Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Major Minors Shakeup

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

Jason Hernandez joins D.C. once again to discuss some changes coming to Minor League Baseball, specifically the Northwest League and the California League. These two leagues are changing which level of Minor League ball they'll play, and the Mariners have had affiliates in both leagues. (And they'll continue to do so.) D.C. breaks down the changes in the Northwest League -- which affects baseball fans all over Washington, Oregon and Idaho -- while J.D. goes in depth on the changes in the Cal League. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. You know, ladies and gentlemen, I just learned a valuable lesson. Trying to record this program with your microphones on mute doesn't work. Welcome to Lotton Maritors, ladies and gentlemen. I am D.C. Lundberg, you're way out of it, host. And what are we doing? This is brought to you by Bilt Bar, by the way.

We're part of the Locked-on Podcast Network as well. Cannot forget that, even though I almost did. please remember to download right and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use ask your smart device to play Lockdown Meriters Podcast or any program here on the Lockdown Podcast Network or T-LOPP and R-LOP and follow us on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Nor-R-R-G and follow me on Twitter at D-C-U-N-D-B-E-R-G

if you are indeed scoring at home. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it certainly has been an interesting few weeks over here that intro is proof positive of that. back on the show, a host of Locked on Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, Jason Hernandez, Jason, how you doing? Oh, I'm doing fine. I think we're in a minor league mode today

as you're wearing your Spokane cap, and I got my Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. But it is the 25th anniversary cap as they went back to the teal for one season. Nice. One of my favorite of all-time caps. Unfortunately, they're back in the blue, or the Royal Blue, and unfortunately,

they're going to be demoted, we will talk about today. We absolutely will be talking about that today because there was a huge minor league shakeup, ladies and gentlemen. And we're going to talk about that on this show. We're going to really affected the Mariners at two levels. Advanced A and Short Season A. And Short Season A is the Northwest League. So that affects fans all over the Northwest.

So we're going to get into that as well. And we've got Jason to talk about the Cal League, the California League, which is changing levels. and the Mariners are going to have an affiliate in that league. So that is why we are talking about that. The Northwest League is also changing levels. They used to be a short-season single A league. They've moved up in the world. They are now an advanced A league,

which means the fans all across the Northwest will be able to enjoy a full-season minor league rather than a short-season minor league. Spokane Indians are now a full-season minor league team. The Everett Aqua Sox are now a full-season minor league team. The Everett Aqua Sox are now a full-season minor league league. season minor league team as well. And the Everd Aqua Sox are going to remain a Mariners affiliate, just at a different level.

As a matter of fact, the Northwest League used to be an eight-team league. They have contracted by two teams. The Boise Hawks are now no longer a part of the Northwest League. They are moving to the Pioneer League. They are still going to play ball. They're going to the Pioneer League, which up until last season was another rookie League, but they will be an independent league team next year, not

affiliated with Major League Baseball. The other team that the Northwest League is losing is the Salem Kaiser Volcanoes, and they are not currently part of any league, and their status is up in the air. They want to continue to play in some

capacity, and that might not come to fruition, unfortunately. Yeah, I don't think it's going to come to fruition at all, to be honest. Yeah. I don't either. I don't either. I don't either. It's unfortunate. The six remaining teams in the Northwest League, three of them are

remaining affiliated with the teams in which they were affiliated with before. The Everett Aqua Sox are remaining a Mariners affiliate moving from low A to high A. The Hillsborough hops are remaining a Diamondbacks affiliate. And the

Vancouver Canadians are remaining a Blue Jays affiliate. The Eugene Emeralds are changing affiliations. They are going from the Cubs to the Giants. The Tri-City Dust Devils are moving from the Padres to the Angels organization, and my Spokane Indians are no longer a Texas Rangers affiliate, which honestly I'm kind of relieved at because I'm not a Rangers fan, but they're going to be a Colorado Rockies affiliate next season. So they're not even in the same, the Rockies are not in the same league as the Mariners.

I might have a new favorite National League team just because of this ladies and gentlemen. and I am so happy that the Spokane Indians are now a full season minor league team because this city can support it, gang, last season, which is 2019, because there was no 2020 season. Spokane ranked second in the Northwest League in attendance, only behind the Vancouver Canadians. Spokane and Vancouver were the only two cities to draw over 200,000 fans in the 2019 season. And the third place team was the Hillsborough Hopps.

at 133,000. Everett incidentally drew 116,630 fans in 2019 with an average attendance of 369, but they also have one of the smaller stadiums in the Northwest League. So fans of the Northwest League is going to look a lot different next year, but some things are going to remain the same. Second half of the show, we're going to talk about the Cal League, and Jason Hernandez will do that. But first, I forgot to throw to Jason if he has any thoughts on the Northwest League whatsoever.

