Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Major-Minor Swaps

Minor league clubs sign player development agreements (PDA) with major league clubs for two or four years, four years when the association is a good one, two years when there might be problems.

New Orleans was affiliated with Montreal. Made sense if you think of their fan base being of French extraction, otherwise I haven't a clue how that association got started.

Columbus has been with the Yankees since Steinbrenner bought the Yanks; Columbus is his hometown. Makes sense.

Norfolk has been aligned with the Mets for ages. They were called the Tidewater Tides back in the 70's, changed the locale portion of the name when a new ballpark was built.

The trend of late is for a major league team to gather its various levels of farm teams in a region. Toronto left Medicine Hat, Bluefield WV, and other far flung paradises to consolidate its fan base as well as player pool in the northeast. Syracuse has been Toronto's AAA team since 1977 (they were with the Yankees until Steinbrener took over) and they've now got AA in New Hampshire, short-season A in Auburn, NY (just down the road from Syracuse), A in Lansing, MI.

Other teams are doing the same and the Phillies are the ones who got this round rolling.

The Phillies are moving their AAA team closer, leaving Scranton for Allentown and the new ballpark there. Their AA is in Reading. Their fan base will be huge and local.

The Mets wanted to locate their AAA club closer to NYC; they've been pulling guys up from Binghamton in many cases simply because they are physically closer. They thought they would get Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which would be terrific in consolidating the fan base, capturing NE Pennsylvania together with the southern tier of NY, as well be bringing the AAA guys slightly closer.

Norfolk went with Washington. Location again, and since Montreal moved, it made sense that their AAA team might change.

The Yankees grabbed Scranton. Don't know if the Mets ever truly had a chance.

Syracuse made a huge blunder. The local paper has been raking the management and board of directors over the coals for many, many things they've done wrong and continue to do wrong. After making noises about not renewing the PDA with Toronto because of the dismal record the Chiefs have suffered through at their hands, they did not wait until the season was ended and other teams' affiliations were up for grabs. The Syracuse BofD renewed the PDA back in June at a meeting attended by only 13 of 25 members, less than the quorum required for such a decision.

My hope is that the Mets are preparing to unseat Toronto and take over Syracuse at the end of the 2008 season. Both parent teams have new 2-year PDAs in place. The Mets in Syracuse makes as much if not more sense than Scranton would have. The ballpark in Syracuse is fifteen minutes from the airport. The AA team is an hour-fifteen minute ride down the interstate. The area has no other prevailing National League allegiance; the fan base already exists, and putting the AAA team so close to the AA team would boost attendance at both parks as well as increase fan interest in the Mets at all levels.

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