Making the long drive Saturday -- south on U.S. 231, take a left on I-10, take a right on I-75, exit at Port Charlotte -- for spring training.
In my annual tradition of showing how little I know, here are my roster guesses for the Biscuits. These are obviously before I know anything about what's happened in camp. We started the blog with one of these way back when.
Pitchers -- Alex Torres, Darin Downs, Alex Cobb, David Newmann, Jake McGee, Matt Gorgen, Richard De Los Santos
Catchers -- Jose Lobaton, Nevin Ashley
Infielders -- Matt Sweeney, Shawn O'Malley, Cody Cipriano, Matt Fields
Outfielder -- Emeel Salem
If Lobaton is a surprise, I pick him because the Rays won't want two 40-man catchers splitting time at Triple-A Durham. They'd prefer both seeing regular playing time. Also, before someone points out you need three outfielders to play a game, I don't have the guts to pick a second at this time.
Opening night starting pitcher? I'll go with the Reno Rabbit, McGee. (Yes, I just made up that nickname.)
As far as the trip, I'll definitely hide my press credentials when rolling through Gainesville. I hear they don't like it there when you ask questions and accurately report what's said.
4 comments:
in the outfield add Cody Strait & John Matulia. Your guess look pretty good to me.
might add Nowak at 3B and then move Sweeney to the outfield. The Rays always use him as an OF when he plays with the big team. I am sure they are/will try to move him since he won't play 3B in the majors. I agree with the Cody Strait guess and maybe Rashad Eldridge, he would take a backseat to Jennings and Ruggiano. Matt Joyce could be back with the Bulls, because he has missed so much time this spring with injuries.....that may force Eldridge back to Montgomery.
I went to a spring training game earlier this week and got to see Nevin Ashley first-hand and wow, I'm impressed. Hope to see him progress as the season goes along and that he'll eventually make the trip to Durham and who knows, maybe even be a Rays September call-up.
On the subject of catchers, I have high hopes for Lobaton as well. The C position seems to have long been the Rays' biggest weakness (at least in terms of depth), and it's good to see kids like Lobaton and Ashley showing such promise.
Good luck Biscuits, I'll be rooting for ya over here in Tampa Bay! :)
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