Pull up a seat, grab a coaster and let Todd Brommelkamp pour you a double shot of words with a punctuation chaser. Consider this the equivalent of giving your mind a stiff drink. Just remember this blog, like most things in life, is best enjoyed in moderation.
Never one to turn down a good time, Todd will hang out with anyone (even a pair of cardboard cutouts) as long as the drinks keep coming. Just don't tell him these guys aren't real because it would break his bacon-clogged little heart.
The recent turmoil at the major league level with the Cedar Rapids Kernels parent club has trickled down to the minor leagues.
The Los Angeles Angels, by most accounts the most disappointing team in Major League Baseball through the first month and a half of play in 2012, fired longtime major league hitting coach Mickey Hatcher on Tuesday. Hatcher, a former teammate of Angels manager MIke Scioscia with the Los Angeles Dodgers, had been the Angels hitting coach for the last 13 seasons. His tenure included a World Series title in 2002 and a 2009 season that saw the Angels set several franchise records for offense.
Hatcher has been replaced by former Angel Jim Eppard. Eppard had been the hitting coach at Triple-A Salt Lake for the past 10 seasons and as such is quite familiar with a number of current Angels players like Mark Trumbo, Mike Trout and Peter Bourjos (all former Kernels, by the way).
The move left Salt Lake in need of a hitting coach for the rest of the season, including this week's series in Des Moines against the Iowa Cubs. The Angels promoted former Kernels manager Tyrone Boykin to the position on Wednesday, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Boykin had been serving as the Angels' roving minor league instructor for outfield play, base running and bunting.
Boykin (or T-Bone as he's known within the organization) was just in Cedar Rapids about a month ago working with the Kernels players and served as interim manager recently while current skipper Jamie Burke took advantage of a new in-season vacation policy. Boykin managed the Kernels for roughly a year and a half, taking over for Mitch Seone in the middle of the 2000 season before returning to the old Veterans Memorial Stadium the following season. It's widely believed he was part of the first all-African American coaching staff in minor league baseball history that season as he joined former big leaguer Dwayne Hosey and pitching coach Joe Logan in Cedar Rapids.
The Angels have not named a replacement for Boykin on their minor league instructional staff.
The Kernels, by the way, are back in town tonight and begin a six-game homestand with the first of three games against Kane County tonight at 6:35. Tomorrow night is another Z 102.9 Thirsty Thursday featuring $1.50 beers all night and your tips going to charity.
It's Monday. I'm bored. I decided to kill some time by shuffling affiliates around the Midwest League.
Major League and minor league teams work together under player development contracts (PDC) that are signed in two or four-year increments. It just so happens that 12 of the 16 teams in the Midwest League have expiring PDCs this season. The South Atlatic League, Minor League Baseball's other full-season Low Class A circuit, has eight of 14 teams working in the final year of their agreements. That means we could see some interesting affiliation moves once the current season ends in September.
The world isn't perfect and Minor League Baseball is a perfect example of that. There are only so many regional affiliations that make sense so you'll always have cities like Fort Wayne married to teams like San Diego, a coupling that makes about as much sense to me as putting olives in coleslaw. Since minor league teams can't control what type of team they have on the field (that's up to the parent club) they have to control other things like who they're affiliated with. For some teams that isn't a big deal but for others it is and should be.
Three of the four teams in the MWL that have extened their PDCs beyond 2012 have perfect geographical fits with their current parent clubs: Wisconsin (Milwaukee), West Michigan (Detroit) and Lake County (Cleveland). The fourth, Great Lakes, is in bed with the Dodgers through 2014.
Looking around the league as it stands, there are a couple other cities that could benefit greatly from affiliating with clubs closer to them. I've taken that into account with a few of the moves I've made.
Now, before we go any further, let's just get this out of the way: This little exercise is just for fun. I made some wild assumptions for the sake of really shaking things up. It's very rare that more than a handful of teams change affiliates in a given cycle and most of the 12 MWL franchises with expiring PDCs this year will likely re-up with their current parent clubs. I don't care about reality here and that wasn't the point of this.
Below are the 16 Midwest League members and their current affiliations followed by their 'new' affiliates and my comments.
Beloit (Minnesota) - Seattle
Midwest League Fun Fact: No major league team wants their affiliate in Beloit. It's the Yankee Swap gift no one wants to be left holding at the end of the day. At one time the Brewers were in Beloit - a perfect geographic fit - and the Twins have been a decent fit after they were pushed aside by the previous ownership group in the Quad Cities during the last significant shuffle after the 2004 season. Someone has to end up here. For the sake of argument it's the Marines who I'm moving out of Clinton. You'll see why in a bit.
Bowling Green (Tampa Bay) - Texas
Tampa Bay has sent some decent prospects to Bowling Green during their affiliation (the only one Bowling Green has ever known) but I'll send the Rays packing for the South Atlantic League where they fit better geographically and bring back one of the best organizations in baseball with the Rangers calling Kentucky home.
Burlington (Oakland) - Kansas City
Burlington's facilities are the best around but the folks who run the franchise do a good job with what they've got. These two teams were married for 10 years before the Royals left town after the 2010 season. Geographically the Royals as good of a fit as the Bees will ever get and I'm putting them back to gether whether they like it or not.
