Rays prospects and minor leagues: Another season begins

Welcome back to minor league baseball season. Every day, we will recap the prior day’s action along with that day’s schedule and some notes on the affiliates’ opponents. If you have any recommendations or requests for the format of these posts, please share them.

A new thing I’d like to do is include a daily links section that links to relevant videos, reports, or notes on prospects. If you know of anything that fits the bill, share it in the comments, and I’ll include it in the next day’s post.

If you haven’t seen this season’s preliminary rosters for the affiliates, we have you covered.

Thursday’s games (probables courtesy of milb.com)

Durham v. Charlotte 6:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Chih-Wei Hu (0-0, -.--) v. Dylan Covey (0-0, -.--)

Montgomery v. Biloxi 7:35 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Genesis Cabrera* (0-0, -.--) v. Luis Ortiz (0-0, -.--)

Charlotte @ Fort Myers 7 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Brock Burke* (0-0, -.--) v. Phil Hughes

Bowling Green v. Dayton 7:35 p.m. ET (radio stream)
Drew Strotman* (0-0, -.--) v. TBA

*Listed as TBA on milb.com

Scouting the opposition

Charlotte Knights (White Sox)
0-0
Offense: Have not played yet
Pitching: Have not played yet
Top-30 Prospects: Roster not yet available

Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee)
0-0
Offense: Have not played yet
Pitching: Have not played yet
Top-30 Prospects: RHP Luis Ortiz (6), 3B Lucas Ecreg (8), OF Corey Ray (10), 1B Jake Gatewood (14), OF Trent Grisham (15), RHP Cody Ponce (18), RHP Adrian Houser (31), C Nick Franklin, SS Jake Hager

Fort Myers Miracle (Minnesota)
0-0
Offense: Have not played yet
Pitching: Have not played yet
Top-30 Prospects: OF Aaron Whitefield (19), 1B Lewin Diaz (26), 2B Travis Blankenhorn (29)

Dayton Dragons (Cincinnati)
0-0
Offense: Have not played yet
Pitching: Have not played yet
Top-30 Prospects: RHP Hunter Greene (2), SS Jeter Downs (11), SS Jose Garcia (12), OF Stuart Fairchild (16), OF Miles Gordon (26), LHP Packy Naughton (28)

Daily news and links

• Baseball America writes about the best tools in the minors, and Durham’s Opening Day starter, Chih-Wei Hu, is featured.
• Former Rays prospect (and current free agent) Justin O’Conner was issued a 50-game suspension for a second positive test for a drug of abuse, according to Marc Topkin.
• MLB.com breaks down where each player in every organization’s top 30 is starting the season. The link goes to the Rays’ list since it’s most relevant to the community here, but if you have a local non-Rays minor league team, it could be worth checking out that team’s list.