ACC Baseball vs Frontier League

[Sean Miller Fan]

The ACC had 28 alums on 2014 opening day MLB rosters. In the 21 year history of the Frontier League, only 24 players have played in the majors after once playing in the Frontier League.

Anybody who knows anything about baseball can tell you that the ACC is a much higher level of baseball than the "semi-pro" Frontier League, which I say is only a step above some of those local adult amateur leagues in the area. Pitt baseball is also a much better team than the Washington Wild Things. This one of my biggest pet peeves. The Wild Things have a pretty good size niche fanbase and I know many people who have been to Wild Things games. At least a few times a year, people tell me "you gotta go see a Wild Things game." Great, they do fun stuff between innings but that isnt enough for me. The product on the field is abysmal. Its borderline embarrassing. I just wished I came up with the idea to put a sandlot team in Washington County and charge people to watch it. I wished some of these people would recognize that Pitt baseball and the ACC is light years better than the Frontier League.
This post was edited on 4/4 9:58 AM by Sean Miller Fan

 

[JD1976]

Exactly. The Wild Things are horseshit baseball and it's resentful that they brand themselves as "minor league baseball". Minor League Baseball is the brand name of the 160 affiliated franchises across the U.S. and Canada. The Wild Things are not part of that. Most of their players weren't drafted or flamed out after getting as high as, maybe, Low Class A (equivalent of West Virginia Power).

In Pennsylvania, there are a number of the most successful affiliated minor league baseball franchises in the COUNTRY, who not only have a great ballparks and put on a fun, affordable show, but also have future major leaguers up and down their rosters. If you're a Pirates fan, take trips to see Altoona or the West Virginia Power. Both teams are loaded with the Pirates top prospects. Hell, the WV Power might be the most prospect-laden team in A-ball. If you head to the Eastern part of the state, Reading and Lehigh Valley, the top affiliates of the Phillies, win awards every year for their promotions and lead their leagues in attendance.

The Wild Things do offer a nice evening out, cheap beer, fun promotions and that's valuable, but I hate that people in Western PA look at them as a good baseball product. It simply is not. Thankfully, there will be an affiliated minor league team in Morgantown starting in 2015, affiliated with the Pirates (most likely), that will hopefully drown out the Wild Things.

Bottom line: if you like the Wild Things, fine. It's a good night out. But don't for a second think that the baseball is any good or that the players on the field have any kind of future in the game.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Absolute truth

And I've always felt Pitt baseball had potential to serve a niche in the city: cheap, competitive baseball. Now it has quality and a venue.

The advantage the Wild Things has is location, but also a full summer schedule. The City of Pittsburgh is already crowded by options and the college season during warm weather in Pittsburgh short, so Pitt baseball needs marketing if it is ever going to grow.


This post was edited on 4/4 2:25 PM by CrazyPaco

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

The Wild Things....

and Pitt baseball really don't compete much with each other. The seasons barely overlap at all. Pitt's regular season ends about two weeks after the Wild Things season starts. There is no reason that someone couldn't easily be a fan of both, if that was what they wanted to do.

The problem with Pitt baseball is the same problem that most of other places in the north have. The college baseball season starts way too early. A large percentage of the games are played at a time when people don't have much desire to spend three plus hours outside in the weather. Look at the weather today. They have already had to push the game time back, and my guess is they are still going to have trouble getting it in. Tomorrow the rain is supposed to stop in the morning, but the temperature is only supposed to be in the low 50s. Look at last weekend, when they moved the time of one of the game up several hours to try to get better weather, but that meant playing in the morning when the temperatures were probably in the 40s and the wind was blowing pretty hard. Assuming that someone who was going to attend the game even knew that they pushed the starting time up a few hours, who wants to sit outside all morning when it's in the 40s with a 10-20 mph wind blowing?

