Projected Lineups for A-AAA

[38Special]

I took some time last night to go through my spreadsheet of players and going off what ive heard on PP and other news sites. I'm still not sure where they're gonna put John Urick now that Andrus has been moved to 1B...

edit: tweaked it a little more, added descriptions to the no team guys.

Columbus Clippers
-----------------

C - Wil Nieves
1B - Andy Phillips
2B - Robinson Cano
SS - Felix Escalona
3B - Damian Rolls
RF - Kevin Reese
CF - Colin Porter
LF - Mike Vento
DH - Mitch Jones

SP - Danny Borrell
SP - Chien-Ming Wang
SP - Jorge DePaula
SP - Ramon Ramirez
SP - Eric Schmitt
?? - Marc Valdes
?? - Aaron Small

Long Relief: Brad Voyles
Middle Relief: Buddy Groom
Middle Relief: Jason Anderson
Middle Relief: Charlie Manning
Setup: Sam Marsonek
Setup: Scott Proctor
Closer: Colter Bean

Bench:
C - David Parrish/Ryan Hankins
OF - Noah Hall
IF - Russ Johnson
IF - Todd Betts
?? - Joe Depastino
?? - Caonabo Cosme


Trenton Thunder
-----------------

C - Omir Santos
1B - Shelley Duncan
2B - Gabe Lopez
SS - Andy Cannizaro
3B - Eric Duncan
RF - Bronson Sardinha
CF - Melky Cabrera
LF - Kevin Thompson
DH - Tommy Winrow

SP - Matt DeSalvo
SP - Steven White
SP - Jon Skaggs
SP - Jeff Karstens
SP - Justin Pope

Long Relief: Sean Henn
Middle Relief: Matt Smith
Middle Relief: Ben Julianel
Setup: Charlie Issacson
Setup: Edwardo Sierra
Closer: Dave Shepard

Bench:
C - Jason Brown (30 year old FA signing from Expos)
OF/DH - Jason Grove
IF - J.T Stotts/Yobal Duenas
IF - Jared Koutnik


Tampa Yankees
---------------

C - Tommy Rojas
1B - Erold Andrus
2B - Ferdin Tejeda
SS - Hector Made
3B - Hector Zamora
RF - Rudy Guillen
CF - Matt Carson
LF - Evan Tierce
DH - Bryce Kartler

SP - Tyler Clippard
SP - Eric Abreu
SP - Abel Gomez
SP - Jason Jones
SP - Saidel Beltran

Long Relief: Elvys Quezada
Long Relief: Brandon Harmsen
Middle Relief: Mike Gardner
Middle Relief: Ben Moore
Middle Relief: Mike Knox
Middle Relief: Matt Brumit
Closer: Paul Thorp

Bench:
C - Jon-Mark Sprowl
OF - Eric Verbryke
IF - Rafael Rodriguez
IF - Enrique Cruz
IF - Nick Walsh



Charleston Riverdogs
--------------------

C - Irwil Rojas
1B - Ben Jones
2B - Ryan Haag
SS - Justin Christian
3B - Marcos Vechionacci
RF - Jon Poterson
CF - Tim Battle
LF - Estee Harris
DH - Yosvani Almario-Cabrera

SP - Phillip Hughes
SP - Brett Smith
SP - Christian Garcia
SP - Jeff Marquez
SP - Shaun Parker

Long Relief: TJ Beam
Middle Relief: Josh Smith
Middle Relief: Brad Blackwell
Middle Relief: Jose Tadeo
Middle Relief: Phil Coke
Closer: Mike Martinez

Bench:
C - PJ Pilittere
C - William Plaza
OF - Edwar Gonzalez
IF - Grant Plumley


Extended Spring Training / Question Marks
------------------------

C - Nate Phillips - young
2B - Reggie Corona
1B - John Urick - Should be in Tampa
2B - Deivi Mendez - Should be in AA/AAA
2B - Mario Holmann - young
SS - Hector Gonzalez - young
SS - Ramiro Pena - new signing
OF - Anderson Amador - raw
OF - Carlos Levy - raw


RP - Jeremy King - Should be in AA. No room yet.
SP - Jose Valdez - Should be in AA. No room yet.
SP - Jason Stephens - Should be in Charleston. No room yet.
SP - Eric Hacker - returning from Injury
SP - Marvin Moscat - ex DSL guy
SP - Toni Lara - ex DSL guy
SP - Wilton Sevilla - ex DSL guy
SP - Edgar Soto - ex DSL guy
SP - Edgar Omana - ex DSL guy
RP - Michael Wagner - young/raw


C - Troy Caradonna - did nothing in 04
1B - Cody Ehlers - old
IF - Jordan Devoir - did nothing in 04
OF - Robert Villanova - did nothing in 04
OF - Rod Allen - did nothing in 04
SP - Justin Berg - mediocre in 04, still young.
SP - Alex Perez - too old for GCL in 04. No room anywhere.
IF - Taylor Mattingly - was injured in 04.


