Ballpark Digest: It’s official: Lake County and Bowling Green to Midwest League in 2010

The first shoe drops in what is likely to be a lively off-season for the minor leagues:

there should be no surprise that the Lake County Captains and the as-yet-unnamed Bowling Green team will be moving from the South Atlantic League to the Midwest League in 2010. At the end of the day, objections from some team owners over long commutes and awkward schedules—objections heard from both leagues—were overcome under some pressure from the Cleveland Indians front office, who was strongly lobbying for the move.

Bowling Green is moving from Columbus (GA) and will retain its affiliation with the Rays.

Some other news, which I sort of expected:

It’s a certainty that Triple-A baseball won’t return to Richmond—despite being a market seemingly tailor-made for a Washington Nationals farm team—and what happens in the future is still a matter of debate; we know the Eastern League basically won the rights to the market, but Peter Kirk is pitching a new ballpark that may or may not feature an Atlantic League team.

Rumors are that the Connecticut franchise will be moving to Richmond, although I would think Harrisburg is another possibility.