in an article in today’s Raleigh paper, the News and Observer.

If the deal is approved by MLB and MiLB, the Reds AA team will be in NC next season then move to Pensacola in 2012. At that point, the high A affiliate of the Indians will move to Zebulon and keep the name of the current team, the Mudcats.

This basically seems to come down to the owner of the Mudcats being kind of crazy.

In a news release issued Wednesday, [Mudcats owner Steve] Bryant cited stricter enforcement of a rule requiring team owners to charter a plane or put players up in a hotel for a day off in cases where the travel exceeds 500 miles. Only three of the Mudcats’ nine Southern League opponents are within 500 miles.

The Mudcats will play in the Carolina League once they make the switch. There are four teams in the league within 193 miles of Zebulon, including Winston-Salem, Lynchburg, Va., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Pressed on the reasons for selling, Bryant acknowledged Thursday that talk in Congress over the capital gains tax rate rising from 15 percent to as high as 37 percent, was a factor in his decision to sell, as it could have cost Bryant close to $3 million in taxes.

Bryant said he paid $880,000 for the team in 1988. While he declined to say how much he sold it for, Southern League commissioner Don Mincher told the Pensacola News Journal in 2009 that the average cost for a Double-A franchise was between $12 million and $15 million.