Affiliations to be announced today
The Dodgers are expected to annonce today that they have signed two-year player-development agreements with two new minor-league affiliates. At the Triple-A level, the club is switching its affiliation from Las Vegas, where it has been for the past eight seasons, back to Albuquerque, N.M., where it was continuously from 1972-2000. At the Double-A level, the Dodgers are moving from Jacksonville, Fla,, to another unnamed Southern League market, believed to be Chattanooga, Tenn., which has been affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds for the past 21 seasons. Most of the Dodgers' other minor-league affiliations -- high Single-A Inland Empire (San Bernardino) of the California League, low Single-A Great Lakes (Midland, Mich.) of the Midwest League and Rookie-level Odgen, Utah, of the Pioneer League -- are expected to stay the same. Because they are moving their spring-training operations from Vero Beach, Fla., to Glendale, Ariz., the Dodgers' other Rookie-level affiliate will be moved from the Gulf Coast League to the Arizona League
I bet Andruw Jones is pissed about this. When he's back in Triple A next year he won't have all the Vegas buffets to destroy!
The move to Chattanooga is a surprise. I think the Marlins probably wanted Jacksonville, and since the Dodgers took Albuquerque from Florida, maybe they let them have their double-A affiliate.
Chattanooga is probably a stop-gap affiliate. In the next round of changes, the Dodgers will probably look to move into the eight-team Texas League.
Does this mean the Padres get Las Vegas back?
Mario: The Padres have a contract with Portland through 2010. It looks like the Toronto Blue Jays are going to be the parent club for Las Vegas. (And I'm not sure if they're keeping the 51s name). The Padres at some future date may try to get back to Vegas, but perhaps not if the facilities are not improved.
There was an outside chance that the Washington Nationals would be the parent club for Las Vegas, but it appears that they want to negotiated with Syracuse, which is closer to home. (Toronto and Syracuse had not-so-amicable divorce this year)