Cedar Rapids (LA Angels) - Minnesota
The Kernels and the Angels have been in bed with one anoher since 1993. Time to mix things up. No one wants to be in Beloit where efforts to get a new ballpark built have led the Twins to re-up with the Snappers twice in recent years. It's safe to assume the Twins have come to the realization there will never be a new park built in Beloit where attendance has been abysmal (in a perfect world I'd relocate the franchise to Dubuque or nearby Rockford).
So let's bring the Twins to Cedar Rapids which is located on the Avenue of the Saints, has an aiport with direct service to the Twin Cities and has a good amount of local fans in the area. It's not the Cubs or Cardinals but realigning with the Twins would give the Kernels a bit of a boost at the gate as Minnesota fans would make a short trip to Cedar Rapids to see up-and-coming Twins prospects.
I may write more about this at a later date but the Twins are almost too good of a fit for Cedar Rapids.
Clinton (Seattle) - San Francisco
Odds are the LumberKings re-up with the Mariners but the Clinton Giants were the team of my youth. I'm bringing San Francisco back from the South Atlantic League and putting them here.
Dayton (Cincinnati) - Cincinnati
They'll re-sign with the Reds. It's only a matter of time. Perfect geography overcomes the fact Dayton has been given some really crappy teams by the parent club.
Fort Wayne (San Diego) - San Diego
I don't know what to do with the Padres. I'll leave them here but with some of the finest facilities in Minor League Baseball the Tin Caps could have plenty of suitors if they want to look for a new affiliate this time around.
Great Lakes (Dodgers) - Los Angeles Dodgers
Signed with the Dodgers through 2014.
Kane County (Kansas City) - Arizona
The Cougars have never made an effort to get the Cubs or White Sox as an affiliate which is proof positive they don't care who they're in bed with. With that in mind I give you the Diamondbacks newest MWL affiliate.
Lake County (Cleveland) - Cleveland
Perfect geographic fit means these two will be together well beyond 2014.
Lansing (Toronto) - Oakland
Nothing against the Blue Jays but I"m farming them out to the SALLY. The Lugnuts like teams that traditionally feature older college-level talent (that's one of the reasons they pushed the Cubs out in 2004) and many of the A's prospects have their AARP cards before they've been drafted.
Peoria (Cubs) - St. Louis
Other than a brief stint witht he Angels when the team moved to Peoria from Danville the Chiefs have been either a Cubs or Cardinals affiliate. The Cardinals called Peoria home from 1996-2004 and are the creme filling in the middle of two affiliations with Chicago. If the Chiefs ever split with the Cubs it'll most likely be for the Cardinals again since Peoria has a decent amount of both Cubs and Cardinals fans. For the sake of shaking up the rest of the league I moved the Cards back to O'Brien Field.
Quad Cities (St. Louis) - Los Angeles Angels
The Angels, who are kicked out of Cedar Rapids, return to Davenport where they enjoyed two previous affiliations with the Angels and featured some talented teams in the 1980's and early 90's. Both the Angels and Giants wind up where they were when I was a kid. Perhaps my judgment has been clouded by nostalgia but there's a reason why retro caps and jerseys are huge sellers, right?
South Bend (Arizona) - Chicago Cubs
South Bend is a hop, skip and a trip to the disabled list away from the Windy City. Let's replace a geographic lump of coal with a diamond. Say what you will about the Cubs but I'm guessing there are far more fans of Chicago in the South Bend area than there are Diamondbacks backers.
West Michigan (Detroit) - Detroit
The Tigers and Whitecaps aren't going anywhere, at least not until after 2018.
Wisconsin (Milwaukee) - Milwaukee
Perhaps the Kernels can look to the Timber Rattlers for inspiration. The T-Rats and Kernels both signed PDCs with new clubs after the 1992 season. After 16 years Wisconsin mixed things up by joining up with the Brewers in 2009 and the results have been the envy of many clubs around the league.
So, to sum up, I make fun of people that do mock NFL drafts and I just wasted an hour of time on something two or three people may find somewhat interesting.
The Indianapolis 500 is coming up later this month and you can take in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" for free thanks to your friends here at KGYM.
We've got a pair of tickets (Scott Unash says these are good tickets too) to the May 27th race that we'll be giving away during tomorrow's KGYM Road Trip at the Coach's Corner Sports Pub in Iowa City.
Here's what you need to do in order to win: Show up and register. It's pretty simple and, most importantly, absolutely free. You don't even need to be present to win, so make sure you write your contact information clearly so we can reach you when we draw for the winner after "Balbinot and Brommelkamp" tomorrow night.
Here's a good primer on this year's race from the AP.
Good luck and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow night at the Coach's Corner for the latest installment of the KGYM Road Trip presented by Billion Honda of Iowa City.
Pull up a seat, grab a coaster and let Todd Brommelkamp pour you a double shot of words with a punctuation chaser. Consider this the equivalent of giving your mind a stiff drink. Just remember this blog, like most things in life, is best enjoyed in moderation.
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