In recent weeks, details of the plan have been slowly leaking out, the MLB spin being it’s designed to (1) upgrade all the minor league facilities and (2) improve “wellness” for the minor leaguers in terms of travel and living conditions. In truth, as always, it’s designed to save money, lots of money, and the proprietors of these minor league teams, many of whom have their life savings invested in them, be damned. Read more here. Read about the Erie SeaWolves and Connecticut Tigers here. Read concerns in Erie (PA) about the SeaWolves here. Read about the fight brewing in Daytona (FL) over the Tortugas here.
Details Emerge of MLB’s Master Plan to Contract MiLB Lineup
Filed under League & Franchise, Legal, Market & Location
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As the entire Pioneer League is being contracted I wouldn’t be surprised if it went summer collegiate and eventually merged with the Expedition League.
And what if any contracted teams will be willing to join this Indie Dream League, as it will mean higher costs.
This is serious. This has gone from “I think MLB is rattling its saber in hopes of getting some concessions from MiLB” to “MLB is intent on balancing its books on the backs of dozens of communities and team owners, and they don’t care what carnage they cause.” I think at the heart of this is that MLB franchises who aren’t as well off as other franchises want to level the playing field. In other words, teams like the Brewers, Orioles and especially the Astros (who we now know have a culture of cheating) want to knock the rich teams like the Yankees down a peg. After all, why should the Yankees get to have more Minor Leaguers under contract than other teams, just because they can afford to? It’s this same thinking that prompted the “luxury taxes” in the first place, and also the limit on money that can be spent on foreign players. Of course, it’s laughable that the Astros (who have been in two of the last three World Series) started the push for this kind of “baseball socialism.” I mean, can you really call Houston, Texas a “small market”?? Yet, they are acting like a small-market team … even though they paid the money to own two of their Minor League affiliates. As if the Astros weren’t bad enough, have the other 29 team owners lost their minds by going along with this insanity? Why bother to pay lip service to “growing the game” if you’re going to kill it at the grassroots level in dozens of towns around the country?
Letter from Congress – sounds like they are alluding to the antitrust exemption. https://trahan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/trahan_mckinleymlb_letter.pdf
Hopefully this doesn’t happen. If it does I did a quick look to see what could happen to these markets. My guess is about 8-12 (based on market size and/or geography) could field independent league teams (Binghamton, Fredrick, Staten Island…). About another 2 dozen could have summer college teams (I’m assuming there would be a new summer league using the Appy league footprint) . That leaves about a half dozen or more markets which seem too remote to fit anywhere (Ogden, Orem, Grand Junction…).
Again let’s hope this doesn’t happen but it seems nowadays the only time MLB isn’t shooting themselves in the foot is when they stop to reload.
For those who have not seen the list of 42 targeted franchises, click the link below:
https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/1882556
Alan