Monday, April
6, 2009
Opening Day Rosters
First things first… HAPPY
OPENING DAY, Everyone! If you’re curious my thought on the Twins record, and
where they will stand in the AL Central at season’s end, or what my Three Keys to
the Success of the 2009 Twins, click here to go to the Twins BaseballDigest.com
page.
Today is Opening Day! Tonight
the Twins will take on the Mariners. Francisco
Liriano will face Felix Hernandez and the Ichiro-less
Mariners. Let the season begin!
But since I last blogged here,
the Twins have finalized their 2009 Opening Day roster. There have also been
reports on the Opening Day rosters of the Twins affiliates, whose seasons begin
later this week. I thought posting each of the team’s rosters in one place
would give people a good place to discuss the teams and who is playing where. I
know a lot of people are frustrated with the conservative approach the Twins
have decided to take with many of their prospects. In many cases, I agree with
you. However, I also saw the Twins push a few of their prospects a few years
ago unnecessarily and it may not have helped them. For instance, Trevor Plouffe
was pushed a level a year despite maybe not being ready to move up early in his
career. How would his minor league career look if he had spent a season in
Extended Spring training? What if he would have repeated at Beloit? I’m certain
you could name your examples. Secondly, they aren’t conservative with all
prospects. Somehow Rene Tosoni has been pushed the last two years.
Anyway, here are the rosters of
the five teams. Please again note that these are not final rosters and they are
subject to change based on injury or other decisions. Please discuss:
Minnesota Twins:
Starters: Francisco Liriano, Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey,
Glen Perkins, RA Dickey (Scott Baker)
Bullpen: Joe Nathan, Jesse
Crain, Craig Breselow, Matt Guerrier,
Luis Ayala, Philip Humber, Brian Duensing (Pat Neshek, Boof Bonser)
Catchers: Mike Redmond, Jose
Morales (Joe Mauer)
Infield: Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, Joe Crede, Nick Punto, Brendan
Harris, Brian Buscher
Outfield: Michael Cuddyer, Carlos Gomez, Delmon
Young, Denard Span, Jason Kubel
Notes:
·
The Scott Baker
injury meant both RA Dickey and Brian Duensing would
make the roster.
·
I’ve said all along
that I thought sending Matt Tolbert to AAA was for the best. He will be a
utility player for the Twins, but he missed significant time in 2008 and could
afford to go to Rochester to play every day, and in many positions.
·
The Twins didn’t
have many questions coming into spring training and the ones they had, answered
themselves.
Rochester Red Wings:
Starters: Anthony Swarzak, Kevin Mulvey, Jason
Jones, Bobby Keppel, Mike Gosling (Ben Hendrickson)
Bullpen: Sean Henn, Tim Lahey, Ben Julianel, Carmen Pignatiello,
Armando Gabino, Reid Santos, Jose Mijares.
Catchers: Drew Butera, Jeff Christy
Infield: Brock Peterson, Matt
Tolbert, Trevor Plouffe, Luke Hughes, Matt Macri, Alejandro Machado (Justin Huber)
Outfield: Jason Pridie, Dustin Martin, David Winfree,
Tommy Watkins
Notes:
·
I don’t know who
the 5th starter will be. My assumption was Gosling since he was sent
down early, maybe he could be extended.
·
That’s a lot of
lefties in the bullpen, with Ben Julianel the oldest
by far.
·
I was thinking
Rochester would have more prospects in 2009 after their veteran-plagues 2008
season. There are still a lot of veterans. It is a good mix. I don’t fully
understand bringing in the excess lefty arms and keeping them all when there
are at least two guys at New Britain that are likely ready for AAA.
·
I also am
wondering the value of Tommy Watkins on this roster. He is a tremendous person,
great teammate and wonderful ambassador for the game and the team. However,
this roster has so many players that can play multiple positions. Tolbert,
Peterson, Hughes and Machado can all play the OF too.
New Britain Rockcats:
Starters: Jeff Manship, Jay Rainville, Cole
Devries, Ryan Mullins, Matt Fox
Relievers: Rob Delaney,
Anthony Slama, Zach Ward, Frank Mata, Jose Lugo, Yohan Pino
Catchers: Wilson Ramos, Allen
de San Miguel
Infield: Whit Robbins, Brian Dinkelman, Steve Tolleson, Danny
Valencia, Erik Lis, Yancarlos
Ortiz, Toby Gardenhire
Outfield: Matt Moses, Juan Portes, Brandon Roberts, Rene Tosoni,
Joe Gaetti
Notes:
·
Delaney, Slama and Ward – That is a pretty dominant back end of a
bullpen. All three could be in AAA by midseason, a couple maybe even to the big
leagues.
·
The Twins are
incredibly slow and/or conservative with promoting prospects, except for Rene Tosoni who skipped Low A ball in
2008, and despite missing most of the season, is now promoted to AA.
·
There are a
couple of guys on this list that I personally think could or should be at AAA
(especially Tolleson), but I have also learned a lot
from following the Twins system. There have been a lot of players who have had
good years at AA, and when they started the following season back at New
Britain, they really struggled and soon after, they were out of the system.
Examples include Danny Matienzo, Luis Maza and Kevin West, but there are others. In the end, I’ve
learned that if they are truly prospects, they should perform in 2009 and earn
that promotion to AAA.
·
That said, I expect that Manship, Delaney, Tolleson and Valencia will not be in AA real long.
·
Huge year for
Matt Moses!