What are your thoughts on this and the minor league shakeup at large? Let's just do the Northwest League, and then I'll go to large on the next segment. As far as the Northwest League goes, I think this is a home run for those teams that you mentioned, Spokane, especially being second up there. Vancouver can absolutely, they can absolutely support a full season, and it shows in their numbers. It shows them the passion of their fans. Yes.

Maybe because the Blue Jays are Canada's team. You know, people from Vancouver, they support the Blue Jays. This can be attested to my buddy as Preston or Poopoo, the minimalist artist. You got to get that plug in there, don't you? He's from Vancouver. He's a big Blue Jays fan because that is Canada's team. That's really the sole reason why. Yeah, the Vancouver Canadians drew 235,980 fans in 2019.

In a short season. This is a short season. This is a 76 game season. Average attendance of 6,210, which I know does not seem like a lot for fans of Major League Baseball. But for minor leagues, that's very, very good. The Spokane Indians drew 200,000 273 fans, average attendance of 5,720.

And speaking from my experience here in Spokane, pardon me, it's hard to find Spokane Indians tickets. You have to get them when the tickets go on sale. otherwise you're either going to be stuck in the left field bleachers where you're going to get burnt to a crisp in the sun or the game's just going to be sold out entirely. It is very difficult to get Spokane Indians tickets. Yeah, and I think the Pacific Northwest, they can do this for the whole season. I think they'll still average about 5,000 fans, maybe more. Vancouver is going to be the one team that is going to wipe everyone off the floor with attendance.

I mean, sorry to Spokane. But Vancouver is in a different level because it is a Toronto-based affiliation. Oh, yeah. To get $6,000 in any minor league is very good. And I think they can sustain that for the entire season. When you look at the Cal League teams here, they don't draw that much. And I'll talk more about that after the break, which we're going to get to right now, right? We're going to get to in just a second.

I want to talk about some more of these attendance figures because there are some things jumping out at me. Vancouver drew 6,200 fans a game essentially. Spokane drew just shy of 5,300 fans per game. And then you've got Hillsborough at 3,500. Eugene at about 3,500, Everett at 3,000, and Tri-City at about 2,300. Vancouver's off the charts. Spokane is almost off the charts, and everybody else is kind of back down to a normal level. Spokane and Vancouver are outdrawing the league.

It's fun to see, and Spokane, I've got to say, Spokane loves their Spokane Indians. Get ready for some hockey crossover here. There's a reason I'm going to bring this up. Of course there is. Yeah. A little bit of a tease. We're saving that for the second half of the show? Yeah, because we got to talk about Billth Bar, baby. We got to talk about Billth Bar, but we got to get to the trivia corner first, don't we?

Yeah. All right, let's do it. We have a trivia question for you today, and the trivia question is, what color underwear is JD wearing? No. That's not the question, I'm only kidding. We're going to do with our Hall Pass. Calm down, calm down. And today's Hall Pass, this might be an offbeat one.

Let's see what you guys have to say at home, because I'm curious. There are not many catchers in the Hall of Fame, and today's Hall Pass is indeed a catcher who played 19 major league seasons in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He is a three-time Gold Glove Award winner. He's an eight-time All-Star. He won six silver sluggers. Career average of 252, slugging of 440 on base of 313, 324 home runs, 305 doubles, 1,070 runs. batted in, and he usually played on teams that were not that great.

Over his career, he threw out 39% of attempted base thieves, while the league average during that same time was 33%. Would you put this man in the Hall of Fame? I will tell you who it is after this word from Belt Bar.

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Enter promo code locked on to get 20% off your next order of BuiltBar. Built Bar is the best tasting candy bar, or rather protein bar, in the world. And I know why you made that mistake, because they taste darn close to a candy bar, don't they? They taste like a candy. Hey, you know what? The white chocolate, not chocolate, not.

even kidding here. It is pretty freaking delicious. If you saw my promo that I did with the dog that I hiked with Zuri, yeah, she posed with some of the built bar products that we have. And I gotta say they're fantastic. It

got me that little boost climbing that mountain. Yes, indeed. Thank you very much. That was Jason J.D. Hernandez talking about built bar. Why did I just wrap up that segment? You don't wrap up promos. DC, what are you doing? Now, get to the hall pass. The answer to the hall, the answer to the hall pass.

