Jim Crikket

That would be a HUGE 'get' for the Astros if they can pull it off.

Yep. Smith, Rantz and Steil are expected. They'll tour the facilities this afternoon and meet with the Board tonight. If everyone on both sides like what they see and hear, this could move pretty quickly.

I dunno... after all, the Rays have six affiliated Class A minor league teams that, I believe, would fall within their territory (Tampa-NY, Clearwater-PH, Dunedin-TOR, Bradenton-PIT, Lakeland-DET, and their own Charlotte-TB). And, of course, that doesn't even count the short season Gulf Coast League teams in the area. Despite all of those other professional baseball options that the people of greater Tampa/St. Pete and the surrounding area, the Rays don't seem to have any problems with attendance at their games, do they? Oh... wait... Seriously, though, even though the Florida State League as a whole draws lousy attendance, those six teams pulled about 600,000 fans this year. While the Rays have more serious problems than just a little competition from minor league teams in the area, their existance as a cheaper option for casual fans to watch professional baseball most likely isn't helping the Rays, either.

I was thinking about this last night. I haven't seen anything either. Still don't see other reasonable options, though. Maybe they're just waiting to announce both Class A affiliations at the same time when they come to an agreement on their MWL affiliate? There are no independent leagues in Florida, are there? Given that many of the same ownership group of the Miracle also are involved with the Saints, you might wonder if they're tired of getting mediocre (or worse) talent assigned by the Twins and might think about going indy where they could sign their own players. I just don't recall ever hearing about significant independent leagues in that area.

Those same "MWL rules" apply to all affiliated minor leagues. They can't put a AAA affiliate in the Dakotas unless there's a current AAA franchise available for sale or relocation either. Not many communities with those franchises are going to give them up.

*groan* But yes, I think it would!

Just was told the CR Board will be hosting meetings with potential teams early next week with team officials getting tours of the facilities and making presentations. These will occur over lunch hours or after work (the Board members are working stiffs, yanno). I won't lie... I'm tempted to spend my lunch hours and post-work hours staking out the Kernels parking lot. Yes, I'm a sick, sick man. I'm told a vote by the CR Board will take place possibly as early as Thursday. Should be done by Friday at the latest. There's obviously no time to screw around on this deal.

I just confirmed that there's been absolutely no discussion internally about a possible name change, so the Kernels shall remain such.

All of that and it doesn't even include Eddie Rosario at A ball, who spent most of the season learning to play 2B, but clearly would have potential as a CF if need be.

I hadn't thought of that, Nick. Can you imagine this conversation if Veeck's Saints were in the MWL championship series this week? Veeck: "Hi... Dave? Hey, we've got a problem over here. We've got too many people who want to see these championship games and we can't fit them all in our ballpark. I noticed you don't seem to be having that issue with the Royals in town this week and I was wondering if you'd consider a swap, letting us use Target Field this week while your guys and the Royals play over here in St. Paul." St. Peter: "Crap."

Thanks, MWLFan. I guess I should include a disclaimer, in the interest of full disclosure, reminding anyone who doesn't already know that I'm in Cedar Rapids and have an obvious self-interest in seeing the Twins affiliate here next week and stick around for as long as I'm here. I admit that gives me a certain bias on this issue because I have an interest in identifying reasons why St. Paul WOULDN'T work, as opposed to reasons why it might. You're right about the lack of financial incentives for existing owners to approve any move that increases costs without increasing revenues. Whether there's a team in Beloit or St. Paul won't make a nickel's difference in terms of CR's (or any other team's) revenues. The sole benefit is that the Kernels players would have a nicer facility to play in when they travel to St. Paul than they do in Beloit. But even that is of no tangible benefit to the minor league owners, since the players are 100% the responsibility of the MLB affiliate. I didn't like the Kernels name either, when it was decided upon 20 years ago through some kind of community contest, as I recall. I still don't much care for it and I know a lot of others here aren't wild about it either. I like their most recent logo even less. I at least thought their original logo was pretty classy (or as classy as you can make a baseball in a corn shuck). A few years ago, they went with a cartoon-ish character, just as almost all minor league teams have lately. It's a trend I don't much care for, but I'm sure there's some marketing theory behind it appealing to kids, etc. That said, I doubt there will be a change any time soon. I haven't asked my friends with the club but I'll do that when I talk to them next (I'm sure we'll be speaking next week, one way or another). On the positive side, if they DID decide to come up with a new name, it would have the potential to significantly increase sales of shirts/caps/etc. since fans would need to get all new "stuff."

Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press posted a column (click here) with a number of quotes from Twins president Dave St. Peter concerning the possibility of the Twins locating a minor league affiliate in St. Paul, now that the city has funding assured to move forward with building their new stadium. The stadium is being built to Class A standards (which basically deal with things like clubhouse and training facilities and a certain minimum seating capacity). St. Peter's quotes and summary: 1) "I would certainly never say never to that... But I certainly don't anticipate that being reality over the short term... Certainly in the next two to four years, I think it would be very unlikely that that would happen." This makes sense because the stadium won't be ready until 2015 and the Twins will be entering in to a new player development contract (PDC) with another Midwest League team next week which will have either a 2 year term or a 4 year term. Assuming the Twins don't end up renewing with Beloit, it's most likely going to be a 4 year term. It would be unusual for a first agreement with a new city to be just two years... those affiliates are not going to want to have to go through the process of finding a new partner again just 2 years down the road. 2) "The reality is that a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered." He goes on to state that the biggest factor would be the territorial rights that the Twins own. No affiliated minor league team can set up shop within a certain distance of the Twins' territorial rights without the Twins' permission and St. Paul is definitely inside the restricted territory. I'm really not so sure that's the biggest factor, however. The Twins could give approval conditioned on the minor league team remaining affiliated with the Twins. This is the deal Dayton has with the Reds, from what I've read. That's why, even though Dayton's PDC with the Reds has not yet renewed this year, there's no chance Dayton could sign with another MLB team even if they wanted to. It seems to me that the bigger issue for a possible St. Paul affiliate is that neither the Twins, nor the Saints, nor anyone else can just say, "we're going to do this," and make it happen. Existing affiliated minor league teams are assured affiliations under MLB rules and nobody can just tell the Midwest League they're going to put a team in St. Paul. There are really just a couple scenarios that could result in a Twins MWL affiliate in St. Paul (forget about a AA or AAA team... There isn't a AA league anywhere near the midwest and even the new stadium doesn't meet AAA minimum standards, which require a 10,000 capacity stadium, at a minimum): For a NEW team to be awarded to St. Paul, the MWL would have to petition baseball to be allowed to expand and it would have to be by two teams to remain an even number. Since every MLB team already has a full season Class A team, expansion won't happen. Someone could buy an existing MWL franchise or at least convince owners of a current MWL franchise to relocate to St. Paul. They would have to give 18 months notice of intent to relocate. But the real problem is finding a franchise willing to relocate. The MWL has a lot of newer stadiums and teams are generally doing OK financially where they are. There are a few older ballparks that could certainly stand to be replaced, but those teams are pretty much all community owned, I believe. The teams in Beloit, Clinton and Burlington, for example, aren't going to relocate or sell out because, even if attendance isn't huge, they're at least breaking even financially. Peoria, if they did decide to sell or be relocated, would almost certainly move to another central Illinois community. (There are a number of Frontier League team owners that would probably welcome the opportunity to become affiliated minor league team owners.) There really don't seem to be franchise options available for a possible move north. Finally, even if these obstacles were overcome, the MWL itself would have to approve a St. Paul location. Could that happen? Yes, but it's far from certain. The league rejected an ownership group that wanted to place a team in Marion IL (southern tip of IL) back in 2005-06 somewhere because Marion was far enough outside the league's current footprint that the increased travel costs for other MWL teams would be significant (and those costs are paid by the minor league team, not the MLB affiliate). The league has subsequently admitted Bowling Green KY, but it wasn't a slam dunk. BG was essentially a "transfer" from the South Atlantic League so an affiliated minor league team already was located there. Even then, it was resisted by some members of the league. Scheduling also becomes a problem because players must be given off-days any time they have to travel by bus more than 500 miles and about half the MWL locations would exceed that distance from St. Paul. In the end, if I were the Twins, I'd certainly like the idea of putting an affiliate in St. Paul so I'd be saying the same things St. Peter is. But when he says, "...a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered," he ain't lyin' because it's not a decision the Twins can unilaterally make and almost all of the parties that would have to give approval have strong incentives not to. - JC

Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press posted a column (click here) with a number of quotes from Twins president Dave St. Peter concerning the possibility of the Twins locating a minor league affiliate in St. Paul, now that the city has funding assured to move forward with building their new stadium. The stadium is being built to Class A standards (which basically deal with things like clubhouse and training facilities and a certain minimum seating capacity). St. Peter's quotes and summary: 1) "I would certainly never say never to that... But I certainly don't anticipate that being reality over the short term... Certainly in the next two to four years, I think it would be very unlikely that that would happen." This makes sense because the stadium won't be ready until 2015 and the Twins will be entering in to a new player development contract (PDC) with another Midwest League team next week which will have either a 2 year term or a 4 year term. Assuming the Twins don't end up renewing with Beloit, it's most likely going to be a 4 year term. It would be unusual for a first agreement with a new city to be just two years... those affiliates are not going to want to have to go through the process of finding a new partner again just 2 years down the road. 2) "The reality is that a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered." He goes on to state that the biggest factor would be the territorial rights that the Twins own. No affiliated minor league team can set up shop within a certain distance of the Twins' territorial rights without the Twins' permission and St. Paul is definitely inside the restricted territory. I'm really not so sure that's the biggest factor, however. The Twins could give approval conditioned on the minor league team remaining affiliated with the Twins. This is the deal Dayton has with the Reds, from what I've read. That's why, even though Dayton's PDC with the Reds has not yet renewed this year, there's no chance Dayton could sign with another MLB team even if they wanted to. It seems to me that the bigger issue for a possible St. Paul affiliate is that neither the Twins, nor the Saints, nor anyone else can just say, "we're going to do this," and make it happen. Existing affiliated minor league teams are assured affiliations under MLB rules and nobody can just tell the Midwest League they're going to put a team in St. Paul. There are really just a couple scenarios that could result in a Twins MWL affiliate in St. Paul (forget about a AA or AAA team... There isn't a AA league anywhere near the midwest and even the new stadium doesn't meet AAA minimum standards, which require a 10,000 capacity stadium, at a minimum): For a NEW team to be awarded to St. Paul, the MWL would have to petition baseball to be allowed to expand and it would have to be by two teams to remain an even number. Since every MLB team already has a full season Class A team, expansion won't happen. Someone could buy an existing MWL franchise or at least convince owners of a current MWL franchise to relocate to St. Paul. They would have to give 18 months notice of intent to relocate. But the real problem is finding a franchise willing to relocate. The MWL has a lot of newer stadiums and teams are generally doing OK financially where they are. There are a few older ballparks that could certainly stand to be replaced, but those teams are pretty much all community owned, I believe. The teams in Beloit, Clinton and Burlington, for example, aren't going to relocate or sell out because, even if attendance isn't huge, they're at least breaking even financially. Peoria, if they did decide to sell or be relocated, would almost certainly move to another central Illinois community. (There are a number of Frontier League team owners that would probably welcome the opportunity to become affiliated minor league team owners.) There really don't seem to be franchise options available for a possible move north. Finally, even if these obstacles were overcome, the MWL itself would have to approve a St. Paul location. Could that happen? Yes, but it's far from certain. The league rejected an ownership group that wanted to place a team in Marion IL (southern tip of IL) back in 2005-06 somewhere because Marion was far enough outside the league's current footprint that the increased travel costs for other MWL teams would be significant (and those costs are paid by the minor league team, not the MLB affiliate). The league has subsequently admitted Bowling Green KY, but it wasn't a slam dunk. BG was essentially a "transfer" from the South Atlantic League so an affiliated minor league team already was located there. Even then, it was resisted by some members of the league. Scheduling also becomes a problem because players must be given off-days any time they have to travel by bus more than 500 miles and about half the MWL locations would exceed that distance from St. Paul. In the end, if I were the Twins, I'd certainly like the idea of putting an affiliate in St. Paul so I'd be saying the same things St. Peter is. But when he says, "...a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered," he ain't lyin' because it's not a decision the Twins can unilaterally make and almost all of the parties that would have to give approval have strong incentives not to. - JC

Yikes. I didn't realize it had gotten that long. I should have posted it as a blog entry. Maybe I still will. Thanks, JB. Yeah, the Twins could put an affiliate in the Dakotas, but they'd have a little trouble finding other teams to play.

Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press posted a column (click here) with a number of quotes from Twins president Dave St. Peter concerning the possibility of the Twins locating a minor league affiliate in St. Paul, now that the city has funding assured to move forward with building their new stadium. The stadium is being built to Class A standards (which basically deal with things like clubhouse and training facilities and a certain minimum seating capacity). St. Peter's quotes and summary: 1) "I would certainly never say never to that... But I certainly don't anticipate that being reality over the short term... Certainly in the next two to four years, I think it would be very unlikely that that would happen." This makes sense because the stadium won't be ready until 2015 and the Twins will be entering in to a new player development contract (PDC) with another Midwest League team next week which will have either a 2 year term or a 4 year term. Assuming the Twins don't end up renewing with Beloit, it's most likely going to be a 4 year term. It would be unusual for a first agreement with a new city to be just two years... those affiliates are not going to want to have to go through the process of finding a new partner again just 2 years down the road. 2) "The reality is that a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered." He goes on to state that the biggest factor would be the territorial rights that the Twins own. No affiliated minor league team can set up shop within a certain distance of the Twins' territorial rights without the Twins' permission and St. Paul is definitely inside the restricted territory. I'm really not so sure that's the biggest factor, however. The Twins could give approval conditioned on the minor league team remaining affiliated with the Twins. This is the deal Dayton has with the Reds, from what I've read. That's why, even though Dayton's PDC with the Reds has not yet renewed this year, there's no chance Dayton could sign with another MLB team even if they wanted to. Seems to me that the bigger issue for a possible St. Paul affiliate is that neither the Twins, nor the Saints, nor anyone else can just say, "we're going to do this," and make it happen. Existing affiliated minor league teams are assured affiliations under MLB rules and nobody can just tell the Midwest League they're going to put a team in St. Paul. There are really just a couple scenarios that could result in a Twins MWL affiliate in St. Paul (forget about a AA or AAA team... There isn't a AA league anywhere near the midwest and even the new stadium doesn't meet AAA minimum standards, which require a 10,000 capacity stadium, at a minimum): For a NEW team to be awarded to St. Paul, the MWL would have to petition baseball to be allowed to expand and it would have to be by two teams to remain an even number. Since every MLB team already has a full season Class A team, expansion won't happen. Someone could buy an existing MWL franchise or at least convince owners of a current MWL franchise to relocate to St. Paul. They would have to give 18 months notice of intent to relocate. But the real problem is finding a franchise willing to relocate. The MWL has a lot of newer stadiums and teams are generally doing OK financially where they are. There are a few older ballparks that could certainly stand to be replaced, but those teams are pretty much all community owned, I believe. The teams in Beloit, Clinton and Burlington, for example, aren't going to relocate or sell out because, even if attendance isn't huge, they're at least breaking even financially. Peoria, if they did decide to sell or relocated, would almost certainly move to another central Illinois community. (There are a number of Frontier League team owners that would probably welcome the opportunity to become affiliated minor league team owners.) There really don't seem to be franchise options available for a possible move north. Finally, even if these obstacles were overcome, the MWL itself would have to approve a St. Paul location. Could that happen, yes. But it's far from certain. The league rejected an ownership group that wanted to place a team in Marion IL (southern tip of IL) back in 2005-06 somewhere because Marion was far enough outside the league's current footprint that the increased travel costs for other MWL teams would be significant (and those costs are paid by the minor league team, not the MLB affiliate). The league has subsequently admitted Bowling Green KY, but it wasn't a slam dunk. BG was essentially a "transfer" from the South Atlantic League so an affiliated minor league team already was located there. Even then, it was resisted by some members of the league. Scheduling also becomes a problem because players must be given off-days any time they have to travel by bus more than 500 miles and about half the MWL locations would exceed that distance from St. Paul. In the end, if I were the Twins, I'd certainly like the idea of putting an affiliate in St. Paul so I'd be saying the same things St. Peter is. But when he says, "...a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered," he ain't lyin' because it's not a decision the Twins can unilaterally make and almost all of the parties that would have to give approval have strong incentives not to.

Yeah, I guess if I had thought it through, that would make sense.

So Arcia is good enough to make the cut as a 2nd teamer on BA's minor league AS team that combines all classifications, but can't make the cut for his classification AS team, as determined by the same rating organization? Seems peculiar.

