Minor League Ball Gameday, Wednesday, March 25

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the daily Minor League Ball Gameday thread for Wednesday, March 25. Opening Day. . .an hour closer than an hour ago! Hey, it's getting there.

Items for your consideration and discussion:

****The big news in baseball yesterday comes once again from Los Angeles, where the Dodgers committed six years and $65,500,000 to Cuban infielder Hector Olivera. The newest Dodger reportedly has a UCL tear that will need to be dealt with at some point, though the Dodgers do have some protection built into the contract should surgery be necessary as Eric Stephen notes at TrueBlueLA.

****The Kansas City Royals have assigned lefty Brandon Finnegan to Double-A Northwest Arkansas where he will be developed as a starting pitcher. He did not have a good spring although he was dealing with a hamstring injury. Andy McCullough at the KC Star has details.

****Speaking of the Royals, getting to the World Series does wonders for your franchise value. A year ago they were worth $490,000,000 according to Forbes. Now they are worth $700,000,000 as noted by Max Rieper at RoyalsReview.  If they fall to last place in 2015, do they go back down as much as they went up?

****Has anyone else ever noticed that Bud Selig looks like The Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-files?

****The Milwaukee Brewers are converting lefty Jed Bradley to relief as noted at BrewCrewBall.

****Don't forget the All Questions Answered thread beginning tomorrow at 8 AM Central.