The stats I mentioned, Jason, do you think this guy's a Hall of Famer or not? I don't think I know who it is. The numbers are okay. Just tell me briefly, is it National League or American League? He played 16 of his 19 years, were in the American League. In the American League? Yes, sir. Ooh. I got to say, I probably, I mean, catchers are kind of that, I don't know, know. Would one of those teams maybe the Tigers? Yes. Okay.

That was kind of a guess. Famous Tigers catchers, the only ones are Pudge Rodriguez and Lance Parrish. You forgot Bill Freehan. Ah. But it's not Bill Freehan. Is it one of those two that I mentioned? It possibly could be, yes. Is it Lance Parrish?

That's Lance Parrish. Those are Lance Parrish's numbers, yeah. Not a Hall of Famer. Not a Hall of Famer, but I got to say, Those are very, very good numbers. There are so few catchers in the Hall of Fame, and I'm not sure why that is, because he was near the head of his class as a catcher during his 19-year career.

19-year career, ladies and gentlemen, six Silver Sluggers, eight All-Star appearances. He was very, very good in his time. Did he win any championships? He was a member of the 1984 World Series Champion Tigers, yes. I don't know. I mean, he was very good. I'm not advocating for him to be in the Hall of Fame. I just kind of wanted to point out that there are so few catchers,

and this might be why, because he was one of the better ones in Major League Baseball throughout the majority of his career, and yet only pulled in 1.7% of the Hall of Fame vote in his only ballot, but, you know, there is all. Robbery. Robbery. I'm going to leave that for the folks at home to decide, well, Jason and I take a break,

and I try to unscramble my brain. Welcome back to Locked-on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. All righty, time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners, are almost time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners because ladies and gentlemen, the holidays are about giving, so I am giving you a hot tip that could earn you some extra cash. The new Locked-on Betts podcast is hosted by Lee Sterling of Paramount Studios.com.

Lee is red-hot to start the season, and he shares a lock of the day on every episode. Subscribe to Locked on Vets today, wherever you get your podcasts. And now it's time for the second half of Locked on Maritors. I am built to finish the show. Ha, ha, ha, and ha. Oh, my God. Yeah, uh-huh.

That's the way it's kind of going. We talked about the Northwest League or the Northwest League or the NWL in the first half of the show. And we're going to talk about the California League or the Cal League. or the CL. Yeah. There was a couple things I wanted to point out about the PNW really quick before going to the Cal League. All right, let's do it. And this is related.

So you mentioned that the two teams in top were Vancouver and so can obviously. Yes, sir. And how they can sustain it for a whole season. This is akin to something that happened in hockey a few seasons ago with their minor league shakeup. And this is related directly to my line of work because I used to work for the ECHL. now I work for the American Hockey League and now with the Lockdown Podcast Network covering the ducks.

So a few years ago, the ECHL had a bunch of teams that they absorbed from the West Coast, including the Ontario rain, where they constantly were among the league leaders in attendance. They averaged about 7,000 fans, routinely getting over

9,000 fans per game. Oh, over what? Hockey, over 9,000. Over 9,000! Damn it. You're welcome. America. America, I fell for that joke.

Hook, line, and sinker, and I can't believe I didn't see it. Anyway, so the Ontario rain, oh, stop it, D.C. So, the Ontario rain were among the league leaders. He's way too giddy about this, folks. Trying to get him to spit out his water. That did not work. Anyway, so among the league leaders,

the Ontario rain were kind of in a league of their own as far as attendance goes. That's double A hockey. So surely they will do well in triple A hockey, which is exactly what happens, and one of the primary reasons why the Ontario rain moved from the ECHL

to the American Hockey League, which is now the AAA, or just one level below the national hockey league, they still average around 8,000 fans per game. The San Diego goals, they are among the league leaders. They average about 9,000 a game. Hershey Bears, they're about the same.

So when you talk about those kind of attendance numbers, I think, and this does segue into the Cal League. This could be another reason why there is a switch from short league to full season in the PNW is they can sustain this for a full season, whereas down here in the Cal League, you had a bunch of games where there was maybe a few hundred fans for a couple of markets, and I will tell you which markets they are. Bakersfield struggle with attendance, Veselia a little bit, not so much like Elsonor, like Elsonor,

do well. Enland Empire, the 66ers, they had a plethora of games that I went to where there was hundreds of fans in the stands. The quakes, they were into thousands. They have a very, very strong following. The branding is there. So this does hurt

a couple of teams, like the quakes that get thousands of fans per game. They do pretty well. But when you talk about attendance in the Cal League compared to the Northwest, it's kind of incomparable when you talk about those two specific teams, whereas the lower attendance teams in the PNW are about the same attendance as the highest attended leagues in the Cal League.

