Like Apprenticeship Programs or Artistic Pursuits: Minor League Baseball reporting 2017

The Ballad of Mike Hessman

Name changes
Binghamton Mets become Binghamton Rumble Ponies
Jacksonville Suns become Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp
New Orleans Zephyrs become New Orleans Baby Cakes

this is a nice trio of name changes

i'm afraid you are mistaken

perfect game on 88 pitches for double-a pensacola's tyler mahle

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_04_22_penaax_mobaax_1&t=g_box&sid=milb

first nine-inning perfect game in south atlantic league history on 85 pitches for augusta's domenic mazza. nine strikeouts, game score 103

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_04_25_augafx_lexafx_1&t=g_box&sid=milb

these are not common, even in the minors -- mahle's was the first in the southern league since 1970. idk what's going on

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-1ucVUWsAE_tnJ.jpg

toledo mud hens' sgt peppers 50th anniversary uniforms

good thing VU & Nico anniversary was preseason

utah, man

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/06/05/minor-league-baseball-ogden-raptors-sexist-hourglass-promotion

weak

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBqHN8xXoAA2BjF.jpg

changes announced for 2019:

triple-a colorado springs (currently MIL) will move to san antonio
double-a san antonio (currently SD) will move to amarillo
short-season helena (currently MIL) will move to colorado springs

i suspect that the new san antonio team will eventually be TEX affiliated, round rock will switch from TEX to HOU, and the brewers will get stuck with something crappy like las vegas or fresno for triple-a

i liked the Colorado Springs park/ambience

throwback jurisprudence

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2017/06/26/u-s-court-of-appeals-affirms-ruling-that-the-minor-leagues-are-except-from-federal-antitrust-law/

san antonio is one of the most interesting stadium I have been in it's p amazing. it's backed up onto an AFB and there are a lot of sad USAF folx just out trying to enjoy their night. xp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDWbernXUAEYU1z.jpg:small

they should send one to Dusty

apparently the 'ligament' is removable

Effective immediately, the Replay America Tour shows scheduled at Minor League Baseball Stadiums including the show scheduled at Prince George's Stadium on Friday, August 4 have been canceled. Poor ticket sales across the entire Ballpark concert tour, was the determining reason for the cancellation. These shows featuring Billy Ocean, Taylor Dayne, Starship, the Motels and Naked Eyes were anticipated to bring thousands of people out to a ballpark environment for the enjoyment of throwback music favorites from the 1980's but just didn't generate the interest needed to support the costs.

http://i.imgur.com/v0aQt85.png

featuring a league-record 44 combined strikeouts

M's minor leaguers take $683 Uber to game
Four Mariners minor leaguers took a seven-hour Uber trip from Phoenix to Albuquerque, New Mexico, at a cost of $683 to make it to a game.

amusing action in Winnipeg (American Association) last Saturday night

It's the bottom of the 14th inning and the Kansas City T-Bones are completely out of pitchers, having already used their entire bullpen and then their centrefielder to get through a pair of innings. So they bring in starting pitcher Matt Sergey, who is coming off a 105-pitch performance in Fargo 48 hours earlier. As a result, the righty ends up using his left arm to throw — and promptly walks the first two Goldeyes batters he faces.

After a sacrifice bunt moves them over to second and third, Sergey is asked to intentionally walk Goldeyes hitter Mason Katz to set up a bases-loaded, one-out force play situation. But instead of just making a routine wide toss to his catcher, Sergey — we remind you, he's using his wrong arm to throw — sails one to the backstop.

Shawn Pleffner trots home with the game-winning run on a wild pitch intentional walk...

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/baseball/goldeyes/goldeyes-win-12-11-in-14-innings-one-of-craziest-games-ever-434749703.html

ICYMI, in pitching diversity news

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/07/16/242525472/stacy-piagno-became-the-third-woman-to-get-a-win-since-the-1950s

Missoula Osprey to Retire Lyle Overbay's Number on July 28

Dodgers prospect Alex Verdugo hit a 385-foot homer at AAA tonight: 360 feet off the bat, 25 feet off Zach Borenstein's head. Holy Canseco. pic.twitter.com/2KzTtvcTpF

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 26, 2017

I'll be making my first visit to a Pawtucket game in 2 weeks.

dayton dragons outfielder jose siri extended his hitting streak to 36 games last night, breaking the midwest league record of 35.

the previous record-holder, tony toups of the 1977 waterloo indians, was there, which is kind of cool

Behold, the most GCL play ever. pic.twitter.com/DJ8aKcuv1Y

— Josh Norris (@jnorris427) August 10, 2017

aahahahahaha

the new york-penn league has selected 56 players to participate in its all-star game tuesday in troy, ny

exactly zero of them are from the staten island yankees, who have the best record in the league

not that i don't approve, but wtf

Columbus 5, Pawtucket 4

37-yo Eric Kratz catching for the Clippers.

