Ask Baseball America By James Bailey
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July 20, 2000We've got a followup question (more like invitation) today on something I said last week, when I commented about how the Sally League was getting out of control. I didn't really have the time to go into any depth then, but since someone actually wrote in and asked for my grand plan, that's what you get today. OK, you are the minor league czar. You stated earlier you would divide the Sally and Midwest leagues into three 10-team leagues. OK, how would you do that? What teams stay in the Sally and MWL? What teams go into the MidEast League or whatever you want to call it? David Since David has put me in charge of minor league realignment, I'm not stopping with the Midwest and Sally Leagues. I'm messing with the whole thing. Before I get into the details, I tried to stick to a few rules in playing god (or czar) of the minors. One, I tried not to take teams away from cities, no matter how poor their attendance, with the exception of the Florida State League. Two, no new teams in markets already taken by independent league teams, though in reality that won't likely stand in anyone's way. And three, market size and geography were the two big factors in the realignment. By the way, there's a lot of shuffling here and the teams are on their own to find new affiliates. With most PDCs up this offseason, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. If they need help with that later, I'll see what I can do. Triple-AFirst off, I'd really like to go back to three leagues here. I can't stand the 16-team behemoths like the Pacific Coast League. But since they just broke the American Association up a couple of years ago, I'll leave this be for the most part. The PCL stays the same, with the name changing to the North America League to represent better just how ridiculously spread out the whole thing is. The International League loses Toledo, which drops down a couple of classifications as a punishment for drawing such poor crowds. Akron, the attendance king of the Eastern League, moves in to replace Toledo. Ottawa, which drew a paltry 195,979 fans last year, really should have been dropped down, but there was no logical place to put it, and without a team in Canada the league wouldn't be international any more. I guess they'll have to think about that if someone ever gets around to moving Ottawa, but for now the Lynx stay put. Double-AThe Texas League is immune from all the change, because none of its markets would fit logically in any other league, except the North America League, which will take anyone. A new team in Baton Rouge enters the Southern League, replacing Orlando, which is dropped to the Florida State League because the Rays draw just like an FSL club. Otherwise, no changes here. The new world order hits the Eastern League pretty hard as five of its markets are replaced. Akron, of course, graduated to Triple-A. Erie will move to the new high Class A league to be discussed later. And Binghamton, New Britain and New Haven will move to the New York-Penn League, with Hudson Valley and Lowell, Mass., jumping up to the EL. Springfield, Mass., which has been an expansion candidate for years, finally gets one as the EL just nudges out the Northern League to secure the market. (I know said I wouldn't mess with markets already taken by the indies, but Springfield is open as of now. And if they had a shot at an EL team, they'd probably be willing to back out of any agreement with the other guys.) Also joining the new EL are Lakewood, N.J., which never was intended to fit in the South Atlantic League, and Wilmington, Del., the Carolina League's northernmost member and attendance leader. New Alignment: EL North: Hudson Valley, Lowell, Norwich, Portland, Springfield, Trenton. EL South: Altoona, Bowie, Harrisburg, Lakewood, Reading, Wilmington. Advanced Class ANothing's sacred here but the California League, which doesn't get messed with because it already makes sense. They get extra points for having all of their teams actually within the state for which the league is named. Minor tinkering is necessary with the troubles in Stockton, etc., but they can figure that out on their own. The Carolina League will have a new look. We're talking expansion here, boosting the circuit from eight teams all the way up to 12. With the loss of Wilmington, Del., we need five new markets and they are: Charleston, S.C., Delmarva, Hagerstown, Hickory and Wilmington, N.C. Hagerstown doesn't meet the expected attendance criteria, but it doesn't really fit too well in the Sally League with the new "no two-day long bus rides" policy. So it's moving to the Carolina League and will be encouraged to boost attendance by inviting the Chicken to town at least once a month. New Alignment: CL North: Delmarva, Frederick, Hagerstown, Lynchburg, Potomac, Salem. CL South: Charleston, Hickory, Kinston, Myrtle Beach, Wilmington (N.C.), Winston-Salem. You were expecting the Florida State League next? Well, you'll have to wait until we get to the low Class A leagues. Yes, the FSL has been reclassified. Its replacement in the high A world is the all-new, eight-team Ohio Central League. Dayton, Kane County, Lansing and West Michigan have proven they deserve to move up by dominating the Midwest League in attendance, so they will move here. Erie and Toledo, as mentioned before, both drop down from higher classifications, while Mahoning Valley moves up from the New York-Penn League, where it dominated attendance last year. The eighth team will be the new SAL club in Lexington, Ky., a city that is neither Southern nor Atlantic. Alignment: OCL East: Erie, Lansing, Mahoning Valley, Toledo. OCL West: Dayton, Kane County, Lexington, West Michigan. Low Class AIn addition to losing four teams, the Florida State League has been dropped to low Class A. Kissimmee and St. Petersburg have been rumored to be on the chopping block anyway, so say goodbye to them. So long as well to Charlotte, Lakeland and Vero Beach. The arrival of Orlando from the Southern League puts the new league at 10 teams. New Alignment: FSL East: Brevard County, Daytona, Jupiter, Orlando, St. Lucie. FSL West: Clearwater, Dunedin, Fort Myers, Sarasota, Tampa. The Midwest League has also dropped to 10 teams. This was a simple procedure, with the four teams previously mentioned (Dayton, Kane County, Lansing, West Michigan) defecting to the Ohio Central League. New Alignment: MWL East: Beloit, Fort Wayne, Michigan, South Bend, Wisconsin. MWL West: Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Peoria, Quad City. Finally, we've reached the league that started it all. The one league that doesn't seem to understand the concept of regional geography. Oh, South Atlantic League, look what you've caused. As punishment for getting so out of control, the Sally League has lost six teams, cutting it back to a reasonable 10. Gone are Charleston, S.C., Charleston, W.Va., Delmarva, Hagerstown, Hickory, Lakewood, Lexington and Wilmington, N.C. Two new markets, Montgomery, Ala., and Tallahassee, Fla., join the fray. All of the above movers have been mentioned already except for Charleston, W.Va., which is just too darned far away from the rest of the league. And as the league's worst existing draw (Cape Fear doesn't count since it's moving to Lakewood next year), it doesn't warrant any leniency. Charleston moves to the newly expanded 12-team Appalachian League. New Alignment: SAL North: Asheville, Augusta, Capital City, Greensboro, Piedmont. SAL South: Columbus, Macon, Montgomery, Savannah, Tallahassee. Directory: mlb mlb -> By Ken Gurnick mlb -> Los angeles dodgers clips mlb -> 2010 – What’s the name of the umpire whose errant call cost the Tigers’ Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010? 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