End of an era.
The longest triple-A affiliation in Phillies history (by far) quietly ended last night when Scranton was eliminated from the International League playoffs. Assuming everything goes to plan, the Phils’ minor leagues will be playing before tiny crowds next year in Ottawa and then from 2008 on in Allentown. The cynic in me suspects the stay in Ottawa will wind up being at least two years, maybe three, but we’ll see.
I understand why the Phils are making the move, but I’m a bit concerned about it. From the standpoint of having the team be convenient for bringing up players if needed I can’t imagine anything better, and all the stuff about building “brand loyalty” and all that is reasonable. But what it will do is consolidate ownership and management of the system into a very limited number of hands. The team owns the two Florida farm teams, and Joseph Finley and Craig Stein, the pair who are bringing the AAA team to Allentown own Reading and Lakewood between them.
That’s not a lot of viewpoints. Only Batavia is outside that circle, and to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised to see Finley and Stein go after a NYP League team next and try and rope the Phillies into that. The biggest problems the Phillies have had over the past quarter century come from the fact that they tend to operate on a good ol’ boy type network which tends to reward cronyism instead of talent. The consolidation of the farm system isn’t an encouraging sign on that front.
September 11th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
On the other hand, does consolidating ownership of the minor league teams make it easier for there to be a consistant approach to developing players that might not be possible with different owners? Do the Phillies name managers/coaches of these teams, or do the owners?
September 11th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
No it’s the Phils who select managers/coaches. They keep claiming they’re improving the consistency of their instruction through the minors and I’d believe it as far as pitching goes at this point. I don’t think I’d believe it for the hitters.