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Sox Shed Spinners
By perruptor on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 9:54am
The Lowell Sun reports that the Lowell Spinners will no longer be a Red Sox farm team.
The Spinners will not be a minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in 2021. They had been a Class A short season affiliate of the Sox since 1996, often selling-out LeLacheur Park while playing in the New York-Penn League. The 2020 season was canceled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.As part of the minor league shakeup, MLB teams were forced to reduce their minor league affiliates to four. Remaining Sox affiliates will be Worcester (Triple A), Portland (Double A), and Salem, Va., and Greenville, S.C. at the Single A level.
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Comments
"Discussions on future relationship ongoing"
Right there in the subheadline.
That said, I agree with your editorial stance. Baseball is contracting.
The Globe reporting on this
The Globe reporting on this highlighted that the Sox kept their affiliation with their affiliate team in Virginia rather than Lowell, at least in part because the ownership has a significant ownership stake (30%) in the Virginia team. At least, for now they do.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/09/sports/red-sox-lowell-spinners-mi...
the globe reporting on this....
who owns the globe again?
I assume the answer is common
I assume the answer is common knowledge around these parts, but I don't see how it is a meaningful point to make in the current discussion.
The Washington Post also reports on Amazon.
The NY Times is a public company, so I'm sure it reports on things its owners also own as well...
If you think that somewhere in the Globe report there is something in which only Henry could have influenced, please do tell.
but why keep a South Carolina team instead of Lowell?
Isn't it better for everyone if all of the minor-league affiliates are in the same region as the major league team?
Less Weather Delays
A lot of baseball players (see license plates on the souped up pick up trucks at a Cape League game) are from down south and play like crap in cold weather.
SC gives you one more month of spring.
"play like crap in cold weather"
All the more reason they should spend more time playing in this area, to get used to the weather. And if you think Lowell has more rainy days during the short A-ball season than SC does, I don't know what to tell you.
One of the stories says the reason they went with the SC club is that they own more of it than they do of the Spinners.
Market research
-People around Lowell can already go to Six games
-South Carolina has no major league team so this is more of a draw
-The players are from there
-We already have too many college teams plus Worcester and Portland. Lowell makes no sense whatsoever. Overkill.
It makes some sense to have
It makes some sense to have the AAA affiliate (highest minor league) home city somewhere relatively near the major league home city. If you need to make a roster call-up it's nice to sometimes have that same-day convenience to call Pawtucket (ummm....) and say "tell Joe Hardy to drive to Boston - he's starting in right field tonight!"
Not necessary, of course - and the other point about better climates is correct as well.
What? That reasoning may
What? That reasoning may have made sense in the age of the horse, but . . .
The Spinners have filled that role in the past
Off the top of my head, I remember Brett Saberhagen rehabbing with the Spinners before being called back to Fenway.
Different point.
Different point.
An established major-leaguer getting a couple of games' tune-up at whatever level is geographically convenient to the schedule and minimizing travel - the level of play is much less of a concern.
Using developing minor-leaguers to fill gaps on the major league roster - you generally want the players whose skill level is closest to major-league ready, so that would be your AAA roster. Such as Pawtucket.
Not comparable levels
The Spinners are a short season team, which, as a concept, has largely been eliminated by the 2021 revamp of the agreement between Major and Minor League Baseball. Short season leagues are designed for newly signed players just out of college or high school, who are not available to play when the regular season starts in other leagues. Going forward, new players will instead report to either an MLB controlled development league or to the parent team's training complex. The New York-Penn League, to which the Spinners belong is being disbanded, with some of the teams being absorbed by the MLB development league, and the others losing their affiliated baseball status.
The Red Sox don't really have a choice for keeping Lowell in their farm system. Salem and Greenville are both full season (one is Advanced Class A, the other is Low Class A). Those are the teams that the new MLB-MiLB agreement allow to continue.
It's a bummer
that the commissioner of MLB has no interest in the sport of baseball and its history in smaller cities and towns across the country. It's just numbers on a spreadsheet for that creep.
"It's just a piece of metal"
How he didn't get fired for that, I don't know...
To those that raise the
To those that raise the shield of injustice, relax, not only is it a game, it's a business as wall.