NEW YORK -- Competitive baseball is back. Even if it's virtual in nature.
In a joint effort with the MLB Players Association and Sony Interactive Entertainment, Major League Baseball is launching the first competitive MLB The Show league featuring players from all 30 teams competing in a 29-game regular season, the league announced Friday.
The regular season begins Friday and will last through April 28. Games will take place every one to two days with three to five three-inning matchups played each game day. The postseason is scheduled to begin April 30, with a World Series played on May 2. The postseason will feature the eight best teams, with a best-of-three format for the first two rounds and a best-of-five format for the World Series.
MLB, the players' association and Sony will donate $5,000 on behalf of each participating player to a Boys & Girls Club affiliate in his team's community, with the championship player earning an extra $25,000 donation.
The first game will take place Friday at 9 p.m. ET, when Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell and Cincinnati Reds reliever Amir Garrett face off on Snell's Twitch channel. Conversations have taken place with the league's broadcast partners to potentially televise some of the games, sources told ESPN.
All players will be expected to stream games on their personal Twitch accounts, though some may decide to stream on a team's channel. Streams will take place at 9 ET every night, and "Prime Time Streams" will take place Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when a player with a PC streaming system will host another player and MLB Network broadcaster Robert Flores will facilitate conversations between players and fans.
Gaming settings will be consistent, with designated hitters turned off, the batting difficulty set to Veteran and pitching difficulty set to All-Star, with guess pitch, quick counts and balks all turned off. The biggest difference from real life? Umpire accuracy will be set to perfect. No missed calls.
Here is the full list of players participating for their teams, including 11 former All-Stars, five World Series champions and eight players under the age of 25:
• Arizona Diamondbacks: Jon Duplantier
• Atlanta Braves: Luke Jackson
• Baltimore Orioles: Dwight Smith Jr.
• Boston Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez
• Chicago White Sox: Lucas Giolito
• Cincinnati Reds: Amir Garrett
• Cleveland Indians: Carlos Santana
• Colorado Rockies: David Dahl
• Detroit Tigers: Niko Goodrum
• Houston Astros: Lance McCullers Jr.
• Kansas City Royals: Brett Phillips
• Los Angeles Angels: Ty Buttrey
• Los Angeles Dodgers: Gavin Lux
• Milwaukee Brewers: Josh Hader
• New York Yankees: Tommy Kahnle
• Oakland Athletics: Jesus Luzardo
• Philadelphia Phillies: Rhys Hoskins
• Pittsburgh Pirates: Cole Tucker
• San Diego Padres: Fernando Tatis Jr.
• San Francisco Giants: Hunter Pence
• Seattle Mariners: Carl Edwards Jr.
• St. Louis Cardinals: Matt Carpenter