Today is opening day for the Red’s four full season minor league teams. Let’s take a look at the opening day rosters for each of the teams and take note of how each teams opening day rosters are taking shape.
AAA Louisville Bats
The Bats open the season at home today at 6:35 against the Toledo Mud Hens. The following is their opening day roster.
SP: David Holmberg*, Michael Lorenzen, Dylan Axelrod, Jon Moscot, Joshua Smith
RP: Carlos Contreras, Sam Lecure, Ryan Dennick*, Pedro Villarreal, Nick Christiani, Nate Adcock, Chris Carpenter, Jose de la Torre, Donovan Hand
C: Tucker Barnhart#, Chris Berset#, Ramon Cabrera#
IF: Josh Satin. Ivan De Jesus. Irving Falu#. Eugenio Suarez, Dan Johnson*, Hernan Iribarren*, Jermaine Curtis
OF: Donald Lutz*, Yorman Rodriguez, Steven Selsky, Bryson Smith
The Bats have a good mix of prospects close to the big leagues (Holmberg, Lorenzen, Moscot, Suarez, and Rodriguez) and AAA veterans to provide depth for the big league team (Axelrod, Satin, De Jesus, and Johnson). Rodriguez and Suarez are the most interesting prospects and they could soon be joined by several players from the AA club.
AA Pensacola Blue Wahoos
The Blue Wahoos open the season at home today at 6:30 against the Biloxi Shuckers. The following is their opening day roster.
SP: Robert Stephenson, Tim Adleman, Daniel Wright, Marcus Walden, Wandy Peralta*
RP: Carlos Gonzalez, Daniel Corcino, Kevin Shackelford, Drew Hayes, Ben Klimesh, Kyle McMyne, Chad Rogers, Layne Somsen
C: Kyle Skipworth*, Yovan Gonzalez
IF: Marquez Smith, Juan Perez, Seth Mejias-Brean, Zachary Vincej, Sean Buckley, Ray Chang, Ryan Wright
OF: Jesse Winker*, Beau Amaral*, Kyle Waldrop*, Juan Silva*
The Blue Wahoos have our top pitching prospect Stephenson in the rotation and should have a strong bullpen. Their offense should be very good for as long as Winker and Waldrop are still here.
High A Daytona Tortugas
The Tortugas open the season at home today at 7:05 against the Brevard County Manatees. The following is their opening day roster.
SP: Nick Travieso, Amir Garrett*, Nick Howard, Sal Romano, Jackson Stephens
RP: Jacob Johnson, Zack Weiss, Barrett Astin, Joel Bender*, Evan Mitchell, Blaine Howell*, James Moran, El’Hajj Muhammad, Nolan Becker*
C: Joe Hudson, Cam Maron*, Chad Wallach
IF: Robert Ramirez*, Carlton Daal, Taylor Sparks, Alex Blandino*, Samuel Diaz#
OF: Sebastian Elizalde*, Phillip Ervin, Jeff Gelalich, Nick Benedetto
The new Daytona team has a very strong starting rotation. The Florida State league is typically a league that favors pitching. It will be interesting to see how that affects the many hitting prospects (Wallach, Sparks, Blandino, Elizalde, and Ervin) that are on this team.
Low A Dayton Dragons
The Dragons open the season away today at 6:35 against the West Michigan Whitecaps. The following is their opening day roster.
SP: Wyatt Strahan, Tyler Mahle, Tejay Antone, Seth Varner*, Mark Armstrong
RP: Alejandro Chacin, Brennan Bernardino*, Jacob Ehret, Brian Hunter, Jeremy Kivel, Conor Krauss, Jake Paulson
C: Garrett Boulware, Julio Morillo, Jose Ortiz
IF: Avain Rachal, Ty Washington, Gavin LaValley, Luis Gonzalez, Wendell Soto#, Ronald Bueno#
OF: Jimmy Pickens*, Brian O’Grady*, Aristides Aquino, Narciso Crook
The Dragons have several players from a strong Billings team last season (Strahan, Mahle, Bernardino, Aquino, and O’Grady) which should give them a strong base for a good team.