Minor League Baseball: A guide to get the most out of Opening Day

Minor League Baseball has Opening Day today. We give you a plan to be able to see one game from each full-season level and catch at least one top 150 prospect in every game!

Thursday brings back Minor League Baseball, and while that in and of itself is an amazing thing, firing up the day with MiLB.tv and taking in a whole load of prospects with a plan is an even better thing, and that’s what we will offer you here!

By following this simple, fool-proof plan, you will be able to see at least one hour of a game at every single full season minor league baseball level on Thursday (low-A, high-A, AA, AAA). In every game, there will be at least one top 150 player (as indicated in CTTP’s top 150 list linked at the bottom of this article). This plan will begin at 4pm Eastern and complete whenever you choose to turn off the 10pm Eastern game suggested. Along the way, you will get to enjoy 5 different games for significant time.

What you will need: MiLB.tv subscription (still one of the best deals in baseball viewing at just $49.99 for an entire season of viewing – over 5500 games from over 90 minor league baseball teams available live or on demand), a computer/laptop/mobile device to watch the games, and enough snacks and/or food to last over six hours watching pure baseball.

What you will receive: 5 games – 2 AAA, 1 AA, 1 high-A, and 1 low-A; 10 organizations represented; at least 5 top 50 players in the top 150 list; last, but not least, more baseball fix than you can shake a stick at!

So, get your food and drink ready because here we go!!

4:00pm ET: Oklahoma City @ Iowa

Oklahoma City will be rolling out top prospect Walker Buehler to pitch in the opener on Thursday, the first minor league baseball broadcast game on MiLB.tv on the entire season!

Buehler will have a stout team behind him with fellow top-150 prospect Alex Verdugo handling center field and likely factoring in the early part of the batting order. One intriguing name to follow on the OKC team is switch-pitcher Pat Venditte.

While not announced as Thursday’s Opening Day starter, righty Jen-Ho Tseng is the top pitcher and top prospect on the Iowa Cubs roster. He’s joined by a host of players who are quite solid, but perhaps only righty Dillon Maples joins Tseng with a legit long-term MLB future, though many have had a cup of coffee already during their career.

6:05pm ET: Charlotte @ Durham

While Charlotte will be starting righty Dylan Covey over top prospect Michael Kopech, the Charlotte pitching staff also features Zack Burdi, who has incredibly elite stuff when healthy.

Offensively, the Knights team are backed by a solid minor league baseball lineup, keyed by Casey Gillaspie, Ryan Cordell, and Jacob May.

The Durham Bulls are coming off of the 2017 AAA National Championship. The scary thing is that this year’s team quite seriously could knock the 2017 team out of the water on paper. Even after a couple of TJS surgeries, the Bulls will have Willy Adames, Jake Bauers, and Christian Arroyo keying the lineup, along with underrated outfielder Justin Williams.

7:00pm ET: Hagerstown @ Rome

Hagerstown will open the 2018 season with three of the most intriguing prospects to follow in all of the Nationals organization on their low-A minor league baseball affiliate. The lineup will be keyed by top-50 prospect Juan Soto. He returns to Hagerstown after having his 2017 season at the level nearly eliminated due to injury.

Joining him at the level are Latin signings Luis Garcia and Yasel Antuna, both of whom are getting quite a bit of love from national evaluators, and for good reason as both are oozing with talent.

Rome has not officially announced the roster yet, but speculation would have 2017 second-round draft pick OF Drew Waters opening the season in Rome along with 2016 second-round pick LHP Kyle Muller, who put on a big show in the annual prospects vs. big leaguers game in Atlanta. With a system as deep as Atlanta’s is, the Rome team will be stacked regardless of who gets the nod to open the season there.

8:10pm ET: San Antonio @ Arkansas

Cal Quantrill will take the mound for the Missions against the Travelers, but he won’t be the most prestigious name on the roster on Thursday as he will be joined by top-10 prospect Fernando Tatis, Jr., coming off of a 20/30 season.

Joining them will be LHP Logan Allen, 1B Josh Naylor, and C Austin Allen, all of whom are top 30 prospects for the Padres and would be arguable top 10 prospects for most organizations in the game.

The Mariners don’t have a ton of top prospects to stack into Arkansas to begin with, but many of their best prospects are either in AAA or in lower levels, though Braden Bishop is an intriguing player and an even more intriguing person as he had a campaign going on this spring training to donate money based off of on-field performance to a fund for researching and hopefully curing Alzheimer’s, as his mother has early-onset Alzheimer’s.

10:05pm ET: San Jose @ Inland Empire

For the closing minor league baseball game of the day, we go to the high-A California League. The San Jose Giants will be starting power-throwing pitcher Melvin Adon. The top position prospect is 20 year-old Sandro Fabian.

While their starting pitcher hasn’t been announced, Inland Empire does have one of the more intriguing story lines from the spring among top prospects. Current top prospect Jahmai Jones is putting in work at second base after playing outfield his entire pro career.

The 66ers roster also includes 2017 first round selection Griffin Canning, a strong right hander out of UCLA. He’ll head a pitching staff without a ton of depth in big prospects, but that projects to have quite a few solid arms.

So that brings you through your whole day being able to switch from game to game on MiLB.tv’s easy to use service, whether on mobile or your computer.

Next: CTTP's top 150 prospects

This season, like any other minor league baseball season, should be filled with plenty of players making a name for themselves and finding their path to future stardom in the major leagues, so today is just a start of what will be an amazing season!

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Minor League Baseball: How to get the most out of Opening Day!