Minor League Rosters Come Into Focus

Rich Wilkins

March 30 2013

Ryan Howard will not be an IronPig.

Today, the IronPigs broke camp and went north, as will the other teams in Florida within the system. With their win on Thursday, the IronPigs assured themselves of a winning spring. Today, they assured us of their rotation, announcing that Tom Cochran is staying behind in Extended Spring Training. Between this and the Phillies cuts, I'm comfortable calling the IronPigs roster:

Rotation: Cloyd, Pettibone, Martin, Morgan, Rosenberg.
Line-Up: Gillies-CF, Hernandez-2B, J. Mitchell-RF, Ruf-LF, Asche-3B, Joseph-C, Overbeck-1B/DH, Fields-DH/1B, Martinez-SS.
Bullpen: Stutes, De Fratus, Diekman, Savery, Friend, Jimenez, Miner.
Bench: Orr, Lerud, Castro, Susdorf.
DL-Left Behind: Blanco, Cochran.

The staff is impressive obviously, and entirely made up of guys with high upside. The line-up is also prospect heavy, and has lots of positive upside to look forward to this summer. Tuesday night I'll be watching them play Reading in Allentown. Speaking of Reading, no change in the final roster predictions there:

Rotation: Biddle, Buchanan, Garcia, Wright, Colvin.

Line-Up: Collier-CF, Hanzawa-SS, Welty-RF, Murphy-1B, Mitchell-LF, Valle-C/DH, Rupp-DH/C, Abreu-3B, Cartwright-2B.

Bullpen: Simon, Robles, Rosin, Ramirez, Sosa, Ellis, Neris.

Bench: Suomi, Murphy, Tolbert, Hewitt.

DL: James, Henson, Johnson.

I'd like to see them start Hewitt in A ball and put Henson on, but that'll wait. The interesting thing here is, they will probably have three catchers break camp with this group. I'll be watching the top of the rotation obviously with Biddle. There's a lot of other talent here too, and guys like Hewitt and Colvin are in basically make-or-break seasons. It will be interesting to see how the Rupp/Valle dynamic plays out too.

To round it out, here's Clearwater:

Rotation: Hollands, Garner, Stewart, Kleven, Milner.
Line-Up: Hudson-CF, Altherr-RF, Alvarez-LF, Franco-3B/DH, Martinez-1B/DH/3B, Alonso-1B/3B/DH, Ludy-C, Villalobos-SS, Carver-2B.
Bullpen: Arias, Shreve, O'Sullivan, Murray, Nesseth, Hernandez, Giles.
Bench: Lavin, Roof, Stassi, Moore.
DL: Dugan, Stumpo.

And, Lakewood:

Rotation: Watson, Warner, Brady, Stefan, Martinez.

Line-Up: Quinn-SS, Tocci-OF, Walding-3B, Serritella-1B, Pointer-OF, Greene-2B, Hill-C, Perkins-OF, Arthur-DH.

Bullpen: Inch, Santos, Rojas, Broussard, Aizenstadt, Cooper, Oviedo.

Bench: Quaranto, Olmo, Taylor, Mora.

DL: Numata, Carmona.

I think the only surprise is that Larry Greene was left in camp. Beyond that, things are exactly where we thought they were. Lakewood is going to be really, really fun to watch.