Pittsburgh Pirates Affiliate Update

S. Samek

The landscape of Minor League Baseball is changing quite a bit. With teams being cut, or demoted to different leagues and levels its quite sad. However there is some hope.

Recently the Pittsburgh Pirates extended invitations to Indianapolis, Altoona, Bradenton and Greensboro. Each of these teams would be invited to stay as affiliates within the Pirates organization. The only change would be Bradenton becoming the low a team, while Greensboro becomes the high a team.

I’m really glad they extended invites, escpially for Altoona. These are some smaller cities that may have been cut if not invited. Altoona has been with the Pirates sense their invention which has spanned for 23 years. Persnally it would be so weird to not take that almost yearly trip to see the Curve and not hve them play affliated baseball.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will also hold on to their Gulf Cost League and DSL teams. The West Virginia Black Bears will play in a draft league while the Bristol Pirates will play in a collegiate summer league. So good that they at least have some baseball to fall back on.