Whether Major League Baseball will use the minors as guinea pigs for HGH testing remains to be seen, but the minors will be a testing ground for baseball's continued effort to improve bat safety. 

Many maple bats will be banned in the minors this season, the Associated Press reports, as part of MLB's effort to keep broken bats from striking players and fans. The AP reports that ultra-light maple bats will be banned this season and that red maple and silver maple bats will be eliminated entirely by bat-making companies.

Interestingly, the ban does not blanket all minor leaguers, but rather only players not on 40-man rosters and who have no major league experience.