Post by David - Cleveland on Dec 28, 2017 18:50:42 GMT -8
While the Milwaukee Brewers have had their moments, post-season appearances in both 2008 and 2011, they have had a pretty rough time since those two years. They have struggled to be a 3rd, but more often 4th, even last place team in the NL Central. According to owner Mark Attanasio, enough is enough.
Attanasio changed out his front office staff and has informed the City of Milwaukee that he is going to move the team immediately to Montreal and become the Expos, giving that city another MLB franchise that has been absent since 2004.
Obviously the City of Montreal is ecstatic. It has been 16 long years of working behind the scenes, using every bit of leverage, from Warren Cromartie to any and every former Expo that has stepped up to the plate and reflected on the history of the Expos in Montreal and longed openly for the return of the team to Canada and Quebec.
There are several tasks at hand now for the new franchise.
First, Attanasio has to hire a new GM, who in turn will be charged with putting together a staff, meeting with the players and rest of the front office team and then getting to work on the roster and plan for the immediate future.
Another item on the agenda is the realignment of the National League. Naturally the Expos should fall into the NL East as they are further East than most of the NL East and certainly Central. Talks are underway at the ABL offices to formulate a plan of action for the 2021 season. Because of the immediate nature of the Brewers relocation, the plan for the coming 2020 season is for them to remain in the NL Central, simply occupying the same spot as the Brewers.
This is certainly a big day for Montreal, the ABL and baseball fans north of the border!
From a practical standpoint, the move will in two parts.
1) Changing the team name, logo and everything related.
2) Next season (2021) making the team for team realignment (only) to logically put Montreal in the East.
There will not be any other changes to the team, they will occupy the same stadium as Milwaukee (I will change the name to either Olympic Stadium or Jarry Parc) just to keep things simple.
They farm teams can remain as is for the time being.
And frankly I would rather this not start a push for more relocation as I would love to maintain the MLB setup (aside from Vancouver and Montreal), keeping the traditional franchises in place, for the foreseeable future, so we can all just concentrate on competitive baseball.
Because Montreal/Milwaukee is not an elite team (like Boston), if anyone is interested in the Montreal franchise, I will conduct a lottery of some kind to determine who gets the team (should more than one GM choose to transfer franchises).
And then will fill the remaining team!
Attanasio changed out his front office staff and has informed the City of Milwaukee that he is going to move the team immediately to Montreal and become the Expos, giving that city another MLB franchise that has been absent since 2004.
Obviously the City of Montreal is ecstatic. It has been 16 long years of working behind the scenes, using every bit of leverage, from Warren Cromartie to any and every former Expo that has stepped up to the plate and reflected on the history of the Expos in Montreal and longed openly for the return of the team to Canada and Quebec.
There are several tasks at hand now for the new franchise.
First, Attanasio has to hire a new GM, who in turn will be charged with putting together a staff, meeting with the players and rest of the front office team and then getting to work on the roster and plan for the immediate future.
Another item on the agenda is the realignment of the National League. Naturally the Expos should fall into the NL East as they are further East than most of the NL East and certainly Central. Talks are underway at the ABL offices to formulate a plan of action for the 2021 season. Because of the immediate nature of the Brewers relocation, the plan for the coming 2020 season is for them to remain in the NL Central, simply occupying the same spot as the Brewers.
This is certainly a big day for Montreal, the ABL and baseball fans north of the border!
From a practical standpoint, the move will in two parts.
1) Changing the team name, logo and everything related.
2) Next season (2021) making the team for team realignment (only) to logically put Montreal in the East.
There will not be any other changes to the team, they will occupy the same stadium as Milwaukee (I will change the name to either Olympic Stadium or Jarry Parc) just to keep things simple.
They farm teams can remain as is for the time being.
And frankly I would rather this not start a push for more relocation as I would love to maintain the MLB setup (aside from Vancouver and Montreal), keeping the traditional franchises in place, for the foreseeable future, so we can all just concentrate on competitive baseball.
Because Montreal/Milwaukee is not an elite team (like Boston), if anyone is interested in the Montreal franchise, I will conduct a lottery of some kind to determine who gets the team (should more than one GM choose to transfer franchises).
And then will fill the remaining team!