Milwaukee Brewers: Why San Antonio Over Colorado Triple-A?
By Max Neibaur
The Milwaukee Brewers announced Tuesday, September 18, 2018 they will move their Triple-A team from Colorado Springs to San Antonio. The San Antonio Missions spent over 100 years as a Double-A team in the Texas League, but will start 2019 as the Brewers Triple-A affiliate in a 2-year contract through 2020.
The Milwaukee Brewers former Triple-A team in Colorado Springs played tough on young pitchers because of the thin air in Colorado. The Brewers organization tried to defend the situation, but fans knew having a Triple-A club in Colorado was not optimal.
Now that the deal to move the Triple-A team is done, the Brewers organization can be less guarded of their opinions.
Craig Counsell on the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliation moving from Colorado Springs to San Antonio: “The pitchers are all in there high-fiving each other.”
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) September 18, 2018
Even Brewers General Manager David Stearns is openly celebrating the move.
"“We look forward to many future Brewers making their final Minor League stop at Wolff Stadium [in San Antonio],” Stearns went on to emphasize that it is “a quality player development environment.”"
The San Diego Padres fielded their Double-A affiliate in San Antonio this season. Next year, the Missions will make their debut as a Triple-A team with Milwaukee Brewers minor league talent.
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Furthermore, this move takes San Antonio out of the Texas League and into the Pacific Coast League.
The options reportedly came between San Antonio and Fresno. Stearns liked how San Antonio could provide a team in the same time zone (Central) as the big league Brewers for last second call-up situations amongst other reasons.
As Stearns tries to build a deep team on the major league level with the Brewers, Milwaukee’s small market means the organization must depend on minor league talent. Small market teams cannot retain all good players after they reach free-agent status. The Milwaukee Brewers rely on talent constantly flowing up to the big league club because those players come at a cheaper price.
Moving their Triple-A team to San Antonio has caused a shuffle in the Brewers minor league locations beyond Triple-A.
The Brewers rookie-level Helena club will be moving to Colorado Springs. Therefore, the Milwaukee Brewers are not completely ridden of the thin air in Colorado, but Colorado Springs does offer Triple-A quality facilities for a rookie level team.
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Furthermore, the Milwaukee Brewers still have low-A level Wisconsin Timber Rattlers to place their young, developing pitchers if they feel like Colorado Springs will be too detrimental to their development.