Durham Bulls Basics - 2018 - Part 2

The Schedule

The International League schedules 140 games for each of its teams (down from 144 in 2016). Half of those games are played at home. So, unless you are truly a Durham Bulls fanatic, you will only have 70 chances to see your Bulls during the regular season. Although, Charlotte or Norfolk isn’t all that far away so you could hope on the highway and visit ...

The Bulls season starts at home against the Charlotte Knights on April 5th. The last game of the season is a Monday day game against the Norfolk Tides on September 3.

An important feature of the IL schedule is that the Bulls only play a few home games against teams outside the South Division.  That means that if you are a Boston fan the only chance you’ll get to see Red Sox prospects will be the three games the first weekend of June (1, 2, 3). That’s it. They won’t be back unless both teams are in the playoffs in September. The same is true if you’re a Yankees fan (three games against the RailRiders, August 11-13). Said another way, the Bulls only play 37 games at home against the teams from outside the South Division.

On the other hand, if you’re a Braves, White Sox, or Orioles fan, you’re in luck. (Well, it’s a bit difficult to call an Orioles fan as being in any sort of luck, but you get the idea.) Those teams will be here a lot this year.

Triple-A ballplayers have a much more relentless schedule than major leaguers. They play more games with fewer days off, at least until September.

The Triple-A All-Star game pitting the International League All-Stars against the Pacific Coast League All-Stars is set for July 11, well past mid-season, and will be played Columbus, Ohio at the home field of the Columbus RailRiders (Cleveland AAA affiliate). Exactly how the players are selected for the game is something of a mystery. Fans do get a vote; however, usually the IL doesn’t bother to tell us how the fan voting went.

The International League Championship (The Governors’ Cup) is decided with two rounds of best of five playoffs in September. A one-game “AAA Championship” game is to be played on September 18 also at the RailRider's Huntington Park.

The Durham Bulls, as all readers of this blog must know, has won five Governors' Cups, two AAA  National Championships, and has won the Southern Division championship eight of the last eleven years.

See also Durham Bulls Basics - 2018 - Part 1 and Part 3

Durham Bulls Basics - 2018 - Part 1

For the last couple of years WDBB has made a stab at presenting the basics of this terrific baseball team. Here’s Part 1 of our 2018 version. As has been obvious, I haven't been paying too much attention lately; however, this is mostly stuff I did not know before my first Bulls game some years ago. I hope it doesn’t come off as being too basic.

Opening day is very close.

If you see a mistake, let me know. I’ll fix it as soon as I can.

AAA Baseball

The Durham Bulls are the Triple-A franchise of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Triple-A baseball is one step below major league baseball. How do we know that? Because Major League Baseball says Triple-A baseball is one step below Major League Baseball.

Major League Baseball has 30 teams: 15 in the American League and 15 in the National League. Each major league team has a AAA team in their farm system. Thus, there are 30 AAA minor league baseball teams — who said I couldn’t do basic arithmetic? Except, of course, that there’s a AAA Mexican League with 16 teams and recognized by Major League Baseball as being AAA, but I’ve never been able to figure that one out. (This is the last mention of the Mexican League for another year.)

The 30 Triple-A teams are divided into two leagues: The International League with 14 teams and the Pacific Coast League with 16 teams. So that sort of makes sense, so far.

What also makes sense is that, mostly, the International League is made up of teams who have their major league affiliates in the eastern and midwestern part of the country, while the Pacific Coast League’s parent clubs are, mostly, in the southwest and west.

But, hey, it’s baseball, so there will inevitably be a few quirks in the system. The Marlins, Brewers, and Cubs affiliates, for example, are all in the Pacific Coast League not in the International League.

The Durham Bulls are in the International League.

The International League

The 14 teams in the International League are matched up with major league teams without regard to whether the parent club is in the National League or the American League. The IL has teams affiliated with Boston, New York (Yankees), Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago (White Sox), Toronto, and Minnesota. That gives the IL 9 American League and 5 National League affiliates.

Logic would say that since AAA is the next step down from the majors, the teams would prefer to be in close proximity to each other. Sometimes that’s true. Toledo is linked to Detroit, Pawtucket is the AAA team of Boston, and the Atlanta Braves’ AAA club is just a long taxi ride away from Atlanta over in Lawrenceville, Georgia. On the other hand, Charlotte is pretty far from Chicago and the Durham-to-St. Petersburg distance is a good bit more than average.

Obviously, all the teams in the “International” League are in the US, but a while back there was a team in Ottawa. That gave us the chance to sing along to “O, Canada” four times a year.

With the re-opening of relations with Cuba, my bet is that we will see a International League team back in Cuba as soon as a major league team can make a deal. Note that the Tampa Bay Rays played the Cuban National Team in Havana last spring. Maybe a new team could be named the Sugar Kings, after the last International League AAA team that played in Havana. Why not move the Atlanta Braves affiliate since they only drew 3,000 fans per game last year? Only problem I see with a team in Cuba is learning the words to La Bayamesa, the Cuban National Anthem, much less singing it.

With teams from both the National and American Leagues, what about the designated hitter rule? The DH rule is in effect in all games except when both clubs are National League affiliates. That means that no Durham Bull pitchers will go to the plate this year (except in the very weird circumstance where a pitcher could go to the plate as a pinch-hitter — not likely, but possible).

The big change in the International League has been the re-naming of the  Atlanta Braves affiliate from the Gwinnett Braves to the Gwinnett Stripers. I think I'll leave my snarky comments regarding their new name to the first time the Bulls and the Stripers play. That would be April 8th.

The International League has three divisions: North, West, and South

Divisions and Affiliations

North Division

Buffalo Bisons - Toronto Blue Jays

Lehigh Valley IronPigs - Philadelphia Phillies

Pawtucket Red Sox - Boston Red Sox

Rochester Red Wings - Minnesota Twins

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders - New York Yankees

Syracuse Chiefs - Washington Nationals

West Division

Columbus Clippers - Cleveland Indians

Indianapolis Indians - Pittsburgh Pirates

Louisville Bats - Cincinnati Reds

Toledo Mud Hens - Detroit Tigers

South Division

Charlotte Knights - Chicago White Sox

Gwinnett Stripers - Atlanta Braves

Norfolk Tides - Baltimore Orioles

Durham Bulls - Tampa Bay Rays

See also Durham Bulls Basics 2018 Part 2 and Part 3.