MiLB.tv Preview and Viewing Guide

If you’re new or old to watching minors, navigating and perusing where to watch who and when can be a tricky proposition. The following can help.

Taking stabs at opening day minor league rosters is a fool’s errand, luckily, you got a fool trying here. (Keep tuned to @PLMiLBAlert on Twitter, where we’re doing our best to keep abreast to promotions and the like.) Players associated with teams below are complete speculation on my part, some I feel quite confident will start the season where I slot them, others far less so. Also included are big names who may come through at some point in the season, and some lesser names I’m interested in catching.

Starting in 2021, the scheduling format shifted to week-long, six-game series heavily weighted to intra-division matchups, which makes for some interesting dynamics, but for us viewers, it made things trickier in the lower levels. There can be long gaps between broadcasts of your favorite player or teams down there, with a possibility of not being able to view a team at all. We’ll help with that when we get there.

Being a prospect writer with a natural inclination to dig around the mud and catch decent centerfield camera angles, I spend more time watching lower levels. Triple-A tends to be my least-watched level, as it’s full of former major leaguers, higher-end prospects getting ready to make the last jump, and overall less new things to discover. Yet it is very good baseball to watch. Many might say double-A is the best mix of fun prospecting and good baseball.

Things can most definitely change, there are rumors, but as of now here are the broadcast teams and views per 2021.

 

The Upper Levels (AAA & AA)

 

All 60 upper-level teams broadcast home games with varying degrees of quality and angles. Finding your favorite team or players to watch won’t be a problem, but there are better and worse places to get looks at pitching, not to mention more or less informative on-screen graphics and more or less enjoyable broadcast booths.

 

Triple-A East League

 

April 5th is opening day here. The 20-team league split into three divisions is scheduled to play a 150 game season with no post-season planned at this juncture, crowning a regular-season champion. Roughly 2/3rds of a team’s games are played within their division, playing some, but not all of the teams outside the division for the rest. There are two three-game series, one after the mid-season break and one at the end of the year, with all other series being six-games. Mondays are off days throughout the minors in 2022.

 

Southeast Division

 

Adley Rutschman, Max Meyer, and Nolan Gorman headline this division, if they are not with the big club. Grayson Rodriguez most likely plays the majority, if not all, of his season here as well.

The video quality here is nice, but angles aren’t ideal. Many of these broadcasts will share velocity readings with the likelihood of getting that info decreasing as you move down levels. Pay attention to the booths though, and they will typically give you some velocities.

 

Northeast Division

 

Gabriel Moreno, Triston Casas, Mark Vientos, and Bryson Stott are the big names here unless they are playing in the bigs. Cade Cavalli may very well spend 2022 here.

Worcester/Scranton Wilkes-Barre

Buffalo/Rochester

Lehigh Valley/Syracuse

Buffalo and Rochester give us some closer angles with Rochester the best in the league.

 

 

Tacoma/Reno/Sacramento

Salt Lake City/Las Vegas

The West is rougher viewing than the East, with Salt Lake City’s standard definition and Las Vegas’ upper deck vantage point really leaving much to be desired.

 

Double-A Central League

 

From here on out, all leagues will be playing a 138 game seasons with playoffs. Regardless of division, the two teams in the league with the best regular-season record will play in a five-game championship series.

Double-A Central scheduling is division heavy but teams do play all nine league-mates during the season. The season kicks off with one of a few three-game series on teams’ ledgers April 8th.

 

North Division

 

Perhaps to start the season or later down the road, Jordan Walker and Andy Pages will get a try against some big-name pitching prospects in this division. Austin Martin probably continues his pro career here to start the season.

Not ideal, but Wichita and Tulsa are two of the better broadcasts to watch pitching in the upper levels. Arkansas, with its grainy standard definition, distorted widescreen, and missile strike looking target at home plate is hard to watch.

 

San Antonio/Corpus Christi/Frisco

Midland/Amarillo

All in all, this division might be the best for viewing pitchers in the upper levels. Midland is about as good as it gets despite not having the clearest picture.

 

Double-A Northeast League

 

The 12-team Northeast plays an unbalanced division heavy schedule, with only five series played outside of it, and those can double up.

Francisco Alvarez and Nick Yorke, two of the most exciting young bats in the minor leagues could be coming through here, and some good under-the-radar bats might pop-up; Sebastian Espino, Andres Chaparro, and Tyler McDonough.

Altoona/Harrisburg/Bowie

Richmond/Akron/Erie

Two more broadcast booth cameras, while those Espino/Gonzales duels will only be decent to watch in Akron. Erie is a gem of a minor league angle for watching pitchers, but you have to deal with some cloudy video throughout the division.

 

Double-A South League

 

This eight-team league mixes it up well schedule-wise with opening day April 8th.

 

South Division

 

Taj Bradley should get a chance to square off against the likes of Garrett Mitchell, Joey Wiemer, and Michael Harris at some point here. I’ll be tuning into the curious Brett Wisely often, if/when he arrives.

Lansing offers a decent look for us.

 

High-A West League

 

Per MiLB.tv Eugene will be broadcasting this season, which is great news for the six-team league that had only one team broadcasting games in 2021.

Hillsboro

We’ll see what Eugene looks like, but Hillsboro and it’s artificial turf was our only chance here in the past. Here’s when you can catch the other four teams in parks with broadcasts:

 

Low-A East League

 

This twelve-team league, split in three divisions, should be the 2022 home of some of the most exciting young lineups in the minors.  The schedule is unbalanced, like many other leagues, but only one team (Down East) doesn’t broadcast games. This is going to be a fun year here!

 

South Division

 

Hard to say how the Cubs will line things up in their lower levels, but Myrtle Beach is going to send out some lineups loaded with names; Pete Crow-Armstrong, Reggie Preciedo, Owen Cassie, Ed Howard, James Triantos, Kevin Alcantara, and, who knows….maybe even Cristian Hernandez are Pelicans this season. There will be some very talented young arms in the division as well.

Low-A Southeast League

 

This ten-team league is the most blacked-out league in the minors with only one stadium broadcasting games. Due to an unbalanced schedule, St. Lucie (for the second year in a row) and Daytona won’t be broadcast at all, as they don’t visit Bradenton. Most of the stadiums do provide semi-public Statcast data, but it’s a weak consolation prize.

 

East Division

 

Jupiter and Daytona should have exciting young bats to catch when they visit Bradenton, with St. Lucie providing some young arms to see.

Every minor league camera angle will be shared in my upcoming MiLB preview, but here's the ten best angles for watching pitching IMO. And some folks say the lower levels are tough to watch….pffft. pic.twitter.com/AfaQfB8BHq

— Nate Handy (@pitchingspecs) March 12, 2022

Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)