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Potomac Announces Its 2011 Roster

Twenty of our watchlist players, including several BA-ranked prospects, make up the 25-man squad

As folks have noted in the comments, the Potomac roster has been released to the (mainstream) media.

For the newbies, this is home base for me (disclosure: I’m a season ticket holder, and have been since 2006) so when the P-Nats are home, I’ll do a gamer entitled “Last Night In Woodbridge” and let you know what I saw and/or am seeing. Though I mostly play it straight, I’ve been known to go off on a tangent or sometimes try a new angle.

This I offer in advance even if my tagline above or my bio below ought to explain it. My favorites are pretty easy to spot and I’ve been influenced to go a little easier on the players when they’re struggling, but I’m sure it can happen again. This is a blog, after all.

Without further ado…

PITCHERS
Alex Caldera
Mitchell Clegg
Ryan Demmin
Paul Demny
Marcos Frias
Trevor Holder
Pat Lehman
Carlos Martinez
Kyle Morrison
Adam Olbrychowski
Danny Rosenbaum
Josh Smoker
Rob Wort

CATCHERS
Brian Peacock
Sandy Leon

INFIELDERS
Cutter Dykstra
Rick Hague
Stephen King
Jeff Kobernus
Francisco Soriano
Steven Souza

OUTFIELDERS
Chris Curran
Destin Hood
Eury Perez
J.P. Ramirez

This is the inverse of what I’m used to. Usually, Potomac opens with just two or three guys 22 or younger and nine or ten guys 25 or older. This year, just three guys are 25 or older and twelve are 22 or younger. And while not all of our watchlist players are full-fledged prospects, there are still 19 20 of them here. Seven guys from the BA Top 30 and John Sickels’s book are here.

The biggest surprises we already knew: Rosenbaum and Holder are back, and are likely the first two in the rotation. The other three are going to be the tough to guess, with five guys that have mostly been starters. Josh Smoker and Rob Wort have both been late-inning guys, but one has to think that Demmin making the jump from Vermont has to mean he’s in the running to finish games, too.

Most of the other surprises are mild or have ready explanations (e.g. Sammy Solis is nursing a groin injury, per Adam Kilgore). Justin Bloxom is not here, which means that either someone’s been converted (Souza, King, Ramirez) or we’re likely to see a carousel at both first base and DH in order to balance offense and defense.

In any case, this may be the best roster on paper we’ve ever seen in Potomac. Like all teams in baseball, the question will be whether or not the pitching will be there, particularly in the second half. Opening Day is this Friday against the Lynchburg Hillcats.

28 Commments

  1. Brian Peacock’s 5th year at Potomac. I believe that officially makes him Mayor of Woodbridge. How many catchers does he have to see pass him befiore he figures out that he is not destined to be a ballplayer?

    1. Peacock will probably never make the majors, but he’s most certainly a ballplayer. He plays hard, he carries himself like a pro, and can contribute when he’s healthy. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of someone with worse luck when it comes to freak injuries.

      1. Bless the man for his persistence. I hope he gets to AA for some meaningful at bats this year, and I hope the game of baseball gives back to him as much as he given to it.

  2. everybody here knows what I am hoping for….a Jeff Fassero transformation in Josh Smoker.
    interesting to see what OFF comes out of Jeff K, SS and King……Higby did not have a good spring camp attendees in Viera????
    lets start the countdown like prior years with SS and Harper….the countdown for Michael Purke from TCU!!! LOL!!!!
    notice that Indiana University is hitting the cover off the ball based around Alex Dickerson….

  3. can not argue with this roster, a couple of guys in Hagerstown are just a phone call away , and I mean a very quick call

  4. There’s a lot to get excited about here.

    Sue, Todd over @ Nats Arms was talking about how it’s time you got some press credentials from the Nationals F.O. I agree it’s time and maybe we should start a petition.

    2. Mark, you’ve got to remember that Brian was a bird of a different feather – He was finishing grad school & working toward his teaching credentials / certification while feeding his muse & running his website, IIRC. Sue_D comes at it from the other side – Married, with kids & a day job when he jumped into the breach to continue the flow of information to the likes of us.

      I’d love to see Sue_D & the others who chip-in here to build some more “inside connections”, but I’m happy with the way the blog is rolling, and will continue to lap up every bit of info presented here (and hopefully contribute some from time to time as well).

  5. You have 20 prospects at Potomac: you forgot Rick Hague in your list! On paper, it’s a very good team.

    1. Nice catch; can’t always copyedit myself. Also updated the watchlist and added Dykstra’s writeup, shifting Taylor to the OF.

