It’s Wilmington
The months of wondering are over. The Wilmington Blue Rocks will become the newest Nats franchisee, joining the ‘Burgs (Harris and Frederick) and newcomer Rochester for the new world order:
AAA – Rochester (new for 2021, formerly Fresno)
AA – Harrisburg (same since 2005)
High-A – Wilmington (new for 2021)
Low-A – Fredericksburg (High-A affiliate 2005-2019)
While there’s consternation over Frederick being bypassed over, I’d have to agree that the factors of location (off I-95), facility quality (Frawley Stadium, pictured above, is three years newer and has been renovated), and a larger market (New Castle County, pop. ~559K vs. Frederick County, pop. ~256K) were more important. I wouldn’t overlook soft factors like not wanting to deal with the Orioles fanbase or that one could take a train from DC to Wilmington.
Meanwhile…
Late last night, Fresno decided it couldn’t refuse MLB’s offer, ending a two-week “war.” This settles the California League (now Low-A) and the PDLs for the Rockies.
In the end, nearly half of the 30 organizations—ATL, BAL, BOS, CWS, CHC, CIN, CLE, DET, LAD, MIL, NYM, SEA, STL, TOR—kept their existing affiliates, albeit with some flip-flops between Low-A and High-A. This confirms the suspicion that none of this was about travel considerations; It was about money and power.
To that end, there is some drama left over how the leagues will be realigned. Baseball America is reporting that Bowling Green will join the Mid-Atlantic League, and surmising that the league will consist of 12 teams. Not explicitly stated: the Carolina League is gone.
As previously reported, things here could change. It’s possible, for example, that the Mid-Atlantic League will not have divisions, just an unbalanced schedule. It’s possible (but highly unlikely) that one of the invitees will turn down MLB.
As for us, we can return to having four full-season teams to root for and follow in the same time zone. When someone gets the bump, he can drive or be driven on the same day – even if it’s from AAA to The Show.
I’ll admit I’ve never been to Frederick’s stadium but they led the Carolina League in attendance the last 3 years.
Auburn decided not to join a draft league because MLB charged $80,000 instead of the usual $40,000 for the NY Penn League.
Power and greed indeed.
I wouldn’t disagree with Wilmington over Frederick, but Frederick not being selected at all is a joke.
The perennial leader in attendance in their league (in either total or average) is optioned to wood bat/college prospect ball, while Delmarva stays (thought this was about geography), Down East ( Ancient Stadium), Asheville (See Down East), Aberdeen (Newer park than Frederick and can we really live with Cal Ripken getting mad?) Lynchburg, and others….
These towns may have particular advantages over Frederick, but excluding Frederick with their track record of support altogether?
I call BS.
Some of this also may be the state of Maryland, which traditionally ignores Western MD, while building even Atlantic League parks for other parts of the state, not wanting to help Frederick renovate ASAP.
There are other reasons involved, but part of me thinks this is a small payback for the city of Frederick a few years back openly flirting with the Atlantic League when the Harry Grove stadium lease expired.
Sorry to vent, Luke. but in one swoop, I moved from two teams within 25 mins to now having the nearest teams being Harrisburg, Altoona, and Bowie.
Baseball makes it hard to be a fan sometimes.
You’re absolutely within your rights to vent. MLB just f_cked over 18 teams and demoted two dozen more. Yeah, they’ll spin that they kept baseball in as many places as possible, but I can’t help but notice that they still have the power to make life miserable for any of these teams that want to make a go of joining the “partner” leagues. And I have to think that the new collegiate wood-bat leagues are going to dilute the talent pool at that level, too.
Walk away Joe Walsh
The Rule V draft is now over. There were 18 players taken in the major league portion and 51 players taken in the minor league draft and there ZERO Nats players taken.
This might be it for news for awhile.