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Glancing At The Roster
Written by Colin on February 22, 2009 – 9:46 amSpring Training is underway and there are many many people in camp working out, throwing, batting, and getting ready for some exhibition games. Since it’s entirely too early to begin looking at the roster slots, let’s do just that. The Braves will start the season with 25 men on their roster – but who will make the final few spots that aren’t known yet? Let’s take a look, stating with position players (13 roster slots)
Definite: Brian McCann, Casey Kotchman, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, Chipper Jones, Jeff Francoeur, Dave Ross, Greg Norton
Probable: Matt Diaz, Josh Anderson, Martin Prado
That leaves 2 slots open for battle – Gregor Blanco, Brandon Jones, and Jordan Schafer probably battle it out for those 2 positions. We may see some other competitors show up as spring training rolls on – and the mix may be thrown off by a veteran acquisition if the Braves decide to go that route.
And now for the pitching staff (12 roster slots, historically)
Definite: Derek Lowe, Jair Jurrjens, Javier Vazquez, Kenshin Kawakami, Mike Gonzalez, Rafael Soriano, Peter Moylan
Probable: Tom Glavine, Manny Acosta, Blaine Boyer
That leaves, once again, 2 roster slots for which many will compete. I’d argue that Jorge Campillo is likely to land one of them (debate that if you want), leaving Jeff Bennett, Buddy Carlyle, Jeff Ridgway, Boone Logan, Eric O’Flaherty and Phil Stockman to fight it out. The edge may go to the emerging top lefty, but that’s speculation.
Play the role of Bobby Cox for just a bit – if you had to write up your expected 25 man roster now, who makes it and who doesn’t? What considerations would you take into account as you make your decisions?
Tags: Braves 2009 Roster, Braves 2009 Roster speculation
Posted in General, Roster Moves, Speculation | 8 Comments »
By Jerry on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
What about Infante? He should be there, shouldn't he?
Kotchman, Johnson, Escobar, Hoss, McCann, Anderson, Frenchy, Diaz
That leaves 5 spots to be filled with:
Prado, Infante, Ross, Schafer and Norton.
It would be nice to see a young kid beat out Norton but Cox won't allow that.
Pitchers are:
Lowe, Vasquez, Jair, Kamakazi, Glavine, Gonzo, Moylan, Soriano,Bennett, Acosta, Boyer and then a lefty reliever
By Jonathan on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
Yeah, I'd say you forgot Infante was on the roster, Colin. I say he's highly likely to be on the squad.
By Jonathan on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
Also, remember, Moylan may or may not be ready to go come the start of the season. All signs say he's looking good in Training so far, but the 12 month mark from his surgery is not until May.
By Blair on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
You can fill in one spot with Garret Anderson. DOB reporting it's a done deal, GA en route.
By TLB on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
Do we have money for ohman?
By Jonathan on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
The Braves stopped pursuing Ohman in early Feb. He won't be playing in Atlanta this season.
By tlb on Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
they also said after griffey they would let the youngsters battle! Doesnt look like that happened! They where pursuing abreu at that point he would have take the 5-7 mil we had left so clearly we would say we are not going to sign ohman! We payed 1 mil for glavine with deferred incentives and 2.5 for anderson this lets 1.5 to 3 mil left and ohman has no offer from a team he wants to play for!
By Larry on Feb 23, 2009 | Reply
We quit pursuing Ohman at the beginning of Jan. His offer was pulled after the Vazquez trade.