Let me preface that I wasn’t a big fan of MLB’s heavy handed reorganization of the minors a few years ago.

What they’ve done with the International League’s schedule is a tragedy:

20 teams in 2 divisions

The schedules are greatly unbalanced—some teams don’t even face some division mates

They award a first half of the season winner—in what world does it make sense to reward a team for half a season’s work?

————
Here’s my solution:

The season is 24 full weeks and 2 half weeks long, so:

In the first half play 9 series against your division opponents, and the remaining 3 1/2 series against cross division foes.
In the second half, again 9 series against your division opponents (alternating the host sites this time), and 3 1/2 series against cross division foes.
Best record in the IL West faces best record in the IL East at the end of the season.
It would mean missing 2 teams from the opposite division annually but there’s really no better way to manage an unwieldy 20 team league.

Maybe the alternative is a compete break—no interdivision play.

I don't know why they simply didn't reinstate a 3rd AAA league. It never made much sense to me why the American Association was disbanded in 1998. That name has been taken by an MLB partner league, so here you'd just take the IL West and make them the "Central League" or something.

Based on 1998 locations, the most logical set up would have been:

PCL North—Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Tacoma, Fresno
PCL South—Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Tucson, Albuquerque, Colorado Springs

AA East—Columbus, Toledo, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville
AA West—Memphis, New Orleans, Omaha, Iowa, Oklahoma

IL North—Ottawa, Pawtucket, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse
IL South—Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Richmond, Norfolk, Durham, Charlotte

There’s a little horse trading between the IL and AA to keep things geographically neat. I suppose Columbus and Toledo could stay in an 12-team IL and the AA could get by with just 8.

I also find it fascinating how far back the lineages of some of these minor leagues clubs go. In the PCL:

Albuquerque Isotopes = 1903 Oakland Oaks
El Paso Chihuahuas = 1903 Los Angeles Angels
Round Rock Express = 1903 Sacramento Senators
Reno Aces = 1903 San Francisco Seals
Tacoma Rainiers = 1909 Vernon Tigers
Las Vegas Aviators = 1919 Portland Beavers
Oklahoma City Baseball Club = continuously in OKC (under several names) since 1963
Sacramento RiverCats = 1978 Vancouver Canadians
Salt Lake Bees = 1978 Portland Beavers

MiLB ought to do this when the Bigs expand to 32:

PCL West — Reno, Tacoma, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, El Paso, Fresno (expansion)
PCL East — Omaha, St. Paul, Iowa, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Round Rock, Sugar Land, Wichita (expansion)

IL North — Columbus, Toledo, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton/WB, Lehigh Valley, Worcester
IL South — Norfolk, Gwinnett, Durham, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Birmingham (relocated from Nashville)

(07-31-2024 09:35 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  MiLB ought to do this when the Bigs expand to 32:

PCL West — Reno, Tacoma, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, El Paso, Fresno (expansion)
PCL East — Omaha, St. Paul, Iowa, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Round Rock, Wichita (expansion)

IL North — Columbus, Toledo, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton/WB, Lehigh Valley, Worcester
IL South — Norfolk, Gwinnett, Durham, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Birmingham (relocated from Nashville)

Missing Sugar Land. Nice of you to give AAA teams back to Fresno and Wichita. I assume Nashville received an MLB team in your scenario for the AAA team to move to Birmingham.

Here's what I might do:

MLB expansion to Charlotte ("Carolina") and Montreal
AAA expansion to Fresno and Ottawa
AAA Charlotte moved to Richmond
AAA Las Vegas moved to Tucson
AAA Iowa (Cubs) renamed Des Moines (Demons)
AAA Oklahoma City (Baseball Club?) renamed Oklahoma (Oilers)
Creation of AAA Central League and subsequent realignment

AAA Central League (12)
East: Columbus (CLE), Indianapolis (CHW), Louisville (CIN), Memphis (STL), Nashville (TBR), Toledo (DET)
West: Des Moines (CHC), Oklahoma (MIL), Omaha (KCR), Round Rock (TEX), St. Paul (MIN), Sugar Land (HOU)

AAA International League (12)
North: Buffalo (TOR), Ottawa (MON), Rochester (PIT), Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (NYY), Syracuse (NYM), Worcester (BOS)
South: Durham (CAR), Gwinnett (ATL), Jacksonville (MIA), Lehigh Valley (PHI), Norfolk (BAL), Richmond (WSN)

AAA Pacific Coast League (8)
East: Albuquerque (COL), El Paso (SDP), Salt Lake (LAA), Tucson (ARI)
West: Fresno (LAD), Reno (LVA), Sacramento (SFG), Tacoma (SEA)

Realignment of AAA will largely depend on where the expansion teams go:

We don’t know the fate of the Las Vegas Aviators yet—my guess is that the Fresno Grizzlies return to AAA and the Aviators move to a small CA market in the California League.