Wow. So when you consider that, it probably makes a little bit of sense why the Cal League got demoted from Advanced A to Short Season A. Yeah. And I know this is going to hurt fans down here a lot in the Cal League. And there is one particular market that gets hurt the most. And that is Fresno. I know you wore that cap earlier, the Fresno tacos, or now the Fresno Grizzlies.

I did. I didn't even know that we were going to be talking about that. That's cool. Oh, absolutely. I don't know if you heard too much about some of the goings on in Fresno and how they're citizens and fans over there. They're pretty ticked off. I don't know if you're heard about that or not.

No. Okay, so Fresno, they're a AAA city, as you may know. In fact, they are the southernmost AAA team in California, or they were rather, as Fresno is now joining the Cal League. So they get demoted all the way from AAA to short season A. That's a big time demotion. It sure is. And Fresno has a damn good following in their league. They get a ton of fans that go out there.

So that's the one team that I feel really bad for. So, wait a say, I'm sorry to cut in, but Fresno is going from the Pacific Coast League to the Cal League, so they're going from AAA to low-A. I just want to make sure I got that right. Unfortunately, you have that exactly right. Holy Toledo. They're a different league. Oh, yeah.

I set you up for that. I got mine, too. Yep. Tusha, sir. So there are only eight teams in the Cal League as of right now. The Fresno Grizzlies, which I can't believe. San Jose Giants stocked in ports, the 66ers, the Lake Ellisoner Storm, the Veselia Rawhide, the ranchu cook among a quakes the hat I'm wearing, and a team that you're familiar with,

the Modesto Nuts. Yes. A team that Mitch Hanager is definitely familiar with. What? Yes, indeed. What? I said nothing wrong. He played for the Modesto Nuts, right?

Yeah, he did. He did. after busting a anyways. Anyway, sorry, he didn't put the Modesto nuts. Yeah, but the Modesto nuts are the,

have been a Mariners affiliated with the Mariners, pardon me, since 2017, and they are remaining a Meritor's affiliate, going from Advanced A to LoA. So basically in the Meritor's system, Everett and Modesto are just switching places in effect. Exactly right.

Yes. And I'll tell you how else this affects the California League is there are a couple teams that are now lost. Well, first off, when the season began in, or was supposed to begin in 2020, there was going to be some changes there as well as far as some ballpark adjustments and some enhancements. Unfortunately, that's going to go completely on the wayside and, in fact, wiped out the entirety of the 2020 season. and the Oakland days, they used the Giants ballpark as an alternate roster training site,

which is cool. But there was a team that folded. The Lancaster Jet Hawks, they folded completely. So not only are they not playing in any type of college ball, but they're not playing at all. So the Jet Hawks are a casualty of that, and they kind of went the way of the Bakersfield Blaze. and one of my favorite teams,

the High Desert Mavericks from a while back, who remembers the High Desert Mavericks? I believe they were a former Mariners affiliate. I believe, yeah, they were a former Mariners way back in the day. And I think in the Inland Empire 66ers were as well, if I recall, correctly.

I can go into history on that. There is a connection between San Bernard and Dino and the Mariners, and a big time connection that I don't know if fans are familiar with, but they used to be called the San Bernardino Spirit. Yes, they did. And I know this because there was someone very famous that was on that team. Garth Brooks?

Oh. I bet you know who this is. This is my trivia question to you. Which Hall of Famer played in the San Bernardino Spirit in 1987 and 1988? Probably Edgar Martinez. Oh. Not Edgar. Lance Parish.

Oh. No, someone pretty well known, and I happen to have that particular jersey because I'm a jersey head. No. Ken Griffey Jr. Yeah, I just got it. Ken Griffey Jr. played in San Bernardino

to start off. He played at the stadium. I, in fact, have a San Bernardino spirit. Ken Griffey Jr. jersey. Yep. Yes. And I treasure it, baby. Treasure it a lot.

But going back to the shakeup, the rawhide, they're going to be affiliated with the Diamondbacks. The quakes are still the Dodgers. The Storm are still the Padres. The 66ers are still the Angels. Stockton is still Oakland. The Giants are the Giants. The nuts are still the Mariners.

And Fresno Grizzlies, they will be affiliated with the Colorado Rockies. Yes. Is that the only team that changed hands? It is. Well, yeah, because that's folded. So with the Jaha' It's folding, that left Colorado with no affiliate. over there at the time. Right.

