Major League Baseball officially announced their reorganization of Minor League Baseball today. And it sucks.
In lieu of definitive leagues, they were labeled with the soulless “Triple-A East, Triple A-West, Double-A Northeast" etc.
So Major League Baseball has decided to jettison all of the existing leagues. Which includes leagues that were founded in;
International League: 1884
Pacific Coast League: 1903
Eastern League: 1923
Southern League: 1885 (when tracing the roots of precursor leagues)
Texas League: 1902
Carolina League: 1945
Florida State League: 1919
Midwest League: 1947
California League: 1941
South Atlantic League: 1963
And for what? To consolidate control over the Minor Leagues.
It’s a *very* weird flex from Major League Baseball, which tends to trade on the history of the game and its timelessness. But, at the same time, it is also very the same Rob Manfred who:
Limited to the number of visits players and coaches can visit the pitcher’s mound during the game.
Instituted a rule that pitchers must face a minimum of three batters or pitch until the end of an inning before being removed.
Instituted the universal designated hitter rule across Major League Baseball at least for two seasons, ending 144 years of National League pitchers batting for themselves.
Instituted new rules for extra-inning games this season that places a runner on second base at the start of every inning beginning in the 10th inning.
Adopted the minor league rule of two seven-inning games during doubleheaders for this season.
Seemingly looked the other way when juiced baseballs were used to increase offensive production.
Instituted pitch clocks in Minor League games, with the goal of adopting them for Major League games as well.
ESPN reports that “Major league owners, commissioner Rob Manfred and his staff have not decided whether to retain the traditional names of the leagues,” but you know that if they were enthusiastic about doing that they would already have done it.
This announcement is just another in a series of long-running screw-ups by Major League Baseball during the Rob Manfred era. All this does is reinforce the idea that Rob Manfred is a corporate automaton who hates baseball.