Ft. Myers Miracle:
Starters: Deolis
Guerra, Tyler Robertson, Alex Burnett, Mike McCardell,
Carlos Gutierrez
Relievers: David Bromberg,
Blair Erickson, Santos Arias, Steve Hirschfeld, Oswaldo Sosa, Stencer Steedley, Kyle Waldrop, Matt Williams, (Loek
Van Mil)
Catchers: Danny Lehmann, Jair Fernandez
Infield: Chris Parmelee, Steve Singleton, Deibinson
Romero, Yangervis Solarte,
Chris Cates, Danny Berg, Estarlin de Los Santos, Rene
Leveret
Outfield: Ben Revere, Joe
Benson, Mark Dolenc
Notes:
·
I had heard rumblings
that the Twins could consider moving Guerra to New Britain so he didn’t repeat
the same level for the third time, but he’s just so young that I think this is
the right move.
·
Many think that
Tyler Robertson should be in New Britain. Well, let’s not forget that he did
miss most of the 2nd half of 2008. Spending an extra couple of
months in Ft. Myers will not hurt him at all.
·
Mike McCardell should have been in Ft. Myers in 2008. Carlos
Gutierrez was, after signing with the Twins, but in the bullpen. Now, he will
attempt to be a starter again.
·
David Bromberg
should be starting too. I mean, he did lead minor league baseball in
strikeouts. I just can’t see him starting over all of the five I’ve listed.
·
Great to see Kyle
Waldrop is back after missing all of the 2008 season. He will start the season
in the Miracle bullpen, just to get some work in, but you have to assume he
will be moved back to a starting rotation at some point.
·
Parmelee and Benson are with the Miracle. It will be fun to
see how well they do.
·
What happens if
Ben Revere gets off to a ‘normal player’ start?
Beloit Snappers:
Starters: Shooter Hunt, Brad Tippett, Dan Osterbrock, Bobby Lanigan, Michael Allen
Relievers: Steve Blevins,
Danny Rondon, Henry Reyes, Joe Testa,
Thomas Wright, Danny Hernandez (Curtis Leavitt, Blake Martin, Michael Tarsi,
Brian Kirwan)
Catchers: Alexander Soto, Eli Tintor
Infield: Jonathan Waltenbury, Henry Sanchez, Dominic de la Osa, Ramon Santana, James Beresford, Nick Romero, Nathan
Hanson (Drew Thompson, Paul Kelly, Juan Richardson)
Outfield: Ozzie Lewis, Angel
Morales, Evan Bigley, Michael Harrington, Adan Severino
Notes:
·
I can’t believe
there are people who think that Shooter Hunt should start the season with the
Miracle. After what he did at Beloit in 2008, staying here to start the season
is exactly where he should be.
·
This is a really
impressive starting staff. Literally all four of them could be promoted during
the season. Michael Allen could be a big-time sleeper.
·
Strange that Eli Tintor is with Beloit, but a transition back to behind the
plate means a lot of work for him. Also, it will be good to have a veteran
backstop to help Soto but also to work with this talented pitching rotation.
·
Glad to see Angel
Morales starting the season in Beloit. Bigley and Harrington
should perform well also. 2008 was a lost year for Lewis, so it will be
interesting to see what the talented athlete is able to do in 2009.
·
Of course the
biggest thing people will want to talk about is that Aaron Hicks will start the
season in Extended Spring Training. So many forget that Ben Revere started the
2008 season at Extended Spring, but a little over a month later, he was moved
to Beloit. Reports indicate that Hicks is a more well-rounded
player than Revere, but he is also so young and it won’t hurt him to spend a
little more one-on-one time in Ft. Myers before starting his season.
·
Let’s be honest,
there are a couple of roster spots at each level that are likely to be available
a month into the season, so there could be a trickle up affect as well
FANTASY DRAFT #6
Yesterday afternoon, I
participated in my final fantasy draft. This is a very good league. It is a 14
team, head-to-head points league with owners who have been in the same league
nearly a decade. In the draft, I had the #4 pick overall, so my second pick was
the 25th overall pick and so on.
1.)
Hanley Ramirez
– MI – Florida Marlins
2.)
Carlos Beltran –
OF – NY Mets
3.)
Jason Bay –
OF – Boston Red Sox
4.)
Daisuke Matsuzaka – SP – Boston Red Sox
5.)
Francisco Liriano – SP – Minnesota Twins
6.)
Justin Verlander – SP – Detroit Tigers
7.)
Carlos Pena – 1B –
Tampa Bay Rays
8.)
Chris Young – OF –
Arizona Diamondbacks
9.)
Yovani Gallardo – SP – Milwaukee Brewers
10.)
John Danks – SP –
Chicago White Sox
11.)
Alex Gordon – 3B – Kansas City Royals
12.)
Andre Ethier – OF –
Los Angeles Dodgers
13.)
Mike Pelfrey – SP –
NY Mets
14.)
Joe Saunders – SP – LA Angels
15.)
Max Scherzer – SP –
Arizona Diamondbacks
16.)
Jed Lowrie – SS –
Boston Red Sox
17.)
Shin-Soo Choo – OF – Cleveland Indians
18.)
Billy Butler – 1B – Kansas City Royals
19.)
Dionner Navarro – C –
Tampa Bay Rays
20.)
Asdrubal Cabrera –
2B – Cleveland Indians
21.)
Glen Perkins – SP – Minnesota Twins
22.)
Melvin Mora – 3B – Baltimore Orioles
23.)
Jordan Schafer – OF – Atlanta Braves
24.)
Rick Porcello – SP –
Detroit Tigers
Anyway, there is a list of the rosters of the Twins and their affiliates, with a couple of my thoughts. What else are you thinking? Send me an e-mail, or leave your questions or comments here.