Rose will be in Anaheim to host the 12-minute prelude to the opening-week games, which includes the hometown Astros at the St. Louis Cardinals with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver behind the mikes at 3 p.m. on KRIV (Channel 26).

“There was certainly a need to tighten up our broadcasts and focus on (advertising) sales for the game,” Fox Sports president Ed Goren said. “The pregame in the past for the most part hasn’t had any national inventory.

“The other factor is that with MLB Channel and ESPN and FSN with all their regional games, there’s a tremendous amount of baseball coverage on a daily basis. Doing the weekly show for a half-hour really isn’t as significant as it has been through the years.” The pregame/postgame switch means Eric Karros and Mark Grace, who last year alternated studio appearances alongside Jeanne Zelasko and Kevin Kennedy (who is on XM radio with Inside Pitch weekdays), will focus on game duties alongside Kenny Albert and Thom Brennaman.

Meanwhile, MLB Network has added Saturday night games to its live Thursday night games schedule. The Saturday games will be primarily simulcasts of local broadcasts and will be blacked out in participating teams’ local markets. Dodgers-Diamondbacks will be the first Saturday night offering.