If the Bisons decide to cast their lot with another major league team – the Blue Jays are the obvious choice – based on the cities’ geographic proximity and the Jays strong farm system, the Mets will be forced into an affiliation in the Pacific Coast League. The Blue Jays have been affiliated with the Las Vegas 51s, so Vegas will be open. Vegas is just an awful place to develop pitching. The ball flies and the infield baked into a hard surface. Las Vegas as a team this year, is hitting .304/.371/.456 in a PCL that averages .279/.346/.432. At home, the 51s have hit .313/.386/.487. Yikes.

– Toby Hyde, MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com.

So I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, a move to Vegas — with its awful environment for pitchers and wonky offensive stats — seems like it could be bad for the Mets’ Minor League player development, which is absolutely paramount to the team’s eventual return to contention. On the other, a move to Vegas seems like it would be very, very good for Mets- and sandwich-bloggers who visit the organization’s Triple-A team once a year for work.

It makes perfect sense for both the Blue Jays and Buffalo Bisons to affiliate, so that seems pretty likely to happen. Toby also presents the possibility of a return to New Orleans. That would presumably be better than Las Vegas for player development since it’s a more or less neutral park, and even better yet for the Mets- and sandwich-bloggers visiting the Triple-A team once a year for work.