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Good morning everyone and welcome to the Thursday, April 14th edition of Minor League Ball daily notes. Here are some baseball news items and links for your consideration and edification.
****Don't forget yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread discussion.
****Good news for Pittsburgh Pirates fans (and some fantasy owners as well): right-hander Jameson Taillon performed well in his first regular season start in two years, throwing six solid innings with six strikeouts for Triple-A Indianapolis yesterday. He was clocked up to 94 MPH.
****Bad news for St. Louis Cardinals fans (and some fantasy owners): pitching prospect Marco Gonzales needs Tommy John surgery. Hopefully he won' t need two years to recover.
****Phiadelphia Phillies rookie Daniel Stumpf has been suspended 80 games for PED use.
****Matt Goldman at MLBDailyDish looks at his favorite top prospects for 2016.
****How much of a difference do infield shifts really make? Matt Jackson at Beyond the Boxscore looks at the data.
****More minor league season previews at FakeTeams: Michael Schwarz looks at the Low-A Midwest League, while Domenic Lanza examines the High-A Florida State League. Jason Hunt looks at the High-A California League.
****Ebo at VivaElBirdos looks at the Double-A Springfield Cardinals roster.
****Joe Schwarz, also at VivaElBirdos (an excellent blog by the way) has an interview with Cardinals pitching prospect Bryce Denton.