Author Topic: Can't the Nats get a AAA team closer to home? (YES! Rochester)  (Read 12702 times)

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Offline LincolnDD

  • Posts: 72
You'd also need ten (or at least eight) AA cities from elsewhere to lose AA.   I see that as potentially being just as big a hangup as finding places for 8 AA teams near the West Coast, although doing so would probably cannibalize the A-ball leagues to a large extent (e.g., San Jose, Portland/Hillsboro).  It'd require reshuffling among AAA/AA/A+ and potentially even the Northwest League, which would cause its own issues.

Yeah, for sure.  It would be a huge mess and would affect pretty much every level of the minors.  I just don't see how it would work.  And honestly, outside of AAA, I don't think teams really care about proximity of their affiliates to the major league team (the Padres tried to move their AA further EAST during the last shuffle), so I really don't see much of a point in forcing AA out west.  I think teams care more about quality of life:  facilities, travel time, etc.

I think the more realistic solution is AAA realignment, i.e. bringing back the American Association:

PCL:
Albuquerque
El Paso
Fresno
Las Vegas
Reno
Sacramento
Salt Lake City
Tacoma

AA:
Iowa
Memphis
Nashville
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Round Rock
San Antonio
Wichita (New Orleans)
(maybe pull Indianapolis and Louisville out of the International League and add them here)

You lessen the PCL footprint and I think Fresno's biggest issue (tough travel/airport) is minimized, which probably ups its appeal, especially to West Coast teams.  And a midwest league like the AA may even pull teams like the Twins and the White Sox out of the IL.