What’s on Tap: Previewing tonight’s action

A full slate of games tonight, as it’s Tuesday and that’s what happens on Tuesday.

The biggest one is out in Los Angeles where Madison Bumgarner and the Giants start a big series against the Dodgers. San Francisco is game back in the standings but they have their ace going for them, which is nice. He can hit a little bit too.

The Mets are running Jonathon Niese out against the Cardinals, which is interesting given that they had a day off yesterday and could’ve skipped Niese, but hey, they ain’t my team.

Prospect Jake Thompson of the Phillies, making his fourth career start, goes against the relatively grizzled veteran Carlos Rodon, who is making his 44th. Rodon is just over a year older than Thompson. Practically ancient.

The matchups:

Houston Astros (Joe Musgrove) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (Ivan Nova), 7:05 PM EDT , PNC Park

Washington Nationals (Reynaldo Lopez) @ Baltimore Orioles (Kevin Gausman), 7:05 PM EDT, Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Los Angeles Angels (Tyler Skaggs) @ Toronto Blue Jays (R.A. Dickey), 7:07 PM EDT, Rogers Centre

Boston Red Sox (Clay Buchholz) @ Tampa Bay Rays (Chris Archer), 7:10 PM EDT, Tropicana Field

Kansas City Royals (Yordano Ventura) @ Miami Marlins (Andrew Cashner), 7:10 PM EDT, Marlins Park

Texas Rangers (Derek Holland) @ Cincinnati Reds (Dan Straily), 7:10 PM EDT, Great American Ball Park

Colorado Rockies (Jon Gray) @ Milwaukee Brewers (Chase Anderson), 8:10 PM EDT, Miller Park

Detroit Tigers (Anibal Sanchez) @ Minnesota Twins (Kyle Gibson), 8:10 PM EDT, Target Field

Philadelphia Phillies (Jake Thompson) @ Chicago White Sox (Carlos Rodon), 8:10 PM EDT, U.S. Cellular Field

New York Mets (Jonathon Niese) @ St. Louis Cardinals (Jaime Garcia), 8:15 PM EDT, Busch Stadium

Atlanta Braves (Rob Whalen) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (Archie Bradley), 9:40 PM EDT , Chase Field

Cleveland Indians (Danny Salazar) @ Oakland Athletics (Sean Manaea), 10:05 PM EDT, Oakland Coliseum

Chicago Cubs (Jake Arrieta) @ San Diego Padres (Christian Frederich), 10:10 PM EDT, Petco Park

New York Yankees (CC Sabathia) @ Seattle Mariners (Tiajuan Walker), 10:10 PM EDT, Safeco Field

San Francisco Giants (Madison Bumgarnder) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (Kenta Maeda), 10:10 PM EDT, Dodger Stadium

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SAN DIEGO — We spend a lot of time on these pages criticizing Major League Baseball’s decisions. And yeah, they make a lot of questionable decisions (or logical decisions which serve questionable motives). But in the past day or so they’ve certainly gotten a couple of things right.

First was what we posted about last night: MLB moving to take marijuana off the banned substance list for minor leaguers. This, combined with the recent report that MLB/MLBPA are moving to a treatment, as opposed to a punishment-based regimen for opioids, shows that sense, as opposed to hysteria and optics, is beginning to move to the fore when it comes to baseball’s drug policies. It’s certainly welcome.

Also reported last night — by Kendall Rogers of the website d1baseball.com — Major League Baseball plans to move the amateur draft from the MLB Network studios in New Jersey to Omaha, Nebraska, and schedule it at just at the start of the College World Series. The move has not been officially announced yet, but I’d expect an MLB press release on it before we all get on our planes on Thursday morning.

It would be nicely coordinated too, Rogers says, coming just after the super regionals but before the actual CWS. This would allow the top players expected to go to all be on hand, either as players in the CWS or because, hey, they just got done and would probably be there anyway. It’s way better than putting a six guys in a green room in Secaucus. That’s always so awkward. You can tell they don’t really want to be there and don’t know what to do with themselves. In Omaha they’ll be among their friends, teammates, family, and counterparts. The atmosphere will almost certainly radically change for the better.

It’s still a very, very tall order to ever create the same level of interest in the MLB draft that exists for the NFL or NBA drafts, as the structure of college football and basketball and the fame of its stars is a totally different deal coming in. But this is a positive move forward for the baseball draft. Good job to whoever’s idea it was.

Follow @craigcalcaterra