Do New Yorkers eat red beans and rice?

Earlier this morning it was announced that starting in 2007, the New York Mets will begin a new player development agreement with the New Orleans Zephrys as their top farm clubs, making the Mets their fourth different parent club in their 13-year existence (Brewers, Astros, Nationals, and Mets).

Let the musical chairs begin

According to minorleaguebaseball.com, the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Red Barons just signed a player development agreement with the New York Yankees for the 2007 season.

In addition, the Columbus Clippers, who have been the top farm club of the Yankees for 28 years, will become the top farm club of the Washington Nationals beginning next year as the Clippers play their final season at Cooper Stadium as reported by the team’s offical website today.

I didn’t get any word on what will become of the Phillies’ Triple-A team. Logic would probably say the team will play in Ottawa for the Lynx’s final season before moving to Allentown, Pa., so stay tuned to this blog as we begin the first day of musical chairs in the world of Triple-A baseball.

Hey, the Bricktown Showdown might work

Since the American Association’s dissolvement into the Pacific Coast League and the International League in 1998, Minor League Baseball has tried everything in its power to have a Triple-A World Series, which the Memphis Redbirds were a part of back in 2000 when they faced the Indianapolis Indians in Las Vegas.

Of course, as you know, Las Vegas is not a baseball town at all. I remember back in 2001 and 2002, the baseball brains at ESPN had a home-run derby style show that was at Cashman Field in Las Vegas and it was sparsely attended like the Triple-A World Series that had been held there.

Which was the reason why the good people at Minor League Baseball decided not to have it in 2005, which was the best thing for Triple-A baseball and the fans.

In 2006, Minor League decided to have a free-for-all, winner-take-all single game between the champions of the International League and the Pacific Coast League and revive the Triple-A World Series.

But this time, it would not be held in Sin City.

The people at Minor League Baseball decided that if this Triple-A World Series was going to work, it would have to be held in a solid minor-league market.

Called Oklahoma City.

Three factors that I think played into the minors’ decision to have the series in Oklahoma City was that first of all, the state of Oklahoma has two highly regarded college baseball programs in Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and when the two schools have their annual showdown at Bricktown Ballpark, they draw well over 10-13,000 to the ballpark for the game every April.

Secondly, the state of Oklahoma has churned out greats like Mickey Mantle, whom the street that the ballpark is on is named after, Johnny Bench, and Warren Spahn, who won 20 games in 13 different seasons.

And lastly, the Bricktown ballpark is an excellent ballpark and the district that the ballpark is in has been a part of Oklahoma City’s revitialized Downtown district like Autozone Park.

But over 9 or 10,000 are there at the ballpark tonight in Oklahoma City, so that should be enough to bring this Showdown back to OKC for another year, don’t you think? 

There’s nothing like fall cleaning

When your AAA team just wrapped up the worst season in their nine-year history, you would have to expect some changes to be made in how your AAA team is ran on the field.

And sadly the case for the 2006 Memphis Redbirds, changes had to be done quick and fast in a hurry as the Redbirds celebrate their 10th season in Memphis.

According to yesterday’s Commercial Appeal, manager Danny Sheaffer, who once played for the Redbirds during the inagural season, was let go after four years on the job as well as former Atlanta Brave Tommy Gregg, who was serving as hitting coach and helped the Redbirds finish dead last in the Pacific Coast League in batting at .242.

In layman’s terms, the Cardinals’ brass was sick and tired of the Redbirds’ losing and wanted to inject some much-needed energy into the Redbirds’ organization.

Which has been the case since a young kid from Kansas City hit a game-winning homer to win the PCL championship on a September night in 2000 at Autozone Park.

In the last six years, the only Redbirds team that has come close to seriously contending for a playoff spot was the 2005 bunch with Anthony Reyes and Chris Duncan, who were in it until the final series of the season against the Isotopes.

And that team finished a shade under .500, missing the coveted .500 mark by three percentage points.

Before this season, the Redbirds under Sheaffer were pretty much unbeatable at the corner of Union and South Third in his first two seasons in Memphis.

But for much of the season, what I saw from the Fan Radio booth was poor base-running strategy against Tacoma on May 24th, swinging and missing at many bad pitches (that means you, John Nelson), and friction by Junior Spivey.