If the NCAA wants college baseball to have a better chance to succeed in the north they need to push the start of the season back until at least the beginning of March. At least. But the schools in the south and the west have little interest in that, because they know that having the season start in February gives them an even bigger advantage than starting the season in March would. If you are Miami or Florida or Mississippi or UCLA why would you want to change the schedule to a time that would help other schools become more competitive but wouldn't help you even a little bit?

 

[CrazyPaco]

Re: The Wild Things....

It's legislation Jim Delaney couldn't even push through...and he tried.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Yes, he did....

and to be fair they did push the start of the season back a week or two a couple years ago. But that's just tinkering around the edges. The "power" in college baseball is in the south and the west and that's the way those schools want it to stay.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Re: The Wild Things....

Originally posted by Joe the Panther Fan:
and Pitt baseball really don't compete much with each other. The seasons barely overlap at all. Pitt's regular season ends about two weeks after the Wild Things season starts. There is no reason that someone couldn't easily be a fan of both, if that was what they wanted to do.

The problem with Pitt baseball is the same problem that most of other places in the north have. The college baseball season starts way too early. A large percentage of the games are played at a time when people don't have much desire to spend three plus hours outside in the weather. Look at the weather today. They have already had to push the game time back, and my guess is they are still going to have trouble getting it in. Tomorrow the rain is supposed to stop in the morning, but the temperature is only supposed to be in the low 50s. Look at last weekend, when they moved the time of one of the game up several hours to try to get better weather, but that meant playing in the morning when the temperatures were probably in the 40s and the wind was blowing pretty hard. Assuming that someone who was going to attend the game even knew that they pushed the starting time up a few hours, who wants to sit outside all morning when it's in the 40s with a 10-20 mph wind blowing?

If the NCAA wants college baseball to have a better chance to succeed in the north they need to push the start of the season back until at least the beginning of March. At least. But the schools in the south and the west have little interest in that, because they know that having the season start in February gives them an even bigger advantage than starting the season in March would. If you are Miami or Florida or Mississippi or UCLA why would you want to change the schedule to a time that would help other schools become more competitive but wouldn't help you even a little bit?

If the NCAA really wanted what was best for the sport of college baseball, they would have the College World Series end in late August, a week or so before the start of college football season. It could fill that April-September void between college basketball and college football seasons. Currently, the season starts when it is freezing cold in the north and during the stretch run of the college basketball season when most Northerners (or anybody) wants to focus on college baseball. And as you said, by the time the weather gets good, the regular season is over.

If they pushed the season back 2 months, it would allow the weather to be nicer but also they wouldnt have to compete with college basketball. Their only competition would be MLB and NBA playoffs. In some markets, niche leagues like the NHL and MLS are also popular but even the NHL only runs till June.

The problem with doing this is that it eliminates the wooden bat summer leagues and it wouldnt allow drafted college players to go down to Rookie ball or Short-Season A. That would be a big culture change and the reason it'll never happen.

 

[brdst11]

SMF:

Not sure why the Frontier League bothers you so much. Most people go to minor league games for the entertainment, not to see the stars of the future. And there's no comparison between the atmosphere at a Pitt game and a Wild Things game, as far as entertainment goes.

I say this as someone who goes to a bunch of minor league games every summer, mostly so I can watch the Pirates of the future. Regardless of whether it's an affiliated team or an independent team, most people are just there to have fun.

As someone else pointed out, weather is a huge advantage for the Frontier League. Most people aren't thinking baseball right now, but they will in July when it's nice out and the Wild Things play a bunch of games.

Having been to their games, I also get the feeling that few people from Pittsburgh (well, north of the South Hills) go to the games. It always feels like a Washington Co/WV crowd, with many of the same people going night after night, just because it's something to do.

Pitt needs to develop *their* own crowd of people who go game after game, other than the few people on this board who do so. The most likely targets for this should be hardcore Pitt fans, the same people who go to football and basketball games, most of whom have never even been to a game.

Why not a Panther Club night at a game? How about a Pitt-sponsored tailgate before the game?

 

[jtownknowitall]

I bet there is a lot of ACC alums in the Frontier League. And I think you're underrating the league a bit.