They sing Sweet Caroline in Pah-tucket, but no Green Monster replica. (Greenville has one.)

padres infield prospect gabriel arias was added to the class a fort wayne tincaps roster on saturday

he is the first affiliated full-season-team player born in the year 2000

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHxjzmkXYAAw38U.jpg

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/08/21/249782410/photo-of-the-day-salem-keizer-volcanoes-take-photo-of-2017-solar-eclipse

360° video here, which is p. cool if you make it look up

reportage

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2017/8/22/16184140/salem-keizer-volcanoes-total-solar-eclipse

The Salina Stockade lost again last night. They're now 16-71. Here's how they got their .184 winning percentage.https://t.co/LDSXM01c4t

— Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) August 23, 2017

Don't miss #AlternativeFacts Night at UPMC Park TONIGHT. First 1K get a 2016 SeaWolves championship ring.

Tix: https://t.co/DC1MpviqcJ pic.twitter.com/mq7D9e4Qil

— Erie SeaWolves (@erie_seawolves) August 25, 2017

lansing's nick sinay set a new midwest league record with his 38th hit-by-pitch . . . in just 73 games/265 plate appearances.

he also has drawn 27 walks, giving him the rare .219/.414/.265 line

http://deadspin.com/iowa-cubs-player-is-exceptionally-talented-at-being-a-w-1798628763

The New York Mets have announced that All-Star Pitcher Noah Syndergaard will continue his Major League Rehabiliation Assignment with the Brooklyn Cyclones on Thursday, September 7th when they take on the Staten Island Yankees in the 2017 season finale for the Cyclones. Game time is 6:00 PM with gates opening at 4:30 PM. The first 2,000 fans in attendance will receive a Cyclones Wall Calendar and there will be post-game fireworks.

The Cyclones are offering a special $15 ticket with all proceeds to benefit Hurricane Harvey Relief through MiLB Chariities.

the florida state and southern leagues have cancelled their championship series due to the approaching hurricane. a certain small segment of the population is unhappy that these leagues will have co-champions

this is something that appears to happen about once every ten years

brandon mccarthy gets the start tonight for rancho cucamonga in game 3 of its california league semifinal series

Tigers convert Lakeland headquarters to public shelter from Irma

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2017/09/10/tigers-convert-lakeland-headquarters-public-shelter-irma/105469504/

Tigertown’s clubhouses in Lakeland, Fla., already are filling with families that will use its windowless, concrete walls as protection against winds that could, even in central Florida’s interior, surpass 100 mph.

Refrigerated trucks are filled with 4-5 days of provisions necessary to feed families, staffers, players and, most of all, first-responders who will be charged with clean-up and safety after the storm’s greatest intensity arrives, according to best weather estimates, about 2:30 a.m. Monday.

The 84-acre Tigertown complex’s dormitories and cafeterias will be a local headquarters for emergency personnel in Lakeland and Polk County.

the durham bulls are yr triple-a national champions

Bill and Brian Doyle-Murray hit the road for TV

http://deadline.com/2017/11/bill-murray-brian-doyle-murray-extra-innings-facebook-watch-1202207024/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOwzM6rW0AEere3.jpg

welcome to the atlantic league

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQYE8DkUMAIYM0U.jpg:small

feisty green bee with a plaid cap

https://i.imgur.com/tE3q9sS.jpg

stay classy, pat o'conner

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2017/12/19/in-an-interview-minor-league-baseball-president-pat-oconner-diminishes-the-work-of-his-players

the potomac nationals, who have historically had the best/weirdest bobblehead giveaways in the minors, are having a fan vote to determine one of their 2018 bobbleheads

one of the options is Bobby Bo(nilla) holding a $1.19 million check Bobblehead

thumbs up

getting out in front of the CBA? or are the minors excluded from that?

this should go well ($)

Sports and entertainment agency Endeavor, and its private equity investor Silver Lake, is in talks to buy up to a dozen minor league teams, with aspirations of potentially owning 40 or more of Minor League Baseball’s 120 teams over time, sources said. Endeavor is already a force in sports, in part through ownership of UFC, talent agency WME, and a host of marketing, licensing, and agent divisions. The pursuit of so many teams doesn’t amount to a fait accompli, but Endeavor is making attractive offers.

