The Dodgers will change their Triple-A affiliation from Albuquerque to the Oklahoma City RedHawks next season, Michael Baldwin of the Oklahoman reports. Oklahoma City is currently affiliated with the Astros. Mandalay Baseball Properties will reportedly sell the RedHawks to a group tied to the Dodgers for a sum in the $22MM to $28MM range. Baldwin writes that the Dodgers are trying to get out of Albuquerque, a difficult environment in which to evaluate prospects because its park is so favorable to hitters. The move is part of what could be a big shakeup in the Pacific Coast League, with the Athletics also moving from Sacramento to Nashville (currently a Brewers affiliate) and the Giants moving from Fresno to Sacramento. It’s unclear where the Astros and Brewers will end up in such a scenario. Here’s more from the West divisions.
- Brady Aiken may have selected a junior college after being selected first overall and then going unsigned in a dispute with the Astros, MLB.com’s Jim Callis tweets. Aiken could end up at Yavapai JC in Arizona, which has helped develop future big-leaguers like Curt Schilling, Kole Calhoun, Bob Milacki, Billy Hatcher and Kyle Blanks.
- Carlos Quentin is likely “on his way out” with the Padres, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes in a recent chat. Quentin is under contract for $8MM in 2015, but the Padres likely won’t want to keep him, given his struggles to stay healthy. (What they might do with him is a different question — it’s hard to imagine Quentin having much trade value, given that he’s hit poorly in limited action this season.) Seth Smith and Rymer Liriano are the only near-locks for spots in the San Diego outfield next year, Lin writes.
- With Andrew Susac emerging as a potential starting option at catcher and Buster Posey showing signs of wear, the Giants might consider moving Posey to a new position in the future, Alex Pavlovic of the Mercury News writes. The Giants have no plans to move Posey at this time, however. If Posey does eventually move, he will probably move to first base.
- With Garrett Richards out for the rest of the season, the Angels will presumably be looking for pitching, and Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com has a list of pitchers who might be available. Given the obstacles to making August trades, perhaps it’s no surprise that it isn’t an incredibly inspiring list, with some of the better options possibly being either unwilling to play for the Angels (A.J. Burnett, who can block trades to West Coast teams) or unlikely to make it all the way to them on waivers (Mat Latos).
Giants media (and the nutty radio call-ins) are obsessed with this “move Posey to 1B” talk. But it doesn’t make sense to move him this early, especially since he’s still a good catcher. Why would the Giants have signed him to a large extension if they planned on moving him to 1B a couple years later? That extension was signed because he’s a catcher. If they planned on moving him so early it would have been way cheaper to just sign him after arbitration.
His offensive numbers are drastically worse when he starts at catcher compared to 1B.
Edit:
At Catcher: .265/.324/.425
At First Base: .385/.435/.526
Small sample size? It’s possible there wouldn’t be this big of a split going forward but I definitely think there’s something to it.
Many of those 1B splits are because Bochy would bench Belt against LHP, and play Posey at 1B. Many of his 1B PA came against LHP, and Posey destroys LHP. Those splits are misleading.
Interesting, no argument there. I guess this would show that as a 1B he’s not much more than a platoon partner more than that he should be playing 1B.
Also unrelated to Posey, but it’s always been really weird when Belt would sit against LHP as he hasn’t shown a platoon split. For his career he has a 126 wRC+ against RHP, and 118 against LHP, with an identical ISO. Weird “lefties can’t hit lefties” nonsense from Bochy.
Bochy is as old school as they come for managers nowadays. Earlier in the year, Bochy pinch hit Arias for Crawford against a lefty in a close, late-inning situation; even though Crawford had (and still has) a much better stat line against lefties. Arias made a quick out shortly afterwards, and Giants fans were up in arms.
I suppose it’s possible that Houston would want to move their AAA team to Round Rock. I believe Nolan Ryan owns that team. El Paso also appears to be up for renewal.
El Paso just built a new stadium that opened this year and they have a long term deal with the Padres.
