MLB Monday Minutes with Amos - March 12, 2018

Noteworthy News

It's a very exciting time of the year. The snow is melting, flowers are beginning to grow, and last week we saw the first home runs from Mike Trout and Aaron Judge. Only a few more short weeks until the first pitch of the regular season.

In the latest news, Facebook somehow landed the exclusive rights to air 25 MLB games this year, following Amazon's push in the NFL. Diversification is fine, but Facebook? These 25 exclusive games cannot be watched anywhere else and is only a way for Facebook to suck people in. Many people don't engage on social media or want anything to do with it altogether.

Last year, YouTube also signed a deal with the MLB to become one of their streaming services. Now, if they could only fix their crazy blackout radius that they started implementing last year. In Buffalo, my radius used to cover both New York teams, Toronto, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Philly. Supposedly this year, we will still have the ability to watch most of these teams, but I have my doubts. With the digital age moving forward, and MLB embracing it, we could watch some quality baseball, regardless of blackout restrictions, on a variety of platforms soon.

In last week's player news we saw Mike Moustakas pass his physical and sign again with the Royals, filling in a gap created by Jorge Bonifacio, who was suspended 80 games for using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Lance Lynn from the Cardinals signed with the Twins for $12 million. He is their 7th free agent pick up so far.

Fantasy

ESPN's top 300 fantasy list shows a few surprises. With last year's rookie of the year, Aaron Judge, sitting pretty at 21st, Cody Bellinger at 28th, and Andrew Benintendi 48th, can we possibly see this year's rookie class compete with the likes of these guys? If so, this could be a very exciting year.

Most people are already done with their season long fantasy drafts. Once we are in the full swing of things, this weekly report will include potential waiver wire pickups as well as daily fantasy picks for Draftkings and Fanduel players.

Individual and League Leaders

There is not much to talk about here until the regular season gets going, but Jason Kipnis of the Cleveland Indians does have 6 home runs already in 25 ABs with an average of .502. Also, Mike Freeman of the Cubs seems to have his bat dialed in well with a Spring training batting average of .500.

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March 29th is opening day with a slate of 15 games. Not many teams have inked in their starting pitchers yet, and in fact, we only have one match up so far. Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers host Madison Bumgarner and the Giants with a 7:08 EST first pitch.

Non-stop baseball is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to providing your weekly, season-long updates!

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_{Author: @amos811
Editor: @boatsports90}

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