Of all the changes Jerry Dipoto has made in the Mariners’ organization, one that hasn’t had a lot of press is the steady upgrading of minor-league facilities. In 2017, the Mariners switched two affiliates. At the Advanced-A level, they swapped out the historically significant yet idiosyncratic and impractical Sam Lynn stadium in Bakersfield, CA to move on up to Modesto in the Cal League, which has some of the less inflated numbers in the traditionally homer-happy Cal League. They also moved the Double-A club out of a criminally under-attended and remote ballpark in Jackson, TN into the relative hotbed of Little Rock, AR, trading a smaller league in the Texas League (vs.
Get to know the Mariners’ new A-ball affiliate, the West Virginia Power
