Minor League Ball daily notes, April 14, 2016

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.