Salt Lake, Charlotte, and Nashville are all AAA markets in contention for expansion. If any of those cities get a MLB franchise, it would be hard for AAA to continue to exist.

(08-02-2024 05:10 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Realignment of AAA will largely depend on where the expansion teams go:

We don’t know the fate of the Las Vegas Aviators yet—my guess is that the Fresno Grizzlies return to AAA and the Aviators move to a small CA market in the California League.

Salt Lake, Charlotte, and Nashville are all AAA markets in contention for expansion. If any of those cities get a MLB franchise, it would be hard for AAA to continue to exist.

The minors are MLB's Professional Development League now. As long as MLB wants them to exist, they will exist in whatever form MLB desires.

I actually think the A's AAA team will stay put. The suburban minor league team model is isn't exactly new (Gwinnett, Tacoma), and the realignment of 2020-21 added two more suburban AAA teams (Sugar Land, St. Paul). The same would probably be the case with Salt Lake should they punch an expansion ticket, as their is a brand-spanking-new park in Daybreak where the Bees will play.

Of course the A's have to actually move to Las Vegas first. If they are stuck in Sacramento then I think we'll see the River Cats move simply as their isn't really another park in the Sacramento area aside from moving in with Sacramento State or UC Davis, neither of which is really suitable.

(08-02-2024 05:16 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(08-02-2024 05:10 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Realignment of AAA will largely depend on where the expansion teams go:

We don’t know the fate of the Las Vegas Aviators yet—my guess is that the Fresno Grizzlies return to AAA and the Aviators move to a small CA market in the California League.

Salt Lake, Charlotte, and Nashville are all AAA markets in contention for expansion. If any of those cities get a MLB franchise, it would be hard for AAA to continue to exist.

The minors are MLB's Professional Development League now. As long as MLB wants them to exist, they will exist in whatever form MLB desires.

Haven’t the minors always been MLB’s developmental leagues though? It would seem odd to leave a minor league club in the same market as the parent club but I guess since there’s already 4 teams doing this at present, it’s not totally unheard of. Personally, I don’t think it makes financial sense to compete against yourself within your own market but I guess your major and minor league clubs could be catered to specific demographics.

Las Vegas has somewhat of an advantage in that while the metro population is decent (2.22 million), the number of annual visitors (40 million) can be a game changer. If the Athletics can rap into 0.25% of those 40 million visitors, that's more than 1,200 fans per game.

The AAA team could also be scheduled around the Athletics' home games - it probably wouldn't work out perfectly, but in theory few to none of their ~150 home games should have to overlap.

In theory the NBA's Orlando Magic should be able to do this, but the distance between Downtown Orlando and Disney makes this difficult to leverage. Even the Universal/I-Drive area isn't particularly close. The new stadium for the Athletics is right off the Strip and will have a hotel on site.

(07-30-2024 08:09 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Let me preface that I wasn’t a big fan of MLB’s heavy handed reorganization of the minors a few years ago.

What they’ve done with the International League’s schedule is a tragedy:

20 teams in 2 divisions

The schedules are greatly unbalanced—some teams don’t even face some division mates

They award a first half of the season winner—in what world does it make sense to reward a team for half a season’s work?

————
Here’s my solution:

The season is 24 full weeks and 2 half weeks long, so:

In the first half play 9 series against your division opponents, and the remaining 3 1/2 series against cross division foes.
In the second half, again 9 series against your division opponents (alternating the host sites this time), and 3 1/2 series against cross division foes.
Best record in the IL West faces best record in the IL East at the end of the season.
It would mean missing 2 teams from the opposite division annually but there’s really no better way to manage an unwieldy 20 team league.

Maybe the alternative is a compete break—no interdivision play.

The Texas League does that.

(08-03-2024 08:29 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(08-02-2024 05:16 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(08-02-2024 05:10 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Realignment of AAA will largely depend on where the expansion teams go:

We don’t know the fate of the Las Vegas Aviators yet—my guess is that the Fresno Grizzlies return to AAA and the Aviators move to a small CA market in the California League.

Salt Lake, Charlotte, and Nashville are all AAA markets in contention for expansion. If any of those cities get a MLB franchise, it would be hard for AAA to continue to exist.

The minors are MLB's Professional Development League now. As long as MLB wants them to exist, they will exist in whatever form MLB desires.

Haven’t the minors always been MLB’s developmental leagues though? It would seem odd to leave a minor league club in the same market as the parent club but I guess since there’s already 4 teams doing this at present, it’s not totally unheard of. Personally, I don’t think it makes financial sense to compete against yourself within your own market but I guess your major and minor league clubs could be catered to specific demographics.

Makes no sense for the Astros. Sugar Land is affluent and lots of disposable income that could be spent on the Astros is spent on the Skeeters (I refuse call them by their new name).