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Expansion and the Offensive Explosion

I have always found it frustrating with the dialogue that steroids should be credited with the home run explosion starting in the early-90’s. Yes, steroids did need to be addressed and I am glad that it was, but team expansion also deserves a significant amount of credit to the big home run numbers dating back to the 1960’s. This spring, Major League Baseball announced that they would expand roster size to 26 players starting in the 2020 season. That in and of itself means that in 2020, there will be 30 additional players who would have otherwise been in the minor leagues on big league rosters. Without adding a team, baseball will impact their competition. By adding two expansion teams, an additional 52 players would be on the big stage. This is especially important to the extremes. Great hitters are still going to be great hitters and they are facing pitchers that would have otherwise been in the minors and it stands to reason that home run numbers would jump. Historically
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MLB Expansion and its Impact on Minor League Baseball

It seems likely that Major League Baseball is going to expand in the near future with the addition of two more teams. Much has been written recently about speculating where, but Montreal and Portland seem to be two of the common front runners. The addition of two MLB teams will have a ripple effect into Minor League Baseball in what could end up with between 10-12 additional franchises. Not all teams have both Class A Short Season and a Rookie League affiliate, but it is a sure thing that at least five teams will be added per expansion franchise which could expand to a sixth team should the parent club desire to field a Rookie League team. Presently, there are 160 MiLB teams. Here is how the levels break down with the number of teams in parenthesis: -         30 Triple A – International League (14), Pacific Coast League (16) -         30 Double A – Eastern League (12), Southern League (10), Texas League (8) -         30 Class A Advanced – California League (8), Carolina L
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MiLB Ownership Dreams

I play the lottery when it reaches $100 Million because I love to dream about the opportunity to run a minor league baseball team and do it my way. I have spent all of my professional career managing relationships, so most of my time plotting is spent on people – how to treat corporate partners, consumers, employees and players. Corporate Partners I think that most teams already do a very good job of making their corporate partners happy – they are a lifeline of the business. What the Cleveland Browns did last fall with Bud Light to unlock a refrigerator full of free beer after their first win of the season was brilliant. The Browns took advantage of this opportunity as an improving team to partner with Bud Light and created likely the best sports promotion of the year following a season of ineptitude in which the Browns were 0-16 and had their fans in upheaval. This promotion involved the Browns, Bud Light and a variety of agency partners to fulfill the idea, but that is the c
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Road Trip - California & Nevada

The idea of seeing all 190 active major and minor league ballparks feels like a daunting task and a life's work - chipping away here and there over many years. For the 2019 season, here are some recommendations to take a week or a weekend getaway to get just a little bit closer. I have had the opportunity to traveling to California many times and if there was one state to have a road trip, that would be it. You get the chance to see the desert, mountains, national parks, wine country and enjoy a few double double animal style burgers at In-N-Out. California and Nevada offer 12 Minor League ballparks and 5 Major League ballparks, so there are plenty of options and great variety. While this trip would require both a ton of time and money, it would be one for the ages. Here is my proposed two-week journey that would cross off 14 ballparks including all 12 MiLB parks plus LAA and SF, but what seems more attainable could be one of either visiting all the teams in the south or nort
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2019 Free Agent Team

The 2019 MLB season is underway and there remains a competent team of MLB players who are free agents. By no means is this a playoff team, but this group probably could compete at the level that the Baltimore Orioles plan to this season. There are enough offensive players to get to a 24-man roster so the final spot would have to go to a true catcher since Evan Gattis is more of a DH these days. The pitching staff is the strength of this team with a couple difference makers still available beyond often discussed Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel. Denard Span, RF Brandon Phillips, 2B Matt Holliday, DH Evan Gattis, C Jose Bautista, LF Logan Morrison, 1B Chase Headley, 3B Jose Reyes, SS Austin Jackson, CF Danny Valencia, INF Chris Young, OF Ben Revere, OF - cut by TEX on 3/26 Rotation Dallas Keuchel Edwin Jackson Dan Straily - cut by MIA on 3/25 James Shields Miguel Gonzalez Bullpen Yovani Gallardo, RH Dan Jennings, LH - cut by LAA on 3/27
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Digesting the MLB Rule Changes

When the rules changes were announced on March 14th, there really wasn't anything too earth shattering, but it does feel like some substantial changes are building during the next CBA negotiation at the conclusion of the 2021 season - expansion (possibly globalism), fewer games, shorter games and fixing free agency all will be hot topics and to the league office's credit, Commissioner Manfred has done a tremendous job of being open in discussing the future of professional baseball. For this round of changes, however - there were some interesting small adjustments. 1. Changes to encourage faster games: Inning Breaks are reduced by 0:05 in regional broadcast games and 0:25 in national broadcast games. For a national game, that is somewhat significant savings of 7+ minutes, but just shows the commitment to faster games. Maximum mound visits reduced from 6 to 5. I have a hard time remembering a game without playoff implications where this was an issue, but this rule def
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Road Trip - Appalachian League

The idea of seeing all 190 active major and minor league ballparks feels like a daunting task and a life's work - chipping away here and there over many years. For the 2019 season, here are some recommendations to take a week or a weekend getaway to get just a little bit closer. Many of the players from the MLB first year player draft get their feet wet in professional baseball in rookie ball either in the Appalachian League or the Pioneer League. It's a great opportunity to get a first look at the draft crop, but also visit some of Minor League Baseballs' smallest and more unique parks in the beautiful scenery of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounding Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Looking at attendance figures from 2018, league games averaged 1,015 attendees with the range of 2,764 (Pulaski) to 529 (Elizabethton). This August, do 10 parks in 10 days or break it in half and do either the East division (green) or West division (blue): West Division: Friday, Augu
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