Minor League Ball daily notes, April 7, 2016

Good morning fellow baseball fans and welcome to the Thursday, April 7th, edition of Minor League Ball daily notes. Today is a special day! The minor league season begins and Nick Melotte's Gameday threads will make their return.

In the meantime, here are some baseball news links for your entertainment and edification.

****Matt Goldman at MLBDailyDish discusses Zack Greinke's weak Opening Day outing for the Diamondbacks and conflicting reports on if he was sick or not. Flu-gate? More on Greinke's Arizona debut from Stacey Gotsulias.

****Did Gregory Polanco leave money on the table with his new contract extension with the Pirates?

****Over at Foxsports, Ken Rosenthal thinks the baseball draft system needs to be altered to prevent teams from tanking their regular season records for a better draft slot. He mentions an NBA-style draft lottery as a possible solution. Personally, I really dislike the NBA and would hate to see MLB follow that example, but then again I also don't think the "tanking" phenomenon is a big deal. It is a valid strategy if a team is willing to take the public relations hit.

****Bryan Cole at Beyond the Boxscore explores new technology and biometric devices approved for gamewear by MLB.

****Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs discusses Felix Hernandez and his loss of velocity.

****MinorLeagueBaseball.com has an Opening Day guide to the minors.

****Cardinals pitching prospect Marco Gonzales has an ailing elbow.

****Timothy Finnegan at AmazinAvenue breaks down Noah Syndergaard's 95 MPH slider.

****Cody Decker will be manning first base for the Triple-A Omaha Stormchasers. He hits homers, and he makes films according to Minda Haas Kuhlmann at Royals Review.