I've heard the Twins have had internal discussions about possibly returning to Ft. Wayne, but the sense has been that it's a consideration in the event discussions with Cedar Rapids don't go well. Yes, the Twins were affiliated with Ft. Wayne at one time, but it was entirely due to circumstances. They were affiliated with Kenosha when that franchise was moved to Ft. Wayne. Outside of that circumstance, the Twins have always been affiliated with a team in what's now the Western Division of the MWL: Wisconsin Rapids, Kenosha, Davenport and Beloit. I'm still not as convinced CR/Twins is as much of a "done deal" as pretty much everyone else I talk to around here thinks it is, but I do believe it's highly likely. If, for whatever reason, they don't end up in CR, I do agree that Ft. Wayne is quite possibly the next most likely landing spot. I don't see them returning to Davenport after getting kicked out of there before and Burlington arguably wouldn't be much of a step up from Beloit in terms of facilities (and familiarity with the Beloit organization would more than make up for any slight upgrade). Ft. Wayne would clearly offer the best available facilities.

I apologize! No you don't. You aren't sorry at all! Then again, neither am I. In fact, if the Twins don't get better pretty damn soon, I'll probably be more interested in their minor leaguers than I will the Big Leaguers for quite a while.

Clinton extends with the Mariners. This one doesn't surprise me at all. Not much assurance that either organization would do better. http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120913&content_id=38374152&vkey=pr_sea&c_id=sea joeboo, I'm not really sure why there are so many moves happening this year other than there were just a ton of PDCs in the MWL expiring in the same year. Honestly, since Cedar Rapids has just pretty much automatically renewed with the Angels for the past 20 years, I haven't paid much attention before. I haven't even paid very much attention to where the Twins are affiliating until the past 2-3 years. I blame Seth Stohs for increasing my interest levels in that regard. It does look like 2014 could be just about as interesting. Already there are 14 PDCs in low A that are set to expire in 2014 (8 in SAL and 6 in MWL). You can probably assume that a number of the remaining 10 PDCs still to be resolved in this Class will be for just a two years, so that 14 is likely to grow.

I think it's all supposition, at this point. It's logical, just as Twins to CR is logical. But the Cardinals' GM was their farm director in 2004 when Peoria ditched the Cards in favor of the Cubs. Geography certainly is one factor MLB teams consider, but it's not the only factor. I'm not quite as certain that St. Louis would be the favorite pick from among MWL open cities. I've heard their front office is notorious for lack of communication with their minor league affiliate offices and the way they left the Quad Cities office twisting in the wind until the last minute would seem to be a pretty good example of that. Is that a huge deal to a minor league organization? I dunno... but I do know that the new Angels administration made little effort this summer to keep communication lines open and that factored in to CR's decision to look at other options after a 20 year relationship with the Halos.

I'll just relate what I observed in the 3-4 series I watched this season (and one of those series was while he was on the DL). I saw him play in April and he looked pretty lost at 2B, struggling at times to make a play on the balls hit directly at him. By August, I won't say he looked "good" but he was clearly more comfortable at the position and I saw him make some decent plays in the field. If he can make comparable improvement next year, I'd say he's got a good shot at sticking as a 2B. He's obviously very athletic, so I see no reason he shouldn't be able to continue improving. On the other hand, he's a pretty good CF, so who knows exactly what the Twins will need from him by the time he reaches the Big Leagues? In the games I saw him play, I did not see him play any position but 2B, CF and DH.

If the Nationals were considering leaving Hagerstown due to the field and attendance, they may rethink things. Looks like an anonymous citizen has agreed with the city to cover half of the $30 million cost of a new stadium, that would open in 2015. http://sunsfanclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/city-council-announces-private.html

It's going to be really interesting to see how those three guys progress next season. They certainly have the hitting side of the game in hand, but which of them will make a big jump with other aspects? Would certainly love to see one or two of them cover two levels next season.

Thanks for the link, Seth. Too bad about the Snappers losing their head groundskeeper. I thought he had the field looking pretty decent when I was up there. The GM comments about July being a tough month for attendance rings familiar. CR had a down season attendance-wise, as well, and it's pretty easy to point at the ridiculously hot July-August stretch that hurt the most. Nobody was going to the ballpark when it was 100 degrees out there. Not sure when the interview was conducted, but as we've figured out, there have been a number of Class A renewals since people talked about 16 total Class A contracts being up. Looks like we're now down to 11. 9 in MWL and 2 in SAL.