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Still Quiet on the Minor-League Front

A year ago I wrote about my wish list for 2021, which in many ways came true: We got a full season of MLB and a nearly full season of MiLB, albeit in ways that were very different:

  • Six-game homestands against a single opponent
  • Every Monday off
  • Heavily weighted schedules with up three dozen games against the same team

But looking over that post, some things have not changed. Hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients—most of whom are unvaccinated—and the outlook for January 2022 is bleak despite multiple vaccines that are free and widely available. Schools are closing and/or going virtual. Mask mandates are being debated (as if belief, um, trumps science). Lines for coronavirus testing look like those for the polls in minority neighborhoods.

So I think you can understand why it would be specious to do another “wish list” post. I am still wishing for a return to normality and to be able to talk about baseball and prospects. But the pandemic and the unrest – the MLB lockout is functionally equivalent to MLB-MiLB coup d’état – are still making things difficult. The site’s not gone dark, there’s just nothing going on.

As always, when I put up a post like this, I sincerely hope it’ll shake something loose. Perhaps a post from BA, MiLB, or Fangraphs that’s better than what MLB has been passing through its bowels. (What’s next? The top 10 pitchers who are under 6′ tall?)

As always, feel free to post in the comments to keep the pageviews coming conversation going.

12 Commments

  1. I hate to be pessimistic, but I think, with the spread of the omicron variant (and possibly others), 2022’s baseball season might look more like 2020 than 2021.

  2. Fred makes a good point, but I tend to disagree.

    There doesn’t seem to be any stomach for another shutdown in the country. The restaurants are full; I’m still too nervous to eat inside but most people are not.

    I won’t be surprised if there are no restrictions on attendance moving next year. The consensus seems now to let the stupid people get sick and die and the rest of us try and lead a halfway normal life, with boosters every 6 months a permanent part of the scene.

    I cant wait to get to Fredericksburg in the spring and watch the young studs show their stuff. The stadium at Hagerstown was so bad that I never got excited about Low A before.

      1. Luie, you’re right of course. My heart bleeds for those with ‘regular’ illnesses who can’t find proper care because of the unvaxxed clogging up the works.

        The good news for us in the DMV is we live in a highly vaccinated area, which allows us to maintain a sense of normal.

    2. Lurker comment: I miss Hagerstown and strongly dislike Fredericksburg. The former was 95% baseball and 5% other; the latter is the exact reverse, for twice the cost. Fburg is beautiful and techy, but it’s like Disneyworld, not a ball park. I prefer driving to Lynchburg, or indie ball in Pulaski/Danville/Bluefield/Frederick . . . Simple games and simple foods, layed back atmosphere, no traffic, no stress.

      1. I’ve been insulated from that experience up in the press box, mostly because I can mute/ignore the carnival barking between innings that’s become de rigeur, but what you’ve identified — the baseball-first nature of the smaller/older leagues — is what I love the most about the minors and it’s disappearing.

      2. So agree
        I recall when I visited the Dayton Dragon stadium
        They blared the music like they do at Chavez Ravine like Saturday swap meet in the brrioro .
        Keep it simple
        Less is more

    3. I agree. The numbers are alarming, but I don’t know that there’s any level of badness we can reach at this point that would see more than maybe seven or eight states (plus D.C.) “lock down”, and I think even most of them would struggle to enforce it, and I can’t see them sustaining it for more than two or three weeks before folding.

      Everyone is so tired of this. Those of us who have been smart, gotten vaxxed+boosted, worn masks, etc., are tired of this still being a thing because 1) idiots won’t get their shots and 2) Big Pharma is collectively a sack of turds. Those who refuse to exercise any basic modicum of decency or consideration for other people have been tired of being told to do literally anything to stop corona since mid-March 2020. So what’s the point of locking down?

  4. I didn’t make it to the new Fredericksburg stadium in 2021 and am sorry to hear that it is such an unnecessary circus. Of course the FredNats had very little on the field last season that was entertaining, but it will be a 180 in 2022 as that team should be stacked, as Mark mentioned. House, Lile, White, Frizzell, Infante, and Quintana and/or De La Rosa should be there among the position players. The rotation should include Lara, Denaburg, Saenz, and maybe Aldo Ramirez, unless they kick him on up to Wilmington.

    And yes, between the lockout and COVID, who knows what we will actually see when. Right now it seems possible that the minor-league games could start before the MLB ones do, perhaps well before.

  5. The draft next summer
    There is always the kid out of JMU where Lowry is an alum .
    A poor mans Paul O’Neil would not be bad

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