The New York Mets, officially known as the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club is of course the National League representative in the city of New York. I thought it might be a good time to take a look at the rest of the organization as we prepare, although a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting, for a new baseball season. Each Major League team has several minor league teams responsible for the development of future major league players. This system is known as the farm, where the ballplayers of tomorrow are grown. Three things generally happen to ball players in the farm system. They eventually make it to the major league club, they are traded to other organizations for other minor league players or part of a deal to bring in Major League players, or they simply don’t make it in baseball and go back into society to work like the rest of us. Never the less each Major League team has a working contract with several minor league clubs at the different minor league levels. Minor league teams are generally not owned by the Major League club but are independently owned and operated. There are exceptions, a small number of minor league teams are owned by the Major League club such as the Richmond Braves who are owned by the Atlanta Braves. All minor league teams that are affliated with Major League teams are under the umbrella known as Minor League Baseball. There are also independent minor leagues not affliated with any major league team such as the Atlantic League and the CanAm League found in the northeast. These leagues are not under the jurisdiction of Minor League Baseball. However they are professional leagues that use wooden bats. Many former Major and minor league players are found still playing in the independent leagues.
The Mets own the contracts of the players that play within their farm system. Also, the Mets hire the managers and coaches that will be responsible for the development of the players. The daily operation of the team is conducted by the minor league team’s employees however. The Mets pay the salaries of the players that are under contract. Each Major League team is affliated with one triple A (AAA) team, a double A (AA) team and at least 2 A teams including a short season league. Also they are associated with at least one rookie league team. Let’s take a look at the teams that make up the Mets minor league system.
For the first time since 1968, the Mets will not have their triple A farm club in Norfolk Virginia. Last year, there were several AAA teams whose contracts had expired with their Major League affiliate. Like a free agent player, a minor league team is able to negotiate with any Major League club looking for the best deal they can find. The Norfolk Tides owner group also owns other minor league teams who are associated with the Baltimore Orioles. For them, it made more business sense to hook the Tides to the Orioles as opposed to the Mets so the longtime connection with the New York club ended at the end of last season. The players that were on the Tides last year do not stay in Norfolk, they move to the Mets new affiliate in New Orleans, only the uniform stays. Next year’s Tides will be the Orioles AAA players from last season. The new AAA affiliate of the Mets is the New Orleans Zephyrs. Previously the Zephyrs were affiliated with the Nationals.
New Orleans was not the Mets first choice. They tried hard to renegotiate with Norfolk but by the time the Tides ownership had made up their mind to sign with the Orioles, the Mets did not have much of a choice left. The Mets tried to hook up with Scranton at the last minute but the damn Yankees beat them to the punch. The only club left after the dust settled was the Zephyrs. However this is a unique opportunity for the Mets. Already the Mets are active participants in the New Orleans community in regards to the re-building process. This certainly could be positive for public relations. The downside of being affiliated with New Orleans is that they are in the Pacific Coast League, one of the oldest minor leagues in the country. Most of the Zephyrs away schedule is on the west coast so the transporting of players between AAA and New York will take more time than what it used to. Norfolk was in the International League with their teams in the Mid-Atlantic States and the northeast, a much more reasonable commute. Last year, Norfolk had a pretty miserable year going 57 and 84, finishing in 3rd place in the Southern Division. The new AAA Mets affiliate, the Zephyrs play a 144 game schedule. For additional info regarding the New Orleans club, click the following link - http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/clubs/ip_index.jsp?cid=t588&mc=info
The double A affiliate of the Mets is the Binghamton Mets from Binghamton, New York. The B-Mets as they are known have been a Mets AA affiliate since 1992. It’s at the AA league level where you really look to see who the prospects are. These days, Triple A is often a repository for the Major League club to shuttle players that are on the 40 man roster back and forth. The B-Mets play a 144 game schedule. Last year Binghamton finished in 3rd place in the Northern Division with a 70-70 record 9 games out of first. Michel Abreu and Ambiorix Concepcion are a couple of the young stars that will be at Binghamton this season. Click the following link to get further information regarding the B-Mets. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t505