So this does suck for the teams down here. But like I said, Veselya, they're a small ballpark. They barely drew anything. Fresno has a big ballpark. And I just, they do. That's a 10,000 here. Go ahead. Yeah, that's a huge minor league ballpark, 10,650.

And I just realized with Fresno being affiliated with Colorado, Spokane's affiliated with Colorado. So my Medet, my Fresno Tacos hat, which is a one-off promo that the Grizzlies did a few seasons ago. it's now relevant to the city I live in, which is terrible English. I'm sorry. A couple other kind of small things

that I want to bring up as far as the change around here. Can I bring up something very, very, very short before you do that? Because our regular email, or Aidan Soans, his minor league team in Hartford, the Hartford Yardgoats, also a Rockies affiliate. So I'm going to get pretty familiar with the Rockies organization here pretty soon, aren't I? Hey, how about that?

How about that? Okay, go for it, Jody. So the kind of weird thing here is the placement of Veselia and Fresno, how they're miles apart, but they're in different divisions, so they're not going to see each other as much. You used to have four teams down in a specific area kind of close by. You used to have the biggest field blaze that were right there. Or the Mavericks.

They also used to be right there. Aren't they in Dallas, though? Something like that. Now with Lancaster going on the wayside, now they're going to have to do a little bit of travel as far as going from that area. So you'll have a triad of teams within driving distance, Lake Elsinore, I.E. and Rancho.

And by the way, Lake Elsinor has one of the more beautiful minor league stadiums, the diamond. It's completely gorgeous. It's kind of an old style type of ballpark. Think about how the ballparks were built in the 90s, kind of that classic style, that retro type style. That's what the diamond is like. Now I kind of want to go there.

It's an amazing ballpark. It's one of my favorite minor league ballparks. Probably my second, non-biased, my favorite ballpark in the Cal League. But of course, biased, I got to go Rancho because, you know, geography. Yeah. And my buddy works there. Shout out, Cody. But, yeah, this does. leave a sour taste for the fans here in the Cal League

because they're used to having baseball start at a certain time. Now we're not going to get that. The short season is going to make it maybe three months tops and that's it. We're not used to that because the Cal League has been a full-season league since I could remember. Yeah, and actually I have some experience with it. When I moved to Spokane a few years ago,

it was very hard waiting for the start of the season because it starts in mid-June. It's mid-June when the season starts, and his anticipation builds up and builds up. And from the beginning of April when the Major League season starts to the middle of June when the short season minor league starts, it is the longest two and a half months you can imagine. I do not envy fans of the Cal League.

I don't, honestly. Yeah, it's going to be lean times. I kind of don't want to end on that sour note. Let's not do that then. So instead, focus on the good times that we had in Advanced A, where we saw a ton of great players make it up, or we saw a lot of players on rehab, go to Advanced A. It's where it's at.

Yeah. Go to Minor League Ballparks. Check out the games. They're a lot of fun, guys. They are a whole lot of fun. And they're affordable, which is not something you can say about Major League Baseball anymore. Affordable, yeah. See, because of my position,

I could say, you know, better than affordable, but, you know. Yeah. And I'll say this too. The food at Avista Stadium is better than the food at Safeco Field. And it's a whole lot cheaper. Except for the insects. And with that, we're going to wrap up today's show of Locked-on Mariners. Don't forget that you can rate, comment, subscribe to Locked-on Mariners, if you haven't already.

and you can hear this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, sit here, or wherever you hear your podcasts. And make sure to email Locked-on Mariners at Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. And also, you can follow D.C. Lundberg at D.C. underscore Lundberg, spelled L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G. And you can follow the program at L-O-U-U-U-R-R-G. And you can follow me at Stim-B-J-D. Follow my show Locked-on-A-Hine-Dux at L-U-Dx, but definitely check out Locked on Mariners.

And don't forget to check out Locked on Betts, Locked on MLB, all of those fine programs you can find on the Locked On Podcast Network. I saved you there, huh? Yeah, you did. And with that, I think we're, well, you'd never said where they can find you on Twitter, Jason. Yeah. So you know what? It's fine.

Stimpy J.D. L0 underscore Ducks. I was going to say, since you did my clothes, I'll do your clothes. You can find Jason on Twitter at Stimpy J.D. L.O. underscore Ducks for his great show. Locked on Anaheim Ducks. You have to look up Locked on Anaheim Ducks while you search. Because if you just search Locked on Ducks,

you'll just get Field and Stream. So Locked on Anaheim Ducks for Jason and is... ...that's it. Thanks for listening to today's show, ladies and gentlemen. We'll be back next time with something. Join us then. So long. This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked-on Mariners. part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.