Glancing At The Roster

Written by Colin on February 22, 2009 – 9:46 am

Spring 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?


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Posted in General, Roster Moves, Speculation | 8 Comments »

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