Minor League Baseball in Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Several reports have been circulating in recent weeks regarding the possibility of locating a minor league baseball team in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  There is no question that this area which is approximately 30 miles south of Nashville could support it but is it a good choice?

While the city deals with the issues of where to build a proposed stadium, I'm not sure that the league they are proposing would be ideal.  

The proposal is to have a team in the American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) which is an independent baseball league.  This means that the teams in the league are not affiliated or part of the Major League Baseball (MLB) farm system.  The league consists of 12 teams with the closest team - the Kane County Cougars in Geneva, Illinois being 427 miles away.

Other teams include Chicago Dogs (Rosemont, IL), Cleburne (TX) Railroaders, Gary (IN) SouthShore RailCats, Lake Country DockHounds (Oconomowoc, WI), Milwaukee Milkmen (Franklin, WI), Fargo-Moorhead (ND) RedHawks, Kansas City (KS) Monarchs, Lincoln (NE) Saltdogs, Sioux City (IA) Explorers, Sioux Falls (SD) Canaries and Winnipeg Goldeyes in Canada.

Those would be some brutal road trips.

The AAPB was founded in 2005 and typically recruits college and former major and minor league players.  Most players include college players who were not drafted into MLB but still want the opportunity to be seen by major league scouts and possibly get signed by an MLB team.

Why this league?   Why not more suitable leagues such as the South Atlantic League?  Another suitable league would be the Coastal Plain League which has 14 teams scattered across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.  This league is a wood-bat collegiate summer league which features college players recruited from around the United States.

It is a bad plan to jump into the wrong league for Murfreesboro's first step into minor league sports.  

  

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