I honestly hate the heavy handed reorganization of the minors. stripping the leagues of their historic names is in very poor taste.

If all of this was truly about ease of travel on the players the IL West would not be adding trips to St Paul, Omaha, and Iowa to the the division slate.

I think the Trenton Thunder got screwed.

White Sox (Charlotte) and Milwaukee (Nashville) are the only ones without AAA close (maybe San Diego-El Paso also).

Nobody west of Amarillo in AA. Seems like they could have moved some from those two western single A leagues to AA.

(02-14-2021 07:44 PM)bullet Wrote:  White Sox (Charlotte) and Milwaukee (Nashville) are the only ones without AAA close (maybe San Diego-El Paso also).

Dodgers-Oklahoma City. It would make way more sense for them to be in Fresno.

(02-14-2021 07:44 PM)bullet Wrote:  White Sox (Charlotte) and Milwaukee (Nashville) are the only ones without AAA close (maybe San Diego-El Paso also).

Of the 8 western MLB teams, only the Mariners and Giants have AAA affiliates that are reasonably nearby.

In addition to the Padres: The A's AAA team is in Las Vegas; Dodgers' AAA team is in OKC (but that is because the Dodgers own that team); Angels' AAA team is in Salt Lake City; D-Backs' AAA team is in Reno. Even Denver to Albuquerque is over 400 miles.

(02-14-2021 07:48 PM)bullet Wrote:  Nobody west of Amarillo in AA. Seems like they could have moved some from those two western single A leagues to AA.

Looks like MLB emphasized the level of ballpark and training facilities when assigning teams to the different minor leagues. There are two new AAA clubs that weren't even MLB-affiliated before this year. Fresno was moved from AAA to low-A (over the strong protests of the franchise owner) because MLB didn't think the facilities there are AAA level.

The minor league schedules came out yesterday. You can really see how MLB cut down on travel to save money. All series are six games and run Tuesday through Sunday. Monday is the travel day. No games are scheduled all season on Monday. My team, the Memphis Redbirds (AAA Cards) play in the new 20 team Triple A Eastern League. Of the other 19 teams, Memphis only plays 9. Memphis plays the Braves AAA team in Gwinnett (suburban Atlanta) 30 times. Atlanta is 350 miles from Memphis, an easy bus ride. I see lots of busing at the Triple A level this season. The bulk of Memphis' schedule is very heavy with Gwinnett, Nashville and Louisville. That's fine, I'm just thrilled to be able to (hopefully, if the local health dept allows it) go to a Redbirds game this season.
Since the minor leagues now play much later in September instead of the usual Labor Day cutoff, the Major Leagues must've done away with the 40 man September roster they've had forever. The cynic in me thinks this was done purposely to delay the MLB service time clock that starts on players when they're called up.

(02-19-2021 11:34 AM)UofMark Wrote:  Since the minor leagues now play much later in September instead of the usual Labor Day cutoff, the Major Leagues must've done away with the 40 man September roster they've had forever.

Correct, the September roster limit is now 28 players instead of 40. In recent years there were complaints that some teams had rosters close to 40 in September while other teams, perhaps teams with penny-pinching owners, only brought up 2 or 3 minor leaguers in September. So now everyone only gets to bring up a couple of players in September.

yeah tradeoff is the 26th man for the entire year. It's really about the same when all is said and done-
26th man plus 28 guys in September- 252 extra days of service 186+33+33
to get 252 extra days of service in September 252/33 is about 7.6 players per team.

last year though
26th plus 28 in September 186+27+27 240 days of service
to get 240 days of service last September 240/27 is about 8.8 players per team

as you can see, it's not that much of a difference at all.

(02-19-2021 11:34 AM)UofMark Wrote:  The minor league schedules came out yesterday. You can really see how MLB cut down on travel to save money. All series are six games and run Tuesday through Sunday. Monday is the travel day. No games are scheduled all season on Monday. My team, the Memphis Redbirds (AAA Cards) play in the new 20 team Triple A Eastern League. Of the other 19 teams, Memphis only plays 9. Memphis plays the Braves AAA team in Gwinnett (suburban Atlanta) 30 times. Atlanta is 350 miles from Memphis, an easy bus ride. I see lots of busing at the Triple A level this season. The bulk of Memphis' schedule is very heavy with Gwinnett, Nashville and Louisville. That's fine, I'm just thrilled to be able to (hopefully, if the local health dept allows it) go to a Redbirds game this season.
Since the minor leagues now play much later in September instead of the usual Labor Day cutoff, the Major Leagues must've done away with the 40 man September roster they've had forever. The cynic in me thinks this was done purposely to delay the MLB service time clock that starts on players when they're called up.

The old days of September Prospect callups have been gone frankly for years.

Steve: is that really true? Rosters would always expand on 9/1 in a normal season

(02-21-2021 05:53 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Steve: is that really true? Rosters would always expand on 9/1 in a normal season

yeah, it's now instead of 25 for the season thru August and then up to 40 in September it's 26 for the season thru August and then 28 in September.

Games were utterly bastardized in September by teams having 15 reliever bullpens and having 10 pitchers in a regular 9 inning game.

Ooh, that's right! I forgot they limited expanding recently.

