The Atlanta Braves’ farm system is easily the most boring in all of minor league baseball. Six of the Braves’ seven affiliates use their parent club’s nickname (GCL Braves, DSL Braves, Danville Braves, Rome Braves, Mississippi Braves, and Gwinnett Braves), with the Florida Fire Frogs of the High-A Florida State League as the lone exception. And say what you will about the wacky nicknames in minor league baseball these days, it’s no coincidence that the Florida Fire Frogs are the only Braves minor league team anyone interested in sports branding has talked about at all in recent years.
Next season will mark the Gwinnett Braves’ 10th season in Georgia since moving there from Richmond, Virginia (now home to the awesomely branded Richmond Flying Squirrels, a Double-A Giants affiliate). But beginning in 2018, the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett, which is owned by the big league club, will have a unique nickname all its own. As of this morning, the team is accepting fan submissions for a new team name on its website through June 2.
“The ‘Braves’ moniker—loaded with tradition and respected across baseball—has served the team well since 2009,” the G-Braves said in a statement on their website, “but the team is seeking a new name that the citizens of Gwinnett County can instantly recognize and call their own.”
One reason for Gwinnett’s team to have its own unique nickname (in addition to all of the obvious reasons that every minor league team should have its own identity) is that the proximity of Gwinnett, Georgia, to Atlanta was the source of confusion for some Braves fans.
“We’ve had folks, on multiple occasions, who had tickets for a Gwinnett Braves game and showed up at Turner Field,” said general manager North Johnson, quoted in the Gwinnett Daily Post. “Folks have turned up at Turner Field for a fireworks show and it turned out it was our fireworks show night. It’s more to clean up confusion on the marketing side, mostly from our end.”
The only argument I’ve ever heard in favor of the Braves’ heretofore boring approach to naming their farm clubs came from player Kyle Kubitza, whom I interviewed in 2015 shortly after he was traded from the Braves to the Angels. I mentioned that I thought it must be more fun to play for the Salt Lake Bees, the Angels’ Triple-A club, than it was to be in the Braves system.
“You say that, but every year you’re the same color,” he said, “so you don’t have to worry about having six different pairs of cleats or undershirts.”
So the name change is good news for everyone except the players themselves, who will likely have to buy a couple different colored pairs of cleats.
Gwinnett is partnering on the rebrand with San Diego–based Brandiose, the firm responsible for a large majority of new identities in minor league baseball. So get ready.