SP - Rik Currier - non-prospect
RP - Carlos Artiles - non-prospect
RP - Jeff Kennard - non-prospect
RP - Carlos Rosario - converted catcher, raw as pitcher
RP - Chase Wright - no control
RP - Heath Castle - no control
RP - Geoff Goetz - non-prospect
OF - Jose Perez - non-prospect at this point.
C - Luis Robles - non-prospect
C - Nate Griffen - non-prospect
C - Kevin Nelson - non-prospect


---------------

RP - Juan De Leon - VISA - OUT FOR YEAR
SP - Maximo Nelson - VISA - OUT FOR YEAR
SP - Jesse Hoover - INJURED FOR 1-3 MONTHS
SP - Cory Stuart - INJURED FOR YEAR

[BomberBrian]

I believe Knox is with Tampa and Plaza, Blackwell and Wright are with Charleston.

[38Special]

Originally Posted by BomberBrian

I believe Knox is with Tampa and Plaza, Blackwell and Wright are with Charleston.

Frankie said on PP that Pilliterre was going to be the backup catcher behind Irwil at Charleston, i dont think it would make much sense if they had a 3rd backup.

Either way, where did you hear about those placements?

[38Special]

i just realized that david cuen signed with the Yuma Scorpions (independent league)

[Kulish29]

Wouldnt Nacci start at SS this year?

[38Special]

Originally Posted by Kulish29

Wouldnt Nacci start at SS this year?

Hes staying at 3B.

[BomberBrian]

you think carrying 3 catchers is bad?

try 4.

kevin nelson is on the charleston squad as well.

[NJASDJDH]

Originally Posted by 38Special

Hes staying at 3B.

Nacci is playing SS this year.

[Hidekifan57]

Nacci is playing SS.

And, amazingly enough, they are carrying 4 catchers. Don't ask me why, lol.

[38Special]

who plays 3rd then? Christian?


edit: hahahahaha, check this site out: http://lennon.csufresno.edu/~ryanhaag/

[Hidekifan57]

Haag and Plumley will likely platoon at 3b. Christian will play 2b.

[Yankyfan]

Plumley not at SS would be a crime.He has quite the glove.He was head and shoulders over any fielding SS I saw iin the last 2 years.

[thenextandykosco]

Many thanks for the information, 38Special. I'm wondering if you or someone else can straighten me out on two questions:

(1) You list Todd Betts as a possibility to play at Columbus again this year. Did I miss something? He became a minor league free agent 10/15/2004, according to Baseball America's Super Register (a print publication so don't ask for a link), and I hadn't seen any announcement that the Yankees had again signed him. Since your post, I did a Google news search and discovered a newspaper story from about two weeks ago that indicated that an independent league team had made him a contract offer but that he had not yet signed. Did he decide to come to the Columbus camp instead?

(2) What is Columbus going to do with 4 catchers? Count 'em. Nieves&Parrish&DePastino&Hankins Did I miss an injury or two? Together the 4 veteran AAA catchers caught far more innings than could possibly be available for one team this year in the 145 game schedule. Although I liked the Nieves for Prinz trade and agree that Nieves should be the #1 catcher in Columbus this year, as AAA batteries go, one of the Columbus terminals was already overloaded before the trade.

[38Special]

Originally Posted by thenextandykosco

Many thanks for the information, 38Special. I'm wondering if you or someone else can straighten me out on two questions:

(1) You list Todd Betts as a possibility to play at Columbus again this year. Did I miss something? He became a minor league free agent 10/15/2004, according to Baseball America's Super Register (a print publication so don't ask for a link), and I hadn't seen any announcement that the Yankees had again signed him. Since your post, I did a Google news search and discovered a newspaper story from about two weeks ago that indicated that an independent league team had made him a contract offer but that he had not yet signed. Did he decide to come to the Columbus camp instead?

