New league, new prep work
Valleycats need to hire manager, set up roster for mid-may opener
After all the waiting to find out their future, the Tri-city Valleycats must hurry up to be ready for the 2021 season — whatever form it takes during the pandemic.
With Thursday’s announcement they’ve joined the independent Frontier League, the Valleycats will work toward hiring a manager and putting together a roster in time for the planned opener in mid-may.
Those are responsibilities the Valleycats never had with the Astros before finding out they’d lost their Major League Baseball affiliation a month ago. Houston always assigned the manager and players.
“It’s going to be fast forward,” Tri-city general manager Matt Callahan said on a Zoom call. “We’re going to need to move quick here. We’re a little bit behind our normal timeline to get ready for a season from an operational perspective. Now we’re adding into the mix an on-field component and a baseball component, which is certainly going to be a challenge, but I think it’s an exciting challenge for our organization.”
Callahan said the Frontier League and its other 15 team owners have been “tremendous” in trying to help the Valleycats start a managerial search, which is the team’s first priority.
“Our goal in hiring the manager is to be able to lean on that individual to take the lead on player procurement and helps us build that roster,” Callahan said. “We’re going to get on that pretty quick and move as fast as we can and make sure we’re ready to
go when the first pitch flies.”
Frontier League deputy commissioner Steve Tahsler said the typical Frontier League player is 24 years old. About two-thirds of Frontier League players have previous professional baseball experience, including more than half with affiliated teams. Many have been released from New YorkPenn League clubs the previous year, Tahsler said.
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Nick Anderson, who pitched in the World Series last year, was in the Frontier League from 2012 to 2015.
Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee said the league is proceeding as though it will be playing in 2021, despite the pandemic. The league plans to have a schedule out within three weeks.
The Valleycats will play a 96-game schedule with 48 home games, 10 more than they played in the New York-penn League. Team president Rick Murphy said the revenue from those extra home games will help cover the additional $220,000 to $250,000 in cost now that Tri-city is independent.
The Frontier League salary cap is $85,000 with some exemptions.
“Having an additional 10 games is very helpful because if we can average 4,000 a game, we’re comfortable in thinking we should be able to offset a
majority of those additional on-field costs we’ll have to incur,” Murphy said.
Murphy added the Valleycats will provide the same off-the-field experience for fans with promotions and entertainment that they’ve always had.
“Although we do understand there are going to be some challenges and learning curve for on the field, having the experience in the entertainment off the field, I think, puts us in a good position to really focus on the field,” he said.
While the Valleycats now have a clear direction in independent ball, the next question is how many fans they’ll be able to put in Joseph L. Bruno Stadium next season, depending on the course of COVID -19.
Callahan said the Valleycats are preparing for different scenarios, whether it’s a full house, 50 percent or 25 percent capacity, or if the schedule is impacted.
“I think everybody is in the same boat,” Callahan said. “Everybody’s preparing for what we can control and contingencies along the way, depending on how many people we may be able to have in the ballpark, depending on how the vaccine takes hold.”
However the season unfolds, it will be a new experience for Valleycats chairman of the board Doug Gladstone, whose family has known only affiliated baseball since his late father, Bill, bought the Pittsfield Mets in 1992 before eventually moving them to Troy.
“The overused Mike Tyson quote is everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” Gladstone said. “We were surprised to not be part of affiliated ball, as we had indications all the way that wasn’t going to change. We are so happy to have found a home in the Frontier League and they are like-minded like we are about baseball.”