Susan Slusser in San Francisco and The Houston Chronicle have both reported that the Padres PDC is up for renewal. It was extended for one year through 2014. Team ownership does have a 30 year lease on the ballpark. I haven’t been able to find info on a new PDC.
The PDC is indeed up for renewal after this season. The ownership of the club bought it from the aborted former Padres ownership regime when it became clear there wasn’t going to be a new stadium in San Marcos/Escondido, and that it wasn’t staying in Tucson either. My guess is El Paso and ABQ will wind up as the last PCL clubs standing and whoever hasn’t landed in another seat by that time will pick up those affiliation. Gotta figure the Padres would like to get to Fresno, which plays more neutral and has several nonstops daily.
I believe the Mets might be up with Las Vegas, as well. That would make some geographical sense. From what I’ve read, SF is leaving Fresno and wanting Sacramento. Elevation is just a reality in the PCL
I’ve also read that Colorado might not be content in Colo. Spr. I suppose it could be a facility issue, but they are the one team who would seem to appear to find altitude to their benefit.
Gotta burn my Redhawks hat after this season.
Why would Oakland want to move their Triple A team to Nashville if they had a choice? It seems like having a team relatively close would be more beneficial if you needed a quick call up. Not to mention the fact that the players would be in the same time zone as the big league club, which I believe is too often overlooked. Changing sleep patterns would seem to have an adverse affect on performance, at least until you adjusted.
would of love if the dodgers stayed in vegas and never moved .but at least their moving so their pitchers wont get killed anymore and they can finally have decent ERAs
Albuquerque was the biggest hitters park in the hitter friendly PCL. OKC is almost perfectly neutral with a slight edge towards pitchers. Now home stats will be how the Dodgers evaluate their AAA prospects. No more Jerry Sands hitting 20 home park HR’s in under a 100 games.
The real problem with OKC is that it’s in OK. Seems to me, bringing the Dodgers’ PCL franchise to the actual West Coast should have been the priority.
Can’t blame OKC. They are destined to loose the Astros, and Oklahoma has a high and growing number of California transplants. It’s a solid, sports crazy area, that already supports one major top level professional team.
I’m not faulting Oklahoma City, but the Dodgers for not working to bring their top minor league team closer to home.
Oh, I know you weren’t faulting OKC. I’m just not sure where they could move that’s closer, and at lower elevation. Perhaps Fresno. Having a team inland would probably nice at some point… but there are various A ball affiliates.
The class-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are the closest to LA, which is why they get most of the rehab assignments. Seems to me that when the triple-A team was in Las Vegas it was used for some of those.
Cedar Rapids is the same way with the Twins. They had the Angels for 20 years and let them walk when Minnesota came calling… now they have regional affiliation and a ready made rehab site. They had Joe Mauer and Ricky Nolasco a few weeks ago.
Longer travel time for rehab stints is less important than seeing if our hitters can hit a curve that breaks at sea level. The high elevation places like Albuquerque, Reno, Colorado Springs, El Paso and Vegas to a large extent make it hard to develop breaking balls and it masks deficiency in hitters. I love the move by the Dodgers.
These aren’t mutually exclusive criteria.
They are in Albuquerque, Reno, Colorado, and Vegas
These are not the only cities in the west where minor league stadiums exist already or could be built.
Crazy that this is the first I heard about Oakland getting Nashville for their AAA team considering I live in the area. Wonder how long ago that was decided? The Sounds will have a new stadium done for next season or the one after, so having a new team (of players anyway) should be fun!
If baseball wanted to do the most exciting thing it would make Aiken a free agent. Houston could keep their 2nd pick next year since they believe Aiken’s elbow ligament is in such high peril. Maybe even allow them to go over slot for Nix and Marshall. Everyone wins.
Maybe Aiken can defect to Cuba and come back as a free agent.
Honestly, though, MLB needs to sanction a standard medical exam for at least all top projected draft picks with enough time for clubs to review them. Sounds similar to R.A. Dickey’s situation when Texas drafted him. I don’t believe he even has a UCL