You can’t really blame all of the problems I mentioned in the previous paragraph for the failures of the Redbirds’ season.

Throughout most of the season, players like Skip Schumacher, John Gall, Anthony Reyes, Chris Duncan, Timo Perez, Dennis Tankersly, Josh Kinney, John Rodriguez, et. al. were called up to St. Louis at various points in the season.

And with the exception of Duncan, the rest of them were shuttled back and forth from St. Louis to Memphis, which meant that folks at Autozone Park were paying close attention to their lineups throughout most of the summer as new faces like Mike Rose, Brian Martin, Rico Washington, and Derrick Wathan were in the lineup throughout much of June, July, and August.

So that in itself was a major problem for the Redbirds this season.

The can’t-miss guy, Travis Hanson, became a face on the milk carton after the first of June as he struggled badly in the two months he spent in Memphis.

But aside from that, the question for the Redbirds is this, who’ll be the next manager?

According to this morning’s paper, former Cubs manager Jim Riggleman was rumored to be in the mix for the job, as well as Springfield manager Chris Maloney, who has done a great job in Springfield these last two years.

But going in-house should be the way to search for the new manager for the Redbirds, namely former Redbird Ron “Pop” Warner or Chris Maloney, or anybody who has a tie to the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

Which paid off last season in the Detroit Tigers organization as former Tiger Larry Parrish helped the Mud Hens to their first IL championship since 1967.

Of course, you can’t expect that to instantly happen in your first year because you have a tie to the organization (the Mud Hens were in last place the year before), but whoever the new manager is, they must have a desire to win and teach the youngsters how to play the right way so that they can be successful when they head up Interstate 55.

Or hire a Lou Brown-type manager.

A full Nelson and a couple of pitchers up Interstate 55 will do, mate!!

One thing I’ve learned about September callups in almost 20 years of following baseball and the last nine following Memphis Redbirds baseball is that callups can make or break your season.

Case in point when the Montreal Expos were in a race for the Wild Card spot in 2003, the Expos’ chances were hurt because unlike the other 29 teams on September 1st, they could not call up their star players from the Expos system, a move which pretty much proved to be the death knell for the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) and their chance for their first postseason appearance in 23 years.

For the Cardinals, three of this year’s Redbirds, Chris Naverson, Josh Kinney, and John Nelson will head up Interstate 55 to join the big leagues, as reported on the Memphis Redbirds’ web site.

John Nelson, during his time here in Memphis, hit .215 with 21 homers and 48 RBI’s. The big problem that he had during the season was his plate discipline, he struck out 153 times in 423 plate appearances this season. His 21 homers led the team this season as well as his 153 strikeouts and 48 RBI’s.

For Chris Narverson, he led the Redbirds in wins with 8, while making only 15 appearances for the Redbirds this season. He also hit a home run on July 4th when the Redbirds faced Nashville in Memphis, the only Redbirds pitcher to do so this season.

Unlike Narverson and Nelson, only Kinney has spent a stint with the Cardinals this season, Kinney pitched in 10 games for the Cardinals this season and had a team-best 1.52 ERA while whiffing 76 batters for the Redbirds in 71 innings of work.

The trio will join John Rodriguez, Anthony Reyes, who has pitched well at Autozone Park this season, and Brad Thompson, who was called up on Friday after the series opener against New Orleans.

In other news around the world of Triple-A, the Toledo Mud Hens defeated the Indianapolis Indians last night in a one-game playoff in Toledo 4 to 0 to win the IL West and head to the postseason for the second consecutive year. They will open their run for their second IL championship tonight against Charlotte in Toledo.

Forgot to report this, folks

Because of Indianapolis’ win over Louisville and Toledo’s loss to Columbus, the Tribe and Mud Hens will play a one-game playoff to determine the final playoff spot in the International League tonight at Fifth Third Field in Toledo.

Nashville will open their run for a second PCL championship and the third for a Tennessee team in the PCL since the PCL realigned in 1998 when they host the Round Rock Express in Nashville Wednesday night and the Salt Lake Bees and Tucson Sidewinders will open their series on Thursday night in Salt Lake.