Quote from fenn68 on December 9, 2020, 12:37 pm

All part of the big shuffle in the MiL ... LE is now low A and FW is high A (but not clear on the rest of that High A league as franchises get juggled).

Never sure until the music stops but apparently San Antonio did not make the cut to quality for a AAA franchise this time around losing out to some other city. Also a chance Amarillo did not make the cut for AA and moves to High A or depending on which organizations had first choice on affiliations ... maybe when San Antonio became a AA option the Padres want to move back and Amarillo is still AA with a different organization. Hate to lose affiliation with a team named the Sod Poodles ... loved the name.

The affiliations are coming out slowly and the league structures are still to be revealed in detail. Hopefully they know before the season starts!

Lawsuits abound ... cities / franchises are at will if they lost a ML team affiliation or if their affiliation was downgraded from AAA to a lower class.

Quote from fenn68 on December 9, 2020, 1:02 pm

@sodpoodles are now with Diamondbacks and

@TC_DustDevils are paired with Angels in high A.

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wonder what high A league houses TC? doesn't seem close to enough cities (and consider the weather).

Quote from fenn68 on December 9, 2020, 1:10 pm

Quote from fenn68 on December 9, 2020, 1:02 pm

@sodpoodles are now with Diamondbacks and

@TC_DustDevils are paired with Angels in high A.

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wonder what high A league houses TC? doesn't seem close to enough cities (and consider the weather).

Looks like a high A is being structured for the NW states. I guess not worse than the upper mid-west in April.

Also, Amarillo remains AA.

Quote from fenn68 on December 9, 2020, 2:23 pm

Does anyone know if San Antonio modified its ballpark last year in its move from AA to AAA.

It was a pitcher’s park ... will it be again?

Would seem like a good spot to deposit the pitching prospects in 2021: Gore, Patino, Weathers, Morejon, and Baez all could be better served there than El Paso ... and pitchers moving for AA to the ML is now common.

Let El Paso have Kennedy, Nix, Avila, Bachar, and any assortment of minor league FA to start the season.

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If I make it up to LE next year ... will be fun to see some of the new kids on the block .... with short season gone ... LE should get a good influx of prospects too good for the Rookie league.

Quote from WindsorUK on December 9, 2020, 3:10 pm

Okay, I may not be from Missouri, but you gotta show me!

Which teams are affiliated at which levels?

Have to make sure I'm rooting for the correct teams.

Quote from fenn68 on December 9, 2020, 5:24 pm

Quote from WindsorUK on December 9, 2020, 3:10 pm

Okay, I may not be from Missouri, but you gotta show me!

Which teams are affiliated at which levels?

Have to make sure I'm rooting for the correct teams.

EL Paso (AAA) - San Antonio (AA) - Fort Wayne (high A) - LE (A). Those are the levels ... but still fuzzy on the “league” since it is unclear that the leagues remain configured the same way ... e.g. the PCL (AAA) and the IL (AAA) may become more than two leagues and teams sorted among them. Fort Wayne may have been moved to High A ... not sure about the entire Midwest League.

MLB.com has a partial summary of the new affiliations (apparently not complete for all teams) and their levels.

MLB has been trying to get the best cities / parks / franchises into the higher levels while at the same time getting affiliations as close as possible to the parent club while maintaining long standing relationships. Doing all that .... not easy.

Padres (and West Coast teams in general) are at a bit of a disadvantage with few cities that can effectively support enough affiliates for the various levels.

Quote from Brian Connelly on December 9, 2020, 5:47 pm

I'm up in Northwest, and Hillsboro (newest affiliate in former short season Northwest League) has been bumped up all the way to High A...   new "Lake Elsinore-ish" stadium; makes sense.   ... but so has Tri-City, our former short season team!  Have never been to a game there, but had heard it was one of the worst facilities & worst attendance in the league.

But thought this might happen; you have to have a league geographically all at the same level:

KEIZER, Oregon -- The long-expected elimination of Class A Short-Season baseball became official today as Major League Baseball and its 30 MLB teams announced a significant realignment of baseball’s Minor League system, contracting from 160 teams to 120 teams across the country.

Part of the realignment included changing the Northwest League from 8 teams to a 6-team full season Class A league. Vancouver, Everett, Tri-City, Spokane, Hillsboro and Eugene will field teams in the revamped Northwest League in 2021. Major League Baseball has publicly stated that it will ensure baseball will be played in all 160 communities, including Boise and Salem-Keizer.

Good news:  I can watch High-A live (someday:)   Bad news:  Don't really care that much b/c no Pads affiliate within 1500 miles!

Don't see how the 40 leftover teams, particularly those "cut out" of an ongoing league; like Boise & S-K here, can "fit" into any viable league?   They are almost 500 miles apart.  There's a really low level Independent League up here too, but ???

Quote from WindsorUK on December 10, 2020, 4:07 am

Thanks Fenn.

I don't understand the Ft. Wayne affiliation? Texas is far enough away from SD but Ft. Wayne? That does not seem geographically compatible.

And wasn't Ft. Wayne low A, and Elsinore High A? Why not just work out a deal in the Tri City, bumping them to low A? Stadium considerations? Or league?

Quote from fenn68 on December 10, 2020, 5:55 am

Padres have a good long-time relationship with Fort Wayne ... excellent ballpark, facilities which is also in part why MLB wanted to elevate them to A+ (Along with other Mid-West League teams) from A.

LE (and the CAL League) get dropped to A from A+ ... although LE is an excellent franchise with a fine ballpark, not sure the rest of the league met the standards plus some leagues just had to be lowered to offset the elevated leagues.

Not sure it would be any easier (or quicker) to get to/from Tri-Cities than Fort Wayne.