teams are being asked to localize their affiliates which could one day uproot the Sox base in NC with three teams. Possibly 40 teams are facing contraction, many involving the short season leagues who may turn into collegiate summer leagues. Some of the larger cities could end up like Fresno which will now have an A ball team. I foresee Rochester angling for an AA Eastern League entry. Throw in the heartbreak of a cancelled season and you have a confusingly fluid situation. Other cities are waiting for the hammer to fall from the secret list. MLB now calls the shots under a new agreement controlling the minors. In sum you have contraction, localizing, short season moving to spring camps and Covid leaving a murky mess. Edited November 15, 20205 yr by pcq
November 15, 20205 yr 47 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said: Everything sucks. short, concise and accurate.
November 15, 20205 yr Such a shame for so many of these small towns/cities...Minor League Baseball is an American staple
November 15, 20205 yr This sucks. I'm sure that when someone put the numbers in a spreadsheet this makes great sense. Which is exactly why decisions shouldn't be made by spreadsheet alone. A multi billion dollar industry needs to be better than this.
November 15, 20205 yr You really can't fault teams for wanting their affiliates closer. Logistically it makes a ton of sense. It's really unfortunate the way the entire situation is being handled.
November 15, 20205 yr 2 minutes ago, smellysox said: The whitesox Great Falls team is done, right? I am pretty sure the whole pioneer league is done... sadly for us here in MT
November 16, 20205 yr One hopeful benefit of MLB taking over MILB is hopefully a little investment in the MILB.tv product (if there is a season in 2021). The setup to watch MLB.tv is awesome. The setup for MILB.tv is terrible. Give me a Roku app and the ability to stream those games easily.
November 16, 20205 yr 1 hour ago, Heads22 said: One hopeful benefit of MLB taking over MILB is hopefully a little investment in the MILB.tv product (if there is a season in 2021). The setup to watch MLB.tv is awesome. The setup for MILB.tv is terrible. Give me a Roku app and the ability to stream those games easily. After they unveiled the updated version of the MiLB app in 2019 it was a giant POS. Hopefully they could work on something much smoother.
November 16, 20205 yr The local media here named the White Sox as a dark horse team for Rochester’s Triple A club. I didn’t take it with a grain of salt with all their other teams being down south.
November 16, 20205 yr 3 hours ago, claydude14 said: The local media here named the White Sox as a dark horse team for Rochester’s Triple A club. I didn’t take it with a grain of salt with all their other teams being down south. I'd be surprised, I think they like their Carolina set-up.
November 16, 20205 yr 4 hours ago, claydude14 said: The local media here named the White Sox as a dark horse team for Rochester’s Triple A club. I didn’t take it with a grain of salt with all their other teams being down south. That would be awesome. Frontier field is not a bad stadium
November 16, 20205 yr From a pure marketing standpoint I would think the Sox would garner more attention (and butts in the seats) if they moved their affiliates closer to home like many others have. If you look at the AAA clubs, 8 out of 30 were in the same state their home club. Another 9 were within a 5 hour drive away.
November 16, 20205 yr 2 minutes ago, jasonxctf said: From a pure marketing standpoint I would think the Sox would garner more attention (and butts in the seats) if they moved their affiliates closer to home like many others have. If you look at the AAA clubs, 8 out of 30 were in the same state their home club. Another 9 were within a 5 hour drive away. The Sox really valued the fact they could move their kids around in short order within the entire system. I think I remember reading that if you dropped Arizona and Great Falls, the rest of the teams were within a four hour drive of each other.
November 16, 20205 yr IIRC wasnt the Iowa Oaks the Sox AAA team in the 70's? ANd now the cubs have their AAA team there. Who is the Indianapolis team affliated with? Yes a shame as where I live, the Beloit A team is 40 min drive just built a new park, on city funds I assume and the other way is Clinton IA and they have a great following in A league as well
November 16, 20205 yr 4 minutes ago, The Grinder said: IIRC wasnt the Iowa Oaks the Sox AAA team in the 70's? ANd now the cubs have their AAA team there. Who is the Indianapolis team affliated with? Yes a shame as where I live, the Beloit A team is 40 min drive just built a new park, on city funds I assume and the other way is Clinton IA and they have a great following in A league as well The Indianapolis Indians are a Pirates farm club, have been for a number of years. And the Iowa Oaks were a Sox farm team in the 70's and early 80's I believe.
November 16, 20205 yr 15 minutes ago, jasonxctf said: From a pure marketing standpoint I would think the Sox would garner more attention (and butts in the seats) if they moved their affiliates closer to home like many others have. If you look at the AAA clubs, 8 out of 30 were in the same state their home club. Another 9 were within a 5 hour drive away. There is definitely a lack of AAA and AA teams in the area, at least reasonable driving distance. The Cougars attempted this synergy with the Cubs, it had only a minor effect on their attendance and the Cubs bailed quickly to South Bend.
November 16, 20205 yr I wonder if they would continue with a rookie/team controlled extended Spring set up at Schaumberg? It would be an easy taxi league set up for injury rehabilitation too.
November 16, 20205 yr Author 8 hours ago, claydude14 said: The local media here named the White Sox as a dark horse team for Rochester’s Triple A club. I didn’t take it with a grain of salt with all their other teams being down south. I think Pittsburgh could be more likely sent there but they might have to wait a year. MLB can order people around but how quickly. Sox have a nice set-up in NC. The next couple weeks a lot of moves could be announced. The Yankees just ditched nearby AA Trenton for a more affluent community. I also question if there will be fans Opening Day, which seems too tentative.
November 16, 20205 yr Author 2 hours ago, ThirdGen said: The Indianapolis Indians are a Pirates farm club, have been for a number of years. And the Iowa Oaks were a Sox farm team in the 70's and early 80's I believe. It might make sense to put the Sox in Indy and Pirates to Roch. Indiana has some Sox connections.
November 16, 20205 yr I’d be stunned if the Sox left Charlotte. Kannapolis also has a brand new ballpark. Putting Low A local and closer to Arizona makes some sense but going to Rochester doesn’t make any sense at all.
November 16, 20205 yr 9 minutes ago, pcq said: It might make sense to put the Sox in Indy and Pirates to Roch. Indiana has some Sox connections. I would like to see that. They have a great ballpark. I would do a couple of road trips.
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