With the posting of the MiLB rosters (still preliminary, of course) I have a few observations.
Corbin Martin (and to a lesser extent Ryan Hartman) at Round Rock (ahead of JB Bukauskas and others) surprised me a little. There are at least six (and possibly eight) starters on the roster, so a couple of those will probably see mostly bullpen action.
It was encouraging to see Tyler Ivey at Corpus. I was surprised to see Kit Scheetz assigned there instead of Round Rock though. I was also surprised to see Jake Adams stay in Fayetteville, meaning that one or more of the six outfielders will be manning 1B. I have seen reports elsewhere that JJ Matijevic is listed in the infield, so I am assuming he is the most likely candidate. I think Chas McCormick saw a little 1B action last year, too, but I am not going to look it up right now.
Fayetteville is mostly as I had expected, though two of my questions in the other thread are answered here (Angarita & De La Cruz). I had also expected Jake Adams to start in Corpus and Scott Schreiber here (instead of Quad Cities). It will be interesting to see who gets the most playing time at catcher between Michael Papierski (with his amazing BB rate) and newcomer Scott Manea. I was also surprised not to find another newcomer, Alejandro Flores, here (or anywhere, for that matter).
Quad Cities likewise held only a few surprises ... though I usually do not even try to project the pitching staff at this level. I am a bit surprised to see Jonathan Lacroix here again, and I had thought to see the recently released Luis Encarnacion at 1B. The biggest surprise was four catchers, none of them named Nathan Perry. Of course, Alex Holderbach also saw time at 1B last year, so he and Schreiber may split time there.
Missing in action: In addition to catchers Alejandro Flores and Nathan Perry, there were a few Tri-City regulars that I expected to make the jump to full season ball. These include infielder Michael Wielansky and outfielder Ramiro Rodriguez.
