Houston Suburb Only First Link as Atlantic League Develops a Western Division

Sugar Land, TXcity officials called their agreement to place an Atlantic Leagueteam in the upscale Houston suburb “historic”, and they might as well have been speaking for the heretofore Eastern-based league itself because this market seems destined to be the first step toward establishing a Western Divisionfor the 13-year-old league.

Peter Kirk, whose Opening Day Partnersalready own three Atlantic League teams and have the agreement to develop the Sugar Land franchise, told this corner Friday he expects another “three to five” franchises eventually will be added west of the current footprint which only extends to Pennsylvania.

“It will really be (the equivalent of) a third Triple-A league,” Kirk said, comparing it to “what the Pacific Coast Leaguewas 35-40 years ago” when that circuit was at the top of the minor league scale but most teams were independent of the major leagues.  (The PCL was called an “open” classification league into the 1950s.)  “It will be no different from the Mexican League,” he added, and that league is considered AAA but independent of major league team affiliation today.

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Yankees Call for Catching Help

Jorge Posada’sdisabling injury induced the New York Yankeesto sign Camden catcher Rene Riveraand send him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and from what I hear several more sales to major league organizations may be finalized any day now.  Rivera had a league-leading seven home runs in 22 games for the RiverSharkswhile hitting .280 and driving in 19 runs in his first season in the Atlantic League.The 26-year-old Puerto Ricanhas 53 major league games to his credit, all with Seattle .

1B Valentino Pascuccihad the long ball on his side in his early games for Buffalosince leaving Camden, pounding three round-trippers in five games although his average has slipped to .179 (5-for-28) overall with five RBI.  Among other recent sales to major league organizations, 3B Mike Costanzo (Camden)is at .308 (4-for-13, 2 RBI) in four contests with Double-A Carolina,1B Brett Harper (York)has driven in four runs in his first three games (3-for-12) at Sacramento,C J. R. House (Newark)has gone 1-for-9 in three games for Buffaloand LHP Josh Muecke (Somerset)has lost his two decisions in four starts (7.50 ERA) for Colorado Springs.

( Subscriptions to the Atlantic League Notebook are available on a monthly or full season basis via www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com or www.WirzandAssociates.com .  Bob Wirz also writes a weekly column, the Independent Baseball Insider , as well as a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)