https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2787...n-40-teams

"Major League Baseball is in negotiations with its minor league teams about efforts to "reorganize elements of the system" that could reduce the number of affiliated teams from 160 to 120, according to reports....

According to the reports, the 40 teams at the lower levels that are not included in this venture would be reclassified into a "Dream League," which would be run jointly by MLB and Minor League Baseball and would include players who were not selected in the draft, which under this proposal would be moved to after the College World Series and reduced to 20-25 rounds from the total of up to 40 in its current format...."

This could impact how much MLB relies on colleges as "farm teams."

It seems more economic than that. There are quite a few municipalities who poured millions into stadiums and support facilities which seem to be hung out to dry and still have bonds to retire. Someone with a fairly new facility will likely be demoted one level, or eliminated entirely if an entire league is folded. I think the California League is in trouble.

Anyone know what the actual plan looks like? I’d like to know what the IL is going to look like if this happens.

Yeah, I see good reason to eliminate the Class A division. It makes better economical sense for the MLB as it is very, very rare for a player that starts in Class A to move to the major league.

The proposal would essentially eliminate the short-season leagues, with the possible exception of the Northwest League. You should read the original report from Baseball America to find out more.

(10-19-2019 03:09 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  Yeah, I see good reason to eliminate the Class A division. It makes better economical sense for the MLB as it is very, very rare for a player that starts in Class A to move to the major league.

I strongly disagree that it's rare for MLB players to spend time in Class A. The majority of major league players spend 1 or more years at A or lower levels. Teams do have multiple Class A teams (high A and low A). Rookie league and Short season leagues seem to be on the chopping block if the draft is cut to 20-25 rounds.

This should be positive to college baseball

I like the proposed changes.

Reducing the draft and putting undrafted players in what are basically MLB-sponsored independent leagues so they can develop until they get drafted or give up seems to me like a winning situation for both teams and players.

Moving the draft to after the CWS is also nice.

(10-19-2019 03:25 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  The proposal would essentially eliminate the short-season leagues, with the possible exception of the Northwest League. You should read the original report from Baseball America to find out more.

If they are going from 160 to 120, that's AAA, AA, High A and Low A. Although maybe they drop Low A and keep rookie leagues.

(10-19-2019 02:22 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Anyone know what the actual plan looks like? I’d like to know what the IL is going to look like if this happens.

Baseball America had a few details:

The Pacific Coast League would shrink from 16 to 10 teams, and the International League would grow from 14 to 20 teams. Some markets would move between A and AAA, but no specific number was given.

The South Atlantic League would be scaled back all the way to 6 teams, with a new Mid Atlantic League created in its wake.

My hunch is that the PCL drops Tacoma and Salt Lake, to the Northwest League, and sends at Omaha, Iowa, Memphis, and Nashvile to the IL. The Northwest League replaces the California League in Class A Advanced. Other than the South Atlantic League split, the other full season Class A tier should be unchanged.

The article mentioned independent teams in Saint Paul, MN and Sugar Land, TX possibly being affiliated - this could cause some changes in the Midwest League and Texas League, although Saint Paul could make sense in the IL.

I’d like to see Nashville and Memphis in the IL but that’s all.

Damn, the Astros won the American League.

Normally, I enjoy when the Yankees lose, but I am pulling strongly for the Nationals in the WS, and the Nationals aren't beating the Astros.

