We’re now just a few days away from opening day, and Jemile Weeks has been optioned to Sacramento, Adam Rosales has been placed on the disabled list, and Hiro Nakajima has been struggling and is now dealing with a strained hamstring. And thanks to these recent developments, it looks like the A’s opening day roster may now be rounding into shape – and along with it, the Sacramento River Cats’ and Midland RockHounds’ rosters too.
This week on my blog, Athletics Farm, I projected the likely opening day rosters for the A’s, River Cats and RockHounds. And you can check out my projections below, along with those of Guessatomo, a devout minor league follower and regular commenter here on Athletics Nation.
There are two big question marks affecting the rosters at all levels. The first has to do with the status of Hiro Nakajima. At this point, it’s highly unlikely that he opens the season on the A’s active major league roster. So the question is, does Hiro open the season on the River Cats active roster when their season begins next Thursday, or does he open the season on the disabled list – after which, he could then join the River Cats. Guessatomo assumes he opens the season on the disabled list but, since he still hasn’t officially been disabled at this point, I consider him as still active and have added him to the River Cats roster.
If Nakajima does open the season on the disabled list, I think that probably opens a spot on the River Cats roster for third baseman Tommy Mendonca, whereas Guessatomo thinks it might give an opportunity to middle infielder Darwin Perez. But whoever would ultimately get bumped up to Sacramento, it would most likely open up a spot on the Midland roster for one of Stockton’s outfielders – Myrio Richard, Josh Whitaker or Dusty Robinson.
The other big question has to do with the abundance of quality relievers at the higher levels of the A’s minor league system. There are a dozen relievers who could easily be on the River Cats roster – Okajima, Norberto, Figueroa, Thomas, Scribner, Ekstrom, Simmons, Leon, Gordon, Fisher, Perez and Newby - but there’s probably room for no more that eight of them. I have James Simmons and Arnold Leon in the River Cats bullpen and Brian Gordon and Carlos Fisher in the RockHounds bullpen, but it could just as easily be reversed.
Some of you might be happy to note that neither of us has projected former A’s starting first baseman Daric Barton ending up on any of these rosters, as both of us believe his days with the organization are numbered – and that’s probably a single digit number! Of course, nothing is etched in stone and plenty can still change before opening day. There haven’t been any sort of official announcements from the team yet and there probably won’t be until about 24 hours before opening day. But check out our projected rosters for the A’s and their Triple-A and Double-A affiliates based on what we think we know at this point, and let us know what you think…
ATHLETICS FARM’S ROSTER PROJECTIONS
PROJECTED 2013 OAKLAND A’S ROSTER
--CATCHERS--
Derek Norris C
--INFIELDERS--
Brandon Moss 1B
Nate Freiman 1B
Eric Sogard 2B
Jed Lowrie SS
--OUTFIELDERS--
Coco Crisp OF
Josh Reddick OF
Chris Young OF
Seth Smith OF
--STARTING PITCHERS--
Brett Anderson LHP
Jarrod Parker RHP
Tommy Milone LHP
A.J. Griffin RHP
Dan Straily RHP
--RIGHT-HANDED RELIEVERS--
Grant Balfour RHP
Ryan Cook RHP
Pat Neshek RHP
Chris Resop RHP
--LEFT-HANDED RELIEVERS--
Sean Doolittle LHP
Jerry Blevins LHP
Travis Blackley LHP
(Bartolo Colon – SUSPENDED)
(Fernando Rodriguez – DL)
(Adam Rosales – DL)
PROJECTED 2013 SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS ROSTER
--HITTERS--
Hiro Nakajima SS (if not on DL)
Jemile Weeks 2B
Andy Parrino SS-3B-OF
Grant Green 2B-3B-OF
Josh Horton 3B-SS-2B
Scott Moore 1B-3B-DH
Shane Peterson OF-1B
Conner Crumbliss OF-2B
Michael Taylor OF
--STARTING PITCHERS--
Sonny Gray RHP
Andrew Werner LHP
Jesse Chavez RHP
Bruce Billings RHP
Travis Banwart RHP
--RIGHT-HANDED RELIEVERS--
Evan Scribner RHP
Mike Ekstrom RHP
James Simmons RHP (possibly at AA)
Arnold Leon RHP (possibly at AA)
--LEFT-HANDED RELIEVERS--
Hideki Okajima LHP
Jordan Norberto LHP
Pedro Figueroa LHP
Justin Thomas LHP
PROJECTED 2013 MIDLAND ROCKHOUNDS ROSTER
--HITTERS--
Anthony Aliotti 1B-DH
Tommy Mendonca 3B-DH (promoted to AAA if Nakajima on DL)
Miles Head 3B-1B
Jefry Marte 3B-1B
Darwin Perez 2B-SS
Tyler Ladendorf 2B-SS-OF
Chad Oberacker OF
D’Arby Myers OF
--STARTING PITCHERS--
Carlos Hernandez LHP
Murphy Smith RHP
Josh Bowman RHP
Sean Murphy RHP
Jacob Brown LHP
--RIGHT-HANDED RELIEVERS--
Brian Gordon RHP (possibly at AAA)
Carlos Fisher RHP (possibly at AAA)
Kyler Newby RHP
Darren Byrd RHP
Paul Smyth RHP
Nate Long RHP
Sergio Perez RHP
--LEFT-HANDED RELIEVERS--
Frank Gailey LHP
GUESSATOMO’S ROSTER PROJECTIONS
Oakland A’s
SP
Brett Anderson
Jarrod Parker
Tommy Milone
AJ Griffin
Dan Straily
RP
LR-Travis Blackley
ROOGY-Pat Neshek
MR-Chris Resop
MR-Jerry Blevins
SU-Sean Doolittle
SU-Ryan Cook
CL-Grant Balfour
C
John Jaso
Derek Norris
INF
Josh Donaldson
Jed Lowrie
Nate Freiman
Brandon Moss
Eric Sogard
Scott Sizemore
OF/DH
Chris Young
Yoenis Cespedes
Josh Reddick
Seth Smith
DL
Adam Rosales
Fernando Rodriguez
Suspended
Bartolo Colon
Sacramento River Cats
SP
Sonny Gray
Jesse Chavez
Bruce Billings
Andrew Werner
Travis Banwart
RP
Justin Thomas
Jordan Norberto
Mike Ekstrom
Pedro Figueroa
Arnold Leon (could begin in AA if stretched out to start again)
Hideki Okajima
Evan Scribner
James Simmons
C
Luke Montz
(I believe Steven Hill retired)
INF
Andy Parrino
Jemile Weeks
Josh Horton
Darwin Perez
INF/OF
Conner Crumbliss
Scott Moore
Grant Green
OF
Michael Choice
Michael Taylor
Shane Peterson
DL
Hiro Nakajima
Midland
SP
Josh Bowman
TJ Walz
Carlos Hernandez
Murphy Smith
Jacob Brown
RP
Shawn Haviland
Frank Gailey
Paul Smyth
Darren Byrd
Kyler Newby
Sergio Perez
Brian Gordon
C
David Freitas
Beau Taylor
INF
Miles Head
Jefry Marte
Dusty Coleman
Anthony Allioti
Tommy Mendonca
INF/OF
Tyler Ladendorf
OF
Jeremy Barfield
D’arby Myers
Josh Whitaker
You may notice that Daric Barton isn’t listed anywhere. I believe that he will be put on waivers, whether he makes it through or not, I don’t know.