AAA baseball season will now begin one month later than originally planned.

Quote:Major League Baseball teams will operate alternate sites similar to those used during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, delaying the beginning of the Triple-A season by at least a month, sources familiar with the plan told ESPN.

While Triple-A, the highest level of minor league baseball, was scheduled to begin April 6, games will be pushed back, sources said, to around the same time as Double-A, high-A and low-A are expected to start -- the first week of May.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/3099...ources-say

this makes sense-

This item: 1) Indicates the delay in the start of the minor league season might be longer than just one month, and 2) Makes you wonder whether MLB clubs would be better off if all of them had their AAA team located a short drive away from the MLB team.

Quote:Martín Gallegos
@MartinJGallegos

A's pitching coach Scott Emerson said he's heard the possibility of A's having their alternate site in Stockton and playing games against Giants Minor Leaguers in Sacramento until Triple-A season starts up. Nothing official at this point.

10:49 AM · Mar 3, 2021 · Twitter Web App

(03-03-2021 02:21 PM)Wedge Wrote:  This item: 1) Indicates the delay in the start of the minor league season might be longer than just one month, and 2) Makes you wonder whether MLB clubs would be better off if all of them had their AAA team located a short drive away from the MLB team.

Quote:Martín Gallegos
@MartinJGallegos

A's pitching coach Scott Emerson said he's heard the possibility of A's having their alternate site in Stockton and playing games against Giants Minor Leaguers in Sacramento until Triple-A season starts up. Nothing official at this point.

10:49 AM · Mar 3, 2021 · Twitter Web App

I don't see it indicating the start of the minor league season being more of a delay than 1 month at all. It's going to be starting on May 4 I think it was. They'd have 5 weeks where they wouldn't be doing anything other than intersquad games otherwise..... So it makes sense.

(03-03-2021 02:21 PM)Wedge Wrote:  This item: 1) Indicates the delay in the start of the minor league season might be longer than just one month, and 2) Makes you wonder whether MLB clubs would be better off if all of them had their AAA team located a short drive away from the MLB team.

Quote:Martín Gallegos
@MartinJGallegos

A's pitching coach Scott Emerson said he's heard the possibility of A's having their alternate site in Stockton and playing games against Giants Minor Leaguers in Sacramento until Triple-A season starts up. Nothing official at this point.

10:49 AM · Mar 3, 2021 · Twitter Web App

Even with the one month delay I know the Dodgers will have some interesting choices to make. Last year's alternate site was USC, just across downtown from Chavez Ravine. This year it'll be in Rancho Cucamonga (1-2 hr drive depending on traffic) or Spring Training site in AZ (1.5 hr flight, plus airport waits and drives to/from stadiums). All of that is probably better than Oklahoma City but making sure the right players are in the right spots to get quality work in AND be ready to travel to LA will not be straightforward.

(03-04-2021 03:12 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(03-03-2021 02:21 PM)Wedge Wrote:  This item: 1) Indicates the delay in the start of the minor league season might be longer than just one month, and 2) Makes you wonder whether MLB clubs would be better off if all of them had their AAA team located a short drive away from the MLB team.

Quote:Martín Gallegos
@MartinJGallegos

A's pitching coach Scott Emerson said he's heard the possibility of A's having their alternate site in Stockton and playing games against Giants Minor Leaguers in Sacramento until Triple-A season starts up. Nothing official at this point.

10:49 AM · Mar 3, 2021 · Twitter Web App

Even with the one month delay I know the Dodgers will have some interesting choices to make. Last year's alternate site was USC, just across downtown from Chavez Ravine. This year it'll be in Rancho Cucamonga (1-2 hr drive depending on traffic) or Spring Training site in AZ (1.5 hr flight, plus airport waits and drives to/from stadiums). All of that is probably better than Oklahoma City but making sure the right players are in the right spots to get quality work in AND be ready to travel to LA will not be straightforward.

It'll be interesting as well due to the fact that I'd guess your spring training site in AZ would be hosting the minor league spring training.

(03-04-2021 03:12 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(03-03-2021 02:21 PM)Wedge Wrote:  This item: 1) Indicates the delay in the start of the minor league season might be longer than just one month, and 2) Makes you wonder whether MLB clubs would be better off if all of them had their AAA team located a short drive away from the MLB team.

Quote:Martín Gallegos
@MartinJGallegos

A's pitching coach Scott Emerson said he's heard the possibility of A's having their alternate site in Stockton and playing games against Giants Minor Leaguers in Sacramento until Triple-A season starts up. Nothing official at this point.

10:49 AM · Mar 3, 2021 · Twitter Web App

Even with the one month delay I know the Dodgers will have some interesting choices to make. Last year's alternate site was USC, just across downtown from Chavez Ravine. This year it'll be in Rancho Cucamonga (1-2 hr drive depending on traffic) or Spring Training site in AZ (1.5 hr flight, plus airport waits and drives to/from stadiums). All of that is probably better than Oklahoma City but making sure the right players are in the right spots to get quality work in AND be ready to travel to LA will not be straightforward.

Rancho Cucamonga is reasonably convenient to LA. Comparable to Stockton/Oakland and Sacramento/SF.