Yes, the Southern League was where I was thinking a Kannapolis team might fit in. The Mudcats in Zebulon used to be in the AA Southern League before dropping down to the Carolina League. Its a long shot I know, but how cool for the White Sox org would it be to have the AAA, AA, and High A teams within a 2 hour drive of each other. If MLB teams are getting to pick and choose their affiliates now, who knows what to expect. There is a 10,000 seat requirement to be a AAA franchise. Not sure about a AA requirement.
Either way, the new ballpark in Kannapolis is really nice and it is a shame that no one is playing ball there. Iāve been out there several times over the summer to grab lunch or dinner from the concessions. Not a bad seat there and more importantly, there is SHADE!
Honestly, this was minor league baseball for me growing up, and still is. It was a good way to get 3 kids out the house for an evening for cheap, and take in a nice sunset.
The big guys telling the small guys that their guys need to make a sacrifice for the betterment of everyone. Then they get cut out anyway. Who would have figured?
MLB is now starting to partner with several Independent Leagues. They extended their partnership with the Atlantic League yesterday. That league has the High Point team and the new Gastonia team in it. In the past year or so, they have tested out different things for MLB like automated strike zones.
They announced today a partnership with the Frontier League and the American Association . Thatās 34 teams there.
Funny that they are announcing these partnerships as the agreement with MiLB is about to expire in a week.
The Appy league will now be a summer collegiate league targeting rising freshmen and sophomores. It is gonna be a partnership between the league, MLB, and USA Baseball. Sounds like they have aspirations to be on the level of the Cape Cod League.
MLB, USA Baseball, Announce New Format For Appalachian League
Yankees are moving their AA franchise from Trenton, NJ to Somerset, NJ. They are moving their A affiliate from Charleston to Hudson Valley.
Somerset was previously an Indy league team. Hudson Valley was previously a Rookie affiliate of the Rays. 49er Erik Walker pitched there after being drafted by the Rays.
The college game is an integral part of this major change in MiLB. Itās become apparent over the past 10+ years that professional front offices have become increasingly comfortable with player development taking place at the college level. One significant sign of this has been the increasing amount of movement among coaches between college and pro staffs in both directions.
As a growing number of colleges commit time, attention, and money to player development, an increasing percentage of high profile high school players will find their way to the college ranks instead of the draft. Along with this, we can expect agents (who are referred to as āadvisorsā until players sign) to recommend the college programs that do the best job of developing players to high school prospects and their families. Overall, this can only be good for college baseball.
Iāll take it as far as I can, IfC. Although, our friend, Mr. Bojangles, may be the one whoās in the best position to report on Conference USAās position with respect to non-conference games.
First of all, D1Baseball.com reported early this week that a meeting was to take place last Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss a number of important topics concerning the 2021 season. Participants included the entire NCAA Baseball Selection Committee and a select group of coaches representing the American Baseball Coachesā Association.
Topics were to include the nature of the post-season, roster limits, eligibility issues, etc. The DiBaseball.com article also made it clear that the individual conferences were still wrestling with the approach that they were going to take to scheduling the regular season. Conferences like the SEC and ACC seem to be gearing up to play full 56-game schedules, while a number of the other conferences are looking at limiting the number of out-of-conference games they play. Of course, if enough conferences limit themselves to conference games only, itās going to make it tough for the SEC and ACC to have enough teams to play to complete 56-game schedules.
What Iāve heard from Conference USA is that there will an East and a West division to limit travel and that the normal, full complement of conference games will be played. What I havenāt heard is the extent to which non-conference games will be allowed. Perhaps, Mr. Bojangles or someone else more specifically in the know can fill us inā¦IF the determination has been made. Iām not sure that it has.
Thereās nothing official yet on the 2021 college baseball scheduling. Like ricko said, there was a meeting held to discuss several things and a path forward. I havenāt seen anything come out of that yet. Youād have to think that this would be the perfect year to start pushing the season into the summer months. I think most coaches are in favor of it. It gives the teams more of a āspring trainingā ramp up than the current schedule does, presumably causing fewer injuries.
LT just released the first C-USA schedule last week with a full 56 game slate so that is encouraging. They were starting on the ānormalā start date of February 19. Lots of rumors that the start date will be pushed to March though. LT tickets go on sale today too, so maybe they are getting the jump on everyone to get some deposits in before things change. $$
From listening to the D1 Baseball podcast last week, they seem to think there will not be any mid-week games and the power conferences will go āconference onlyā plus 1 OOC weekend series. Lots of interesting proposals on how the post season will work from them as well. They talk some C-USA baseball too (around 36:00).
Looks like the SF Giants may be moving their affiliates closer to the west coast. The Augusta Green Jackets (Low A) and the Richmond Flying Squirrels (AA) could be losing their affiliation.
It would be a little bit of a shame, because the Giants have done a nice job in Richmond; but Richmond showed support when it was the Bravesā affiliate and it continues to show support as the Giantsā affiliate. Given that a new stadium continues to move forward (though slowly), Richmond will continue to enjoy its minor league baseball no matter the affiliation.
Getting a little worried about the South Atlantic League.
Charleston no longer has an affiliate.
Augusta looks like it could lose its affiliate
Now Columbia Fireflies look like they are no longer be affiliated with the Mets.
EDIT: āThe announcement means that Columbia will no longer be a Mets affiliate. That had long been expected, but Columbia will not be dropped from affiliated baseball. According to numerous sources, Columbia will have a new affiliate for 2021 and beyond.ā
This reminds me of all the conference realignment with college sports except this is all happening at the same time!!
Looks like there will be a new High A league, the Mid Atlantic League that will have 6 teams. Two of them will be Brooklyn (Mets) and Hudson Valley (Yankees). The South Atlantic League will remain in low A but will have fewer teams.