    1. And a few others as well; M.Perez (CA), Bloxom (1B), Nicol (MI), Bronson (SP), H.Garcia (RP), Testa (RP), S.Brown (RP).

      I’m guessing that guys like Arata, Lozada, & Zinicola was a minor-league non-tenders in the off-season.

  7. Wow, this is a good crew at Potomac, lots of young guns, especially looking forward to watching Destin, Jeff and Josh continue their development!

    1. Hagerstown is the guess, but it would appear the powers that be apparently want to use that press release to help sell tickets to tomorrow’s exhibition.

  9. Looks like lotsa offensive potential from this group, but really, really challenged defensively, and lack a true 1B to boot.

    2010 total numbers…
    CA (Leon, Peacock) = 148GP, 21E.
    IF (Dykstra, Hague, King, Kobernus, Soriano, Souza) = 476GP, 136E. [Yikes!]
    OF (Curran, Hood, Perez, Ramirez) = 466GP, 28E.

    On the pitching side, an interesting mix to open the season. 7 with starting experience in 2010 (Caldera, Clegg, Demny, Frias, Holder, Lehman, Rosenbaum) , and 6 relievers (Demmin, Martinez, Morrison, Olbrychowski, Smoker, Wort). Four LHP (Clegg, Rosenbaum as possible SP’s, with Demmin, Smoker in the pen).

    LeCroy, Harris & Menhart could be in for a roller-coaster ride with this group, I’ll happily have a seat behind the plate to see it.

  10. Looks like Bloxom was kept in Hagerstown. They’ve also posted a roster that looks like the “real deal”. As was Nieto.

    @BinM, as far as first base in concerned I suspect both King and Souza could be positioned on either corner. Neither set the world on fire fielding wise so … ??

    Catcher looks rather weak? Not sure what Sue thinks about that position this year.

    I’m assuming Rosenbaum, Holder and Frias are the first 3 starters. After that my guess would be Lehman and Demny making five.

    Kobernus and Hague starting MI with Dykstra as the primary utility guy.

    1. Kobernus still feels like a 2B, and Soriano seems right as a MI to me. Dykstra is a wild-card, and King seems an organizational player at this point, imo.

      That being said, Souza & Hague could shift – Hague may not have the range to be a SS at higher levels, and Souza clearly has defensive issues at 3B. Maybe Hague to 3B & Souza to 1B would benefit both players & the team in the end. We’ll see.

  11. Still searching for news on Roark and Alaniz.

    Hope you are throwing Martis in that list as well @SpringfieldFan?

    Ubiquitous “Vermont” which I guess we need to change to “Auburn”? The place holder
    for unassigned yet still viable prospects working on stuff in Florida. There’s usually a
    whole passel … makes me wonder how guys like Stras (and Zimmermann last year) would feel lonely?

  12. Courtesy of Byron Kerr of MASN Sports: with Hagerstown 2011 roster that completes the minor league rosters with the exception of Auburn. Now, I guess we need to find out about the missing players to help out SpringfieldFan.

    Here is the full roster:
    Pitchers:
    LHP Paul Applebee
    RHP Sam Brown
    RHP Wilson Eusebio
    LHP Matt Grace
    RHP Ben Graham
    LHP Bobby Hansen
    LHP Chad Jenkins
    RHP Taylor Jordan
    LHP Christopher Manno
    RHP Shane McCatty
    RHP Christopher McKenzie
    RHP Cameron Selik
    RHP Matt Swynenberg

    Catchers:
    David Freitas
    Cole Leonida
    Sam Palace*

    Infielders:
    Blake Kelso
    Jason Martinson
    Brett Newsome
    Sean Nicol
    Mills Rogers
    Adrian Sanchez

    Outfielders:
    Bryce Harper
    Wade Moore
    Randolph Oduber
    Michael Taylor

  15. Adam @ Nats Journal also has news on Rafael Martin, who is one of my favorites, saying he lost his arm slot in the offseason and needs to do some muscle memory work.

    How can you not root for a guy who goes from a beer league to AA in a couple of years.

  18. Who will be handling the majority of the catching duties in Potomac. Leon or Peacock?

    1. I’d have to say Leon, but hope that LeCroy can find a way to get at-bats for Peacock elsewhere, which will be tougher than in years past because the places he played before (DH, 3B, LF) are more or less spoken for, plus you have to figure that Curran will coming off the bench for defense quite a bit and when he gets an OF start (he displaced OF will probably be used as the DH most of the time).

      I’m still curious as to which player will be playing across the field from third base (ha!)

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