The Buffalo News does an excellent job covering the International League, the former home of the Triple-AAA Mets.
Mike Harrington of their “Inside Pitch” blog posted a statement today from Sen. Charles Schumer. In the statement, Sen. Schumer said he was told by Jeff Wilpon it was “virtually certain” the Mets would nix their deal in New Orleans, and that there is over a 90 percent chance the Mets farm club would land in either Buffalo or Syracuse.
I first saw this on MetsBlog. I want to credit the good people there, but I also don’t want to steal Mike’s thunder…so, if you want to check out Schumer’s statement in its entirety log on to Inside Pitch here.
Huffington and co. have been chronicling the story of the Indians moving their Triple-A club out of Buffalo. Other towns have thrown out their affiliates (Syracuse, Blue Jays; Columbus, Nats), but it appears Cleveland is headed to Columbus.
I’ve never even dipped my pinky toe in the minor-league baseball world, but doesn’t it make sense for the Jays to land in Buffalo and the Mets to land in Syracuse?
It sure would make life a whole lot easier on Carlos Muniz, Robinson Cancel, Nelson Figueroa and Argenis Reyes next year.
13 Comments
credit to the guy at the star ledger who had this early this morning…
http://blog.nj.com/mets/2008/09/schumer_gives_minor_endorsemen.html
Yes that does make sense…location wise. BUT I’m from Buffalo and we hate Toronto. The Bills now are playing games at the Rogers Centre and we hate the Maple Leafs. Now our minor league team might be associated with Toronto?? No way!!! Hopefully Buffalo will land the Mets.
While Becca’s hatred of Toronto is completely understandable (we feel the same way an hour East here in the Roc), the local sports press guys have been indicating that the Blue Jays are in talks with Buffalo Bisons. There have been mentions here and there as well of the ‘Cuse Sky Chiefs being interested in the Mets as well.
“It sure would make life a whole lot easier on Carlos Muniz, Robinson Cancel, Nelson Figueroa and Argenis Reyes next year.”
So you are sure that Muniz, Cancel, Figueroa and Reyes will be back in Triple A in 2009? What makes you so sure? You could have said that it would be a shorter trip from Syracuse to CitiField, but you tried to be cute and mention four Mets, two of whom were brought up before Sept. 1st. Cancel is back-up catcher for Castro who is the back-up catcher for Schneider, so you are probably right with Cancel. Easley is 39, so maybe Reyes will be back-up at 2nd base in 2009. He certainly has shown he has the ability. Figueroa is 3-3 and has pitched at least 5 innings in each of his starts and in relief given up 3 runs in 8 innings. In back-to-back relief stints vs Milwaukee this past series, he pitched 3 innings allowing one hit and no runs, walked one, struck out 4. Muniz hasn’t pitched for the Mets since August 10th.
The big problem with Syracuse is that the field is astro turf. Unless they change the field to grass it seems more likely that the Mets end up in Buffalo.
One more interesting note is that the stadium in Syracuse is the exact same design as the stadium the Mets used in Norfolk. Except of course that Syracuse has astro turf.
for any who are interested…
John Delcos’s new blog is up and running
http://nymetsreport.com/
Scott, If I’m not mistaken, the Sky Chiefs spent this past offseason getting rid of the astro turf. They now have natural grass out there.
And HDarvick, take a chill pill.
livin in NJ I wish the Mets and the IL would be able to add a team and make the Independent league Somerset patriots or Newark bears the AAA affiliate. Cut down on travel even more since players could go to NY by car not plane. But I guess that won’t be happening.
I have a feeling based on the tone that HDarvick is Sloppy.
But even if it isn’t, the facts are Carlos Muniz, Robinson Cancel, Nelson Figueroa and Argenis Reyes are all fringe players and there is no reason to believe they will not be on the AAA roster and will be going back and forth (unless they are released or traded).
That doesn’t mean they have not or could not make contributions to the Mets, but they are not players that should make or break a team’s season.
Scoop: True, but Josh really didn’t need to mention those 4 players by name.
It’s also of course closer for the Binghamton callups to get to Syracuse than it would Buffalo.
Benny, you are correct. The Chiefs have redone their field as a grass, something which at the time was cited by the Syracuse papers as an incentive for the Mets to move their AAA team there.
The Mets farm team was in Buffalo in the early 1960s. Ed Kranepool played there and hated it “Buffalo has only two seasons: winter and 4th of July”. Maybe I should rent “The Natural” and check out the old War Memorial Stadium Steady Eddie played in except it’s such a godawful film.
Would it be possible someday to place a AAA team in the metropolitan area since the lower leagues like Brooklyn have done so well?