sorry for reviving an old thread, but I've been wondering about this - everybody says that Transitional Years are very very difficult to obtain, and I can imagine that is true in desirable locations or those close to big name residency programs, but I noticed that in 2010 some programs in less desirable locations (grand rapids, southfield, detroit, mi, kettering, youngstown & akron, oh, pittsburgh, pa, knoxville, tn) did not fill in the match. I am a former Ohio and current Michigan native, and I would have no issue going to any of those places (it's only a year after all) if I end up matching in an advanced program (I'm currently interested in anesthesia).
So were those non-filled programs flukes, or do you really not need to be 250+ and AOA to match in a midwest TY program? (The other advantage is most of these will be easy driving distance from home for me, so it would save me a lot of money to apply to relatively uncompetitive TYs).