That's great but I think they were still better off in Round Rock...if only for keeping Austin as an Astros town. Those years they were with the Rangers, you would see more and more Rangers gear around town. Have to wonder what went down with the Ryan family.
Awesome news, it's a fun stadium and it'll be nice being able to check in on the top prospects so much more easily.
Only good news for all of Houston all day. Luckily Ive buried myself in work and avoided most things nba.
Absolutely love this. Minor league baseball is so much fun and now we’ve got it in our own backyard. Will be nothing cooler than to be able to easily go see top Astros prospects in person.
The Astros actually own Corpus Christi (they purchased the team from Ryan-Sanders Baseball in 2013). While the complete picture isn't known, here's a best guess at the Astros new minor league affiliate alignment: AAA Sugar Land (partial Astros ownership) - Pacific Coast League AA Corpus Christi (full Astros ownership) - Texas League A+ (High A) Fayetteville Woodpeckers (full Astros ownership) - Carolina League A- (Low A) To Be Determined -- guessing probably a team in either the Florida State League that gets moved to West Palm Beach or a team in the South Atlantic League (Columbia and Charleston currently don't have affiliates). R (Rookie- Short Season) West Palm Beach - Gulf Coast Rookie League- team known as 'GCL Astros' R (Rookie- Short Season) Dominican Summer League- team usually referred to as 'DSL Astros' The Short Season Single A leagues, and non-Spring Training complex Rookie Leagues, are being dropped by MLB to get to 120 full-season minor league teams. Additionally, in the past, franchises were allowed to field multiple teams in the Rookie leagues (for example, DSL Astros Blue and DSL Astros Orange); it appears that Major League Baseball has ended that practice. Which now puts the 30 franchises on equal footing concerning their minor league teams as far as the amount of teams each franchise fields, and how many players are in their organizational tree..
absolutely hate losing the Express again. Having AAA in Sugarland will be awesome, but losing any presence in central Texas sucks. Get ready for that area to be Ranger-land again. :-(
Central Texas is loyal to whatever team is currently winning, not the damn AAA team. Fans aren't gonna flock to the Rangers if they keep sucking.
Anecdotally, I have noticed people wear more gear of the team who the Express have been affiliated with more than the team who's winning more in the majors.
I would say this was my experience as well. Rangers were in the World Series in 2010, but wouldn't have known it in Austin. It wasn't until Express players started moving up to Arlington a couple of years later that Ranger hats started popping up. Edit: Though, I think it coincided with the Cowboys sucking and it may have just been Dallas transplants branching out away from only Cowboys gear.