Hurricane Irma wreaking havoc on minor league baseball playoffs
Minor league baseball will have three co-champions awarded this week due to Hurricane Irma
There are 18 minor league affiliations that play playoffs every season, and those playoffs all have different formats – some with one wild card, some with split first-half/second-half winners, some with a required 8-10 team playoff grouping. This season, the issues caused by Hurricane Irma will lead to 3 of those 18 championships being cancelled and turned into co-champions.
Let’s take a look at the teams that ended up coming out on top:
Florida State League
The Florida State League was the first to announce the decision to change their championship plans in 2017 to a shared championship. Their plans were to get things done quickly to allow teams the opportunity to get out quickly, if needed.
Both semifinal series had one game played when the announcement was made, and the plan was announced that all champions would be determined on September 6, with scheduled double headers just in case they were needed to determine the best-of-three series.
Palm Beach won their opening game on a walk off hit by pitch, which finished their series against Fort Myers, but Dunedin and Tampa made for much more excitement. Coming into the day, Tampa had a 1-0 series lead, but Dunedin clubbed 4 home runs as they won 4-1 and 5-3 in the games to claim their share of the league title.
Carolina League
The Carolina League was the 3rd league to announce their championship intentions. On Saturday night, the second of their two co-champs was crowned as Lynchburg had a big 7-1 victory over Frederick to take the win.
The fun story in the Carolina League’s co-champs, the Down East Wood Ducks. The Wood Ducks finished the first half with a record of 24-45, but they won the second half division title and swept Myrtle Beach in the best-of-three series.
This was the first season in the Carolina League for the Down East team, and their first half was spent struggling with not just getting the team settled but also getting facilities set up correctly, getting the employees needed for the data collection and such that the team wanted and needed to be successful. The ability to overcome all of that to have the success on and off the field they did is truly impressive!
Southern League
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
The Southern League is the one of the three that is still undecided, though the two teams that would be most directly affected by the hurricane are done with their side of the championship, so the planning had the effect that the league hoped for.
With the teams in the Southern League spread from Florida across the gulf coast states and then up to Tennessee, the Southern League is one that could have had no issues at all or had significant issues with a hurricane, depending on where it may hit.
The first team to clinch was Pensacola, sweeping the Jacksonville team in 3 games to earn their first ever Southern League title. Pensacola has seen much of their opening day roster move up to AAA and even to Cincinnati, so to be able to take home the share of the league title is a significant thing.
Next: Arizona Fall League Roster Breakdown
The other half of the Southern League title will be decided on Sunday between Montgomery and Chattanooga, who are tied 2-2 in the best of 5 series. Montgomery and Chattanooga had the two best overall records in the league this season, with Chattanooga having a legit argument for the minor league team of the year, with 91 regular season wins, tying them behind only Trenton (92) in regular season team wins.