Endeavor declined to comment, as did Major League Baseball, which has to approve any minor league ownership transfer.

The potential sales could bring concerns for both minor league owners and municipalities, and may also create an issue for the Major League Baseball Players Association to address, as Endeavor also represents baseball players. If successful, Endeavor’s purchases would be the most significant financial development since MLB restructured MiLB this year, reducing the number of teams by 40 — or 25 percent — and centralizing MLB control.

One little-noticed change in the overhaul greased the path for Endeavor: The elimination of the prohibition on an entity owning more than one team per league.

wtf

baseball never met a cartel it didn’t like

This sounds like a complete cluster fuck of conflicts of interest

what they should do is integrate betting to the whole operation

Sources: Rachel Balkovec, who joined the Yankees organization as a minor-league hitting coach in 2019, will serve as the manager for the Low A Tampa Tarpons next season.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) January 9, 2022

I misread that as the Tampa Tampons and then laughed and then immediately felt horrible about myself

The @FLProBaseball has announced it will use "sudden death baseball" to settle tie games. After one extra inning if game remains tied, the home team chooses to hit or pitch. The hitting team puts a runner on 1st. 3 outs. Run scores? Hitting team wins. No runs? Pitching team wins.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) January 24, 2022

run scores in that situation only about 43% of the time, so

dumb as hell imo

honestly i don't think i care

i don't care either, i just find it amusing to see a pro sport admit that game outcomes don't matter as much as simply ending

clearly minor leaguers should skip spring training, sparing their clubs this horrible financial burden, and just show up for regular-season games. everybody’s happy!

MLB argues for minor leaguers to stay unpaid in spring training: "It is the players that obtain the greater benefit from the training opportunities that they are afforded than the clubs, who actually just incur the cost of having to provide that training” https://t.co/md2BqNjr0X

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 12, 2022

wow.

i'm glad people are presumably going to get paid, but i really wish some lawsuit would force these pro leagues to open their books

Minor league players, MLB reach settlement in minimum wage lawsuit

NEW YORK -- Minor league players and Major League Baseball have reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging teams violated minimum wage laws.

Terms of the settlement were not filed with the court Tuesday and details were not released. Two people familiar with the negotiations, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the release of details was not authorized, said the sides in recent weeks had been discussing a possible settlement in the $200 million range.

all very healthy behavior

springfield’s chandler redmond hit a solo homer, two-run homer, three-run homer and grand slam tonight

second time that’s ever been done in pro baseball (that anyone knows of, at least); the other was tyrone horne for arkansas (then also a cardinals double-a team) in 1998

that's weird; last night, just before you posted that, i was perusing the stats of Springfield's team. Mainly checking in on Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Malcom Nuñez, who have 61 years of life experience between the three of them, and also Moisés Gómez, who is a relatively ancient 23 year old with 23 home runs and a 1.106 OPS. didn't even see Chandler Raymond! he's 25. i'll probably never see him in a big league uniform but it's warming to see someone have an insane, career accomplishment kind of night

(shit, i forgot nunez was just traded to the bucs)

The Major League Baseball Players Association has launched a campaign to unionize Minor League Players across the country #1u #FairBall pic.twitter.com/DDq4Q8NOXI

— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) August 29, 2022

possibly a big deal?

also it is amusing that milb.com, the official website of minor league baseball, doesn't mention this in any way

and, the campaign is pretty much done? they got >50% to sign the union cards

And just like that, minor league baseball players are on the verge of unionizing.