After double A comes single A. At this level, Major League teams tend to have more than one entry. The Mets are no exception. The high level A team for the Mets is the St. Lucie Mets who play in Port St. Lucie at the Mets spring training facility. The St. Lucie Mets are part of the Florida State League. All teams in the league make their home at Major League Spring Training facilities. Unlike the Zephyrs and the B-Mets, the NY Mets own the St. Lucie Mets. St. Lucie plays their home games at Tradition Field, the same park where the parent Mets play their home pre-season games in March. The Florida State League uses a split season schedule. The schedule is broken into two halves with champions being determined for each half season in each of two divisions, an east and west. There are 140 total games played, 70 in each half. Last year the St. Lucie Mets won the East in the first half and finished third in the second half. But because they won in the first half, St. Lucie made the playoffs. For more information regarding the St. Lucie Mets click here - http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/index.jsp?sid=t507
Like the Mets triple A affiliate, the Mets low A farm team will be new this year too. Last year, the Hagerstown Suns were part of the Metropolitan family. The Suns play in the South Atlantic League. After the Mets and Suns working agreement expired last season, the Suns elected to sign with the Washington Nationals citing that more interest would be generated since the Suns, from Hagerstown Md. are fairly close to Washington DC. The new class A affiliate for the Mets is the Savannah Sand Gnats (nice name) also of the South Atlantic League. Savannah plays in the Southern Division of the Sally League. Like the Florida State League, the Sally League is also set up in a split season format. Teams play 70 games in each half for a total of 140 games. The Suns finished a combined 60 and 80 (30 and 40 in each half) last season. Go to http://www.sandgnats.com/ for additional information.
The well known Brooklyn Cyclones are the Mets short-season A league affiliate. The Cyclones are members of the historic New York-Penn League which starts in late June and concludes with playoffs the first week in September. The NY/Penn League started in 1939 and was originally known as the Pennsylvanian-Ontario-New York League. It became known as the New York Penn League after the Ontario team folded in 1956. Most teams are generally in the New York/Pennsylvania area, however, more recently teams have sprung up in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, and for a while New Jersey. The league is broken into three divisions, the McNamara, Pinckney, and Stedler divisions. The league is known as a short season league because it starts after the amateur draft where the best newly signed players can get their feet wet in professional baseball. Because the season starts so late, the teams play a 76 game season. There are three division winners and a wild card that make the post season. The Cyclones came into existence in 2001. It was the first time in 44 years since the Dodgers left that professional baseball returned to Brooklyn. The Cyclones play in Keystone Park, financed and built by the Mets. The games are often sold out so get your tickets early. For more info regarding the Cyclones click the following: http://www.brooklyncyclones.com/.
The next tier down after single A is the Rookie Leagues. The Mets have four of them. The Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian league plays in Kingsport West Virginia. Like the short season A league, the Appalachian league plays a schedule of just 70 games. Players in the rookie leagues are generally from the later rounds of the amateur draft. Again, the best players from the draft go to Brooklyn or St. Lucie. The Kingsport Mets website is http://www.kmets.com/index.asp?xa=1. The Mets have another rookie league team in Florida. The Gulf Coast Mets play in the Gulf Coast League. Their games are played at the Port St. Lucie complex. Through July and August, the GCL Mets play 50 games. For more info, go to http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t468.
And finally something that is beginning to grow in baseball, in large part due to the Mets involvement, is a couple of rookie leagues outside of the United States. The Venezuelan Summer League and the Dominican Summer League are now in operation. These leagues give opportunity to those players in these countries who do not have the means to otherwise play in organized baseball. The Latino countries have become hot beds for Major League talent. Teams that have recognized this have invested heavily into franchises in these countries to hopefully help procure talent for the future of their Major League franchise. The Mets are one of the teams who have baseball academies in both Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
So in summary the Mets are affiliated with 9 minor league clubs, the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Binghamton Mets, the St. Lucie Mets, the Savannah Sand Gnats, the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Kingsport Mets, the Gulf Coast Mets, and the Venezuelan Summer League and Dominican Summer League Mets. So certainly if you are traveling or simply board on a day the Mets have off, check in on the internet and see how some of the young Mets are doing.
Read an article in today’s New York Times about the Mets new AAA affiliate in New Orleans – http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/sports/baseball/19mets.html?ref=sports
