Cubs' Midwest League Affiliate Getting Upgrades. How Do The Kernels Facilities Compare?

[Parker Hageman]

The Chicago Cubs’ Midwest League (Class A) affiliate Kane County Cougars out of Geneva, IL, have plans to make additions to Fifth Third Ballpark (which, by the way, there are three stadiums in the Midwest League that are named First Third Ballpark). According to a Daily Herald article, the Cougars will be appeasing their MLB overlords by adding a few items:

 

District commissioners approved plans for several enhancements at the park tailored to the Cubs' specifications. Chief among those is a new, climate-controlled batting cage with two hitting tunnels, a second fitness center and a modernized video review room.

 

 

Whoa? A second fitness center? Do you even bench, bro? A modernized video review room? Like where the chairs and tables are made out of iPads and you can watch your last at bat in hologram form? I bet they will have a curved TV. Damn I want a curved TV.

 

These improvements got me wondering about what the Twins’ Midwest League equivalent Cedar Rapids Kernels were working with. Fortunately, SD Buhr, who covers the Kernels for Twins Daily and Knuckleballs, nabbed some photographs that show similar facilities for the Twins’ prospects:

 

http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/HomeWeightRoom3.jpg

 

http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IndoorCage.jpg

 

http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/FamilyRoom.jpg

 

The Twins’ facilities seem on par with what the Cubs’ affiliate is proposing but infinitely superior to the ones that Beloit’s Pohlman Field, which had just spent $100,000 this just to bring the outfield level up to that of the infield.  

[Steven Buhr]

Yeah I had read that article, too. Interestingly, at this moment, the Cubs have apparently not renewed their affiliation with Kane County. Rumors are that they want to talk to Ft Wayne and/or South Bend about a possible switch (those discussions can finally officially begin today), leaving Kane County to wait to see if the Cubs find a partner they prefer elsewhere.

 

I heard the new cages/workout room would be down the outfield line, rather than adjacent to the home clubhouse, but I don't know that for a fact. Their new HD scoreboard sounds comparable to what CR now has.

 

The indoor cage in CR has just one hitting tunnel (as shown in the pic). There is technically a second batting cage, but it's outdoors, under the seating bowl and, from the looks of it, hasn't been used in a very long time. CR's cage is right next to the home clubhouse under the stadium, however.

 

I'm trying to recall... the picture of the workout room I THINK still had the equipment in it that was there at the end of the Angels' regime. My understanding is that the Twins had specific training equipment they wanted installed, so that room now looks somewhat different.

 

I don't know what kind of video room KC is installing. I can't imagine the Twins are too short on facilities in CR. Within the home clubhouse, there's 1) a manager's office, 2) a separate coaches' room, 3) yet another dressing room for visiting instructors and 4) a separate room where families can wait for the players/coaches after a game. In addition, there is a smaller "auxillary clubhouse" (which I've seen used for players' Sunday chapel and for media interviews of MLBers on rehab assignment) located between the home clubhouse and the umpires' room.

 

Then, of course, Perfect Game's building, with cages and other workout facilities, is directly across the street from the players' entrance to the CR stadium.

 

Even with all of that, sometimes you have to improvise. For example, last year, during a period of extended rain that kept the team from being able to take ground balls on the infield, my recollection is that they got access to the football stadium on the opposite side of the parking lot, where they took ground balls on the "Field Turf" installed there.

 

No direct source to quote on this, but my understanding is that the Twins did not make any facility upgrade demands as part of the extension agreement they signed with the Kernels this summer.

 

Ft Wayne is, I believe, largely considered to have the best facilities in the MWL. Many of the Eastern Division parks are newer than CR's 12 yr old stadium. But I think CR would measure up pretty well to any other MWL Western Division park as far as facilities for the players and coaches. Even so, they do work with the City and Veterans Commission (their landlords) to make appropriate capital improvements regularly. For example, last offseason, they replaced all of the grass in the outfield/infield with turf from the same turf farm that provides sod for Target Field.

[nicksaviking]

Hmmm.  I only see one TV and the soda cooler is empty.  Very troubling.