More than 50 percent of minor leaguers signed authorization cards in support of unionization under the guidance of the Major League Baseball Players Association, the organization announced Tuesday. As such, the players union has asked MLB to voluntarily recognize it as the representative for minor league players. The league had yet to comment as of early Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement came just one week after the union made the surprising move to send out the cards to gauge interest, a move made to seize the momentum created by two-plus years of advocacy that pushed the low pay and challenging working conditions of the minors into a brighter spotlight than ever before. That minor leaguers would unionize never seemed imminent. That the MLBPA would serve as the organizing force behind their unionization was never obvious.

But as of Tuesday morning, their combined efforts had hurtled minor leaguers one step closer to unionization.

“Minor league Players have made it unmistakably clear they want the MLBPA to represent them and are ready to begin collective bargaining in order to positively affect the upcoming season,” Tony Clark, executive director of the players union, said in a statement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/06/minor-league-unionization-mlbpa-authorization-cards/

thumbs up

That's an F7 on your scorecard, but a home run in Delvin Pérez's heart 🤣 pic.twitter.com/05EIE3gH1R

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 23, 2022

In 2002, 186 MiLB pitchers threw 150+ innings. This year, five MiLB pitchers threw 150+ innings. We want to honor great pitching seasons (and Painter's is a great season). So that has led to the BA MiLB Pitcher of the Year award.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) September 29, 2022

When we said “World’s Largest Horseshoe,” we really meant it. pic.twitter.com/FfgZGCdKmZ

— Springfield Lucky Horseshoes (@ShoesBaseball) October 16, 2022

there once was a minor league team called the Fargo Divorcees

it was way back when. also, i just learned that Fargo used to be well known as a particularly easy and quick place to get a divorce

nice

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35998626/minor-leaguers-mlb-reach-tentative-deal-historic-1st-cba

4-HR game for Eduardo De Oleo of the Intercounty League's London Majors:

https://lfpress.com/sports/local-sports/london-majors-slugger-rips-four-home-runs-in-one-game#:~:text=De%20Oleo's%20historic%20four%2Dhomer,London%20Free%20Press

Not an important league anymore, but many major leaguers have passed through there, including Fergie Jenkins and Denny McClain.

https://www.theibl.ca/mlb-alumni

(Actually, come to think of it, some of these guys, including Fergie, played there after retirement.)_

on how loaded triple-a teams might fare in the majors (spoiler: not well)

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/terrible-mlb-teams-are-pretty-good-at-baseball

A friend and I got Bisons tickets for late June. Really hope we get to catch Votto:

Friday marked exactly two months since that injury, and Votto has yet to return. His status and recovery timeline have been somewhat of a mystery, with the slugger seemingly making little progress at the Blue Jays' player development complex in Dunedin, Fla.

That has apparently changed, though, with Blue Jays manager John Schneider revealing before Friday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre that Votto has been taking live batting practice and running the bases this week. The hope is that Votto can make his way into game action soon, likely in the rookie-level Florida Complex League.

"He's fine with doing it anywhere as long as pitchers are throwing strikes," Schneider said. "So, it'll probably be [Complex League] before he goes anywhere else."

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/with-blue-jays-in-need-of-offence-joey-votto-poised-for-return-to-minor-league-games/

Was in Buffalo for that Bisons game today. No Votto, of course, but surprise bonus: Aaron Sanchez started! I wasn't even thinking about that--I'd forgotten the little item I saw about them picking him up and sending him to Buffalo.

He came into the game with an ERA of almost 13.00 over 30 innings, including 9 HR and almost a walk per inning. I don't expect he'll be making his way back to the majors. Today, though, amazing: 7 innings, 1 hit (a HR), a few walks, and a couple of runs. My friend Callum, a pitcher who plays in a London league (he got a call up to Intercounty for one game 20 years ago), figure he was topping out at about 85-90 mph. (No radar readings on the scoreboard.)

Other player of note: Acuña's younger brother (Acuña Jr. Jr.?), leading off for Syracuse. And J. P. Arencibia was one of their coaches. Two times, batters appealed strike calls by touching their helmets; both times the umpire was right. The Bisons won the game with a big 8th inning.

Got a bunch of Bisons baseball cards, and the food of course was much better (and cheaper) than the Rogers Centre. The only negative thing all day was crossing the border. The guard asked me if I was the guy making all those horrible posts on the ILX American political thread; I had to slip him some cash to let me through.

this, if you have a defector login, is v. good

https://defector.com/the-minor-league-shrink-and-the-growing-gap-between-triple-a-and-the-bigs