Someone on another forum did a calculation of who is in trouble and who isn't:

-- Staten Island (NYY) and Brooklyn (NYM) would likely be the two NYPL teams moving up to the AA Eastern League
-- Aberdeen (BAL) would likely be the NYPL team moving to the high-A Carolina League
-- If you sort all 160 current affected teams, the top 120 (the projected cutoff point) would all have a minimum of 5000 seats at their stadiums. The two independent teams (St. Paul and Sugar Land) have capacities of 7000-7500
-- All 10 teams in the Appalachian League are in the danger zone, having capacities of 4000 or less, but 7 of those 10 teams are owned by their MLB affiliates
-- The other Rookie-Adv level league, the Pioneer League, currently has 5 out of 8 teams in the safety zone (including Colorado-owned Grand Junction), but 2 of those 5 would be bumped out by the two independents
-- High-A Carolina League would have 3 teams in trouble (Down East (TEX owned), Fayetteville (HOU owned), Lynchburg)
-- High-A Florida State League would have 1 team in trouble (Daytona)
-- High-A California League would have 3 teams in trouble (Modesto (SEA owned), San Jose (SF owned), Visalia)
-- Low-A South Atlantic League would have 3 teams in trouble (Asheville, Hagerstown, Kannapolis)
-- Low-A Midwest League would have 3 teams in trouble (Beloit, Bowling Green, Burlington)

I would hate to see Asheville lose its team. The stadium offers a wonderful setting.

If Nashville moves from Pacific to International, that would be fine (as long as Memphis does, too).

Not once in this thread has the most radical idea been discussed at all. Apparently there is a movement to have AAA cities become A cities and A cities become AAA cities.

(10-20-2019 09:55 AM)Rube Dali Wrote:  Not once in this thread has the most radical idea been discussed at all. Apparently there is a movement to have AAA cities become A cities and A cities become AAA cities.

I know a lot of Nashville Sounds fans would be very displeased if the franchise was moved from AAA to A.

(10-20-2019 09:57 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(10-20-2019 09:55 AM)Rube Dali Wrote:  Not once in this thread has the most radical idea been discussed at all. Apparently there is a movement to have AAA cities become A cities and A cities become AAA cities.

I know a lot of Nashville Sounds fans would be very displeased if the franchise was moved from AAA to A.

You don't have to think about that. It won't happen.

My thought about this radical realignment, and I thought about it for a bit, is how much of this is MLB trying to make the minors more appealing to suburban and urban fans of the majors, at the expense of rural America?

I don’t see any AAA markets that are geographic outliers or underperforming to the point that they deserve demotion to single A.

(10-20-2019 08:43 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I don’t see any AAA markets that are geographic outliers or underperforming to the point that they deserve demotion to single A.

Somebody's gotta go to make room for Dayton.

(10-20-2019 09:04 AM)Rube Dali Wrote:  Someone on another forum did a calculation of who is in trouble and who isn't:

-- Staten Island (NYY) and Brooklyn (NYM) would likely be the two NYPL teams moving up to the AA Eastern League
-- Aberdeen (BAL) would likely be the NYPL team moving to the high-A Carolina League
-- If you sort all 160 current affected teams, the top 120 (the projected cutoff point) would all have a minimum of 5000 seats at their stadiums. The two independent teams (St. Paul and Sugar Land) have capacities of 7000-7500
-- All 10 teams in the Appalachian League are in the danger zone, having capacities of 4000 or less, but 7 of those 10 teams are owned by their MLB affiliates
-- The other Rookie-Adv level league, the Pioneer League, currently has 5 out of 8 teams in the safety zone (including Colorado-owned Grand Junction), but 2 of those 5 would be bumped out by the two independents
-- High-A Carolina League would have 3 teams in trouble (Down East (TEX owned), Fayetteville (HOU owned), Lynchburg)
-- High-A Florida State League would have 1 team in trouble (Daytona)
-- High-A California League would have 3 teams in trouble (Modesto (SEA owned), San Jose (SF owned), Visalia)
-- Low-A South Atlantic League would have 3 teams in trouble (Asheville, Hagerstown, Kannapolis)
-- Low-A Midwest League would have 3 teams in trouble (Beloit, Bowling Green, Burlington)

Kannapolis will be playing in a new $52,000,000 ball park next year. New hotels a block away, restaurants, retail stores & a convention center also being built two blocks from the park. Condos, apartments and a large retirement village are being built one to four blocks away. And a new hospital is also being built just a few miles from the ball park.