Minor League Ball Gameday, Friday, March 27

Good afternoon baseball fans and prospect followers. Opening Day is a week away! Here is your daily discussion thread for all things baseball-oriented and prospecty.

****The big news in prospect world today is, of course, yesterday's announcement that erstwhile 2014 first-overall pick Brady Aiken had to have Tommy John surgery after making one spring start. He may still very well be drafted in the first round this June and the TJ procedure has a good recovery track record. It does not have a perfect one, however, and not every body comes back from it the same way.

I always root for the player to make a recovery in cases like this. Still, it is also obvious that the Astros and their doctors were right to be concerned about Aiken's elbow last summer. It should put to rest the conspiracy theories about the Astros front office at least. Astros-bashing has become a cottage industry. You can argue that the negotiations were handled poorly but I don't think either side comes out looking too good on that account. The guy I really felt sorry for was Jason Nix.

Crawfish Boxes has a good roundtable discussion about this whole mess.You can read Aiken's story in his own words here.

****Daniel Meyer at Beyond the Boxscore has a fascinating study about the amateur draft, comparing the outcomes of draftees and the success distribution between players with college, high school, "power state," and "regular state" backgrounds.

****Don't miss SB Nation's 2015 MLB Preview!