64.01 Blazers Unveil Total Makeover of Minor League Affiliates

[Bob Breum]

Montreal, one of three Canadian BBA clubs, announced today that they are relocating all of their minor league affiliates. Currently, two of their minor league teams call the United States home, one is located in the Bahamas, and the other two reside in Canada. After the reorganization, four of the five will hail from Canada; the Bahamian squad will relocate to Grenada in the Caribbean.

LEVEL	OLD AFFILIATE	OLD LOCATION	NEW AFFILIATE	NEW LOCATION
AAA	New Jersey	New Jersey	Quebec	Quebec
AA	Mississauga	Ontario	Hamilton	Ontario
A	Dearborn Heights	Michigan	Windsor	Ontario
S A	Nassau	Bahamas	Grenada	Grenada
R	Oshawa	Ontario	Sault Ste. Marie	Ontario

General Manager Bob Breum said that the primary goal of the move was to align all of the club’s minor league ballparks with Ubisoft Field in Montreal. “We want our young players to acclimate to the dimensions and playing experience of Ubisoft Field as soon as they join our organization. When a player graduates to the next level, the one thing that we can control for them is the home field. Stepping into any of our parks should feel the same. The instincts that they have developed fielding their position(s) will carry over.

“I anticipate that this will greatly assist us in the evaluation of our young players. No longer will we have to attempt to discern how much effect their home park had on their performance. The young prospect who hits doubles or home runs – those numbers won’t need to be park adjusted. The outfielder who posts a positive zone rating – that shouldn’t change too much.

“Some have asked why it was necessary to relocate our teams? Couldn’t we have just rebuilt the ballparks? That was our initial thought as well, but unfortunately, we were unable to reach agreements with the cities involved. It turned out to be less expensive to move; it seems that there are a lot of places eager to welcome a baseball team.

“We believe that Quebec deserves a professional baseball team. We moved our flagship AAA affiliate there. We think the people of Quebec will enjoy watching future Blazers play.

“We had two teams in the greater Toronto area, Mississauga and Oshawa. It doesn’t make sense to try to support two teams in one city, however large Toronto may be. Both of those fan bases can now consolidate behind our new Hamilton team. It’s only 40 km from Mississauga to Hamilton.

Our Single-A affiliate is just moving across the Detroit River. We think our fan base there is going to love the new waterfront park.

“As much as we wanted all of our teams to play in Canada, it made zero sense for our short season A affiliate. They are part of the Angela Drake League that has teams all across the Caribbean. We’ll miss the Bahamas but they have several other baseball teams there. We are delighted to welcome the people of Grenada to our fan base.

“Our rookie league team will play in Sault Ste. Marie. The town welcomed us with open arms and we are very excited to open a new market.

“This has also given us an opportunity to rebrand our affiliates. We expect to see sales of minor league merchandise increase considerably.”

[trmmilwwi]

Nice! I may need to move the Outlaws low level to the Bahamas with the void created.

[JRamirez]

all I know is that Detroit is north of Canada

[Knucklehead254]

Windsor, Ontario nice!

[indiansfan]

“We believe that Quebec deserves a professional baseball team. We moved our flagship AAA affiliate there. We think the people of Quebec will enjoy watching future Blazers play.

The people of Quebec have been enjoying professional baseball since 1999, when the Capitals came to town playing in the Charley Pegler League (A). And unlike this carpetbagging AAA team, the Capitals normally make the playoffs. They have made the playoffs 27 times since 1999 compared to the Montreal affiliates 11 playoff appearances in the same span of time. We welcome the competition.

[Bob Breum]

“We believe that Quebec deserves a professional baseball team. We moved our flagship AAA affiliate there. We think the people of Quebec will enjoy watching future Blazers play.

The people of Quebec have been enjoying professional baseball since 1999, when the Capitals came to town playing in the Charley Pegler League (A). And unlike this carpetbagging AAA team, the Capitals normally make the playoffs. They have made the playoffs 27 times since 1999 compared to the Montreal affiliates 11 playoff appearances in the same span of time. We welcome the competition.

Oh, my. This is certainly an error on my part. It seems that I have failed in performing my due diligence. We will consider our options.

[Bob Breum]

Bob Breum stepped to the podium.

Today I wish to correct our press release regarding our minor league reorganization.

First, regarding greater Toronto, there are currently three, not two, minor league teams located there. Our AA Mississauga Spartans, our rookie league Oshawa Dodgers, and Austin's rookie league Mississauga Credits. As previously stated, we will be relocating our AA club to nearby Hamilton and moving our rookie league team to Sault Ste. Marie. To the best of our knowledge, the Credits will remain in Mississauga; they are an artifact of the Edmonton era.

Second, there was some internal miscommunication regarding our AAA affiliate. As stated, we are moving them to the capital city, but not Quebec. Our flagship AAA club is relocating to Ottawa, the national capital. We are enthusiastic to bring Blazers baseball to Ottawa. Also, for the record, there are two single-A teams who already play in the Quebec area: the Quebec Capitals and the Charlesbourg Castors, with Calgary and Austin, respectively.

[DugoutDesperado]

All of this Canadian geography is making my head spin. All of the time in my upbringing we thought there were only two cities in Canada.

[Bob Breum]

First, regarding greater Toronto, there are currently three, not two, minor league teams located there. Our AA Mississauga Spartans, our rookie league Oshawa Dodgers, and Austin's rookie league Mississauga Credits. As previously stated, we will be relocating our AA club to nearby Hamilton and moving our rookie league team to Sault Ste. Marie. To the best of our knowledge, the Credits will remain in Mississauga; they are an artifact of the Edmonton era.

Austin has just announced that the Mississauga Credits will be relocated to Batavia, NY, where they will be called the Blue Bears. Poor Mississauga went from two teams to none.