(2) What is Columbus going to do with 4 catchers? Count 'em. Nieves&Parrish&DePastino&Hankins Did I miss an injury or two? Together the 4 veteran AAA catchers caught far more innings than could possibly be available for one team this year in the 145 game schedule. Although I liked the Nieves for Prinz trade and agree that Nieves should be the #1 catcher in Columbus this year, as AAA batteries go, one of the Columbus terminals was already overloaded before the trade.

Betts: http://yankees.scout.com/2/315768.html

Re-Signed (Free Agents Re-Signed as of 11/7/04):

Todd Betts - Betts provided a solid first base option for Columbus this year and has been rewarded by being retained by the organization, Betts, a Canadian Olympian this year, makes for a good organization soldier for the Yankee

As for the Catchers deal, i dont know what the hell they're going to do with all of them. Depastino is worthless, as is Parrish, and Hankins and Nieves are decent. Id rather they keep the latter two, but who knows.

[HenryCottoIsGod]

Good post! Generally speaking, after looking at the rosters - i feel a hell of a lot better this year than i did last year at this time. Pitching looks pretty good...

[thenextandykosco]

Thank you, 38Special, for the link to Frankie Piliere's article in Pinstripes Plus of last November indicating that Todd Betts had again signed with the Yankees organization. I had not seen that. Not to beat a dead horse, or even a slightly inactive corner infielder, and with all due respect to Piliere and Pinstripes Plus, I believe that the report of last November may have been in error. I am suggesting that it may have resulted from a misinterpretation of two other transactions involving Todd Betts that occurred in October.

Readers may recall that the Columbus Clippers placed Todd Betts on the temporarily inactive list on 7/23/2004 so that he could go to Athens to play for the Canadian Olympic team. To the best of my recollection, and unlike Wang, Betts never returned to play for the Clippers the rest of the season. As a minor league player with more than 6 years experience who was not on the 40 man major league roster, he was eligible for free agency after the season. The 6 year plus minor league free agents all get their free agency on October 15. Technically, they are released to free agency. But, I believe that there is another rule that says you can't release a player on the inactive list. As a formality, I believe, you have to reinstate the player to the active list, even though the season may be over, then release him. Some sources, e.g., Baseball America, do not include the releases of 6+ year minor league free agents in their lists of minor league transactions, choosing instead to print separate lists of the dozens of players who achieve their free agency on October 15. Thus, Todd Betts was included on the list of minor league free agents who were released from the Yankee organization on October 15. But the separate report of minor league transactions published by Baseball America for the period of October 8 thorough 29, 2004, indicates that Todd Betts was reinstated by the Yankees during that period.

To see the October 2004, Todd Betts sighting by Baseball America, click here

Although Baseball America does not indicate the exact date of the reinstatement, I think it is a good bet (no pun intended) that the reinstatement just preceded October 15, 2004, so that Betts could be given his release. If I am right, a reinstatement from the temporarily inactive list for 2004 is quite different from signing a new contract with the Yankees for 2005. This would explain why no other source has reported that Todd Betts was in the Clippers camp for 2005. Piliere did not cite any source for the news that Betts had signed for 2005. Could it be that the report of the reinstatement for 2004 was misinterpreted as signing for 2005?

In any event, it is fairly apparent that Todd Betts is not going to be on the Clippers roster when they open the season in less than 24 hours. On March 27, 2005, the Courier-News of Bridgewater, New Jersey, reported that the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League had offerred Todd Betts a contract but he had not yet signed.

To read about a 2005 contract offer to Todd Betts, click here

If the Courier-News report is true, it is a further indication that, at least as of late March 2005, Todd Betts was not under contract to the Yankees organization. It has always been my understanding that the modern independent leagues do not make contract offers to active players under contract to major league organizations. To do so would result in the independent leagues being crushed by those who have sanctuaries from Mr. Sherman and his anti-trust act.

I realize that this post presents more information about Todd Betts than anyone, including his mother and wife, if he is married, would ever want to know. On the other hand, maybe they were wondering where he was too. Glad to help the Courier-News spread the news that he had an offer of gainful employment with the Somerset Patriots. Maybe some of you in Jersey will get to see him play this summer.

[mbn007]

The pitching staffs at AA, and both A levels looks loaded, especially the starters.

Does anyone think Sierra is the closer of the future, assuming no additional moves are made? Or is it going to be one of the 2004 draftees, like that PP article a short while back?

[38Special]

Originally Posted by thenextandykosco

Thank you, 38Special

Very good research. I guess Frankie was wrong.

As for Sierra, hes gotta cut those walks down or he'll be in AA forever.