Angels links: MLB Draft preparation, minor league opening day

Major League Draft prospects will have a portal to upload videos to a centralized location known as a Draft Prospect Link (DPL), per R.J. Anderson at CBS Sports:

MLB issued a memo to teams last week telling them that draftees are not permitted to send video or data to teams without first directing it to the Commissioner’s Office. That’s because MLB is creating infrastructure that will enable players to submit footage of them hitting and throwing, in front of a Rapsodo or HitTrax machine or otherwise, that will be shared with all teams. The league is expected to provide more information to teams in the coming days.

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Although it would be reasonable to assume MLB’s desire here is to prevent a wild west environment, several sources said the league’s motivation is more altruistic. The league doesn’t want draftees risking injury by having to record videos for all 30 clubs. The DPL will instead let the players record videos at the appropriate time in their routines, and, in turn, will allow every team to view and download the clip, presuming they want to include it in their own databases.

While wondering what videos will be sent by the 10th-overall pick — the Angels’ first-round selection — here are some links and notes from around baseball for Thursday morning.

Links

• Jim Abbott was a guest on the Angels Recap podcast on Wednesday, on the 31st anniversary of his major league debut.
• Marc Amicone, president of the Salt Lake Bees, Triple-A affiliate of the Angels, was a guest on ESPN 700 in Utah talking about baseball’s shutdown, and what it might mean for the minors if and when major league spring training ramps up again. Spoiler: there are a lot of unknowns.
• Ben Clemens at FanGraphs dove deep — waaaaayyyyyy deep — into the logistics necessary for Major League Baseball’s reported Arizona plan to work.
• A bat used by Lou Gehrig was sold at auction last week for $1,025,000, per ESPN.
• On what would have been minor league opening day, Minor League Baseball is running a #MiLBAtHomeOpener initiative starting at 7 a.m. PT Thursday, in an effort to get fans engaged and connected. I would imagine the various Angels affiliates that would have started today — Salt Lake, Rocket City, Inland Empire, and Burlington — will have something going on throughout the day.