Minor League Ball Gameday, Sunday, April 2nd, Opening Day

Good morning and good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Minor League Ball Gameday Discussion thread for Sunday, April 2nd. Baseball is Back for real now, with three MLB games today followed by a full slate tomorrow. Our main goal here is to have a profile of every rookie who made a 25-man roster written up and posted by Tuesday.

The minor leagues get started on Thursday, April 6th.

Here are some items worthy of your attention today.

****MLB Scoreboard

****Sam Dykstra at Milb.com looks at recent Rookies of the Year and breaks down the common factors they shared, other than being good of course.

****Remember Rafael Montero? Injuries to Steven Matz and Seth Lugo have opened up a spot on the New York Mets pitching staff. Montero was excellent this spring (23/8 K/BB, 1.77 ERA in 20.1 innings) and has another opportunity to establish himself and live up to the potential he showed in the minors.

****Nice report from Red Reporter about the newest member of the Cincinnati Reds bullpen, rookie Barrett Astin. We will have our own profile of him tomorrow.

****Seven Texas Rangers open the season on the disabled list.

****At Fangraphs, David Laurila has several fun nuggets in his Sunday Notes column, including a conservation about hitting he recently had with Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Austin Meadows.

****At Baseball Prospectus, Parker Hageman demonstrates how Seattle Mariners outfielder Leonys Martin has changed his swing mechanics.