CA – Sandy Leon
1B – Justin Bloxom
2B – Jeff Kobernus
SS – Rick Hague
3B – Steven Souza
OF – Destin Hood
OF – Eury Perez
OF – Bryce Harper
DH – J.P. Ramirez
BCA – Sean Rooney
BIF – Francisco Soriano
BIF – Stephen King
BOF – Chris Curran
BOF – Brett Newsome
Aside from picking 14 instead of 13 position players, my success rate was more or less the same as Hagerstown — eight of them made the Opening Day roster. I was a little less accurate in picking the eventual positions: five of the eight in the field, six of the nine if you can give me a pass for the DH slot, five of nine if you can’t. Obviously, picking Harper wrong again was to “blame” for a lot of my mistakes (red), but position changes (blue) are also duly noted. As we saw in the debate for Hagerstown, I could be wrong there again, too.
Unlike the previous post, I’m a little more boxed in here. I’m choosing between repeats and promotions without the benefit of knowing who’s hurt and who’s still with organization. There’s also the twilight zone of XST, too. Invariably, I’m going to overlook someone, but here goes anyway…
CA – David Freitas
1B – Brett Newsome
2B – Adrian Sanchez
SS – Zach Walters
3B – Jason Martinson
OF – Michael Taylor
OF – Kevin Keyes
OF – Randolph Oduber
DH – Blake Kelso
BCA – Cole Leonida
BIF – Sean Nicol
BIF – Cutter Dykstra
BOF – J.P. Ramirez
Those last three slots were the hardest to pick. My choice for 1B was also tough, but I made my bed when I decided not to leapfrog Matt Skole from Auburn, which left me to choose between Mills Rogers, who finished on the Auburn roster, Brett Newsome, and possibly Jose Lozada. Or perhaps Steve Souza repeating.
My gut says Souza showed enough by learning a new position and showing good plate discipline. The counterargument, of course, is that the latter came at the expense of power (.367 and just 2HR after Memorial Day). This one of the toughest questions because if he and Justin Bloxom are on the same roster, Matt LeCroy won’t always have the luxury of the DH to solve this dilemma.
I don’t expect to be as accurate with this year’s picks for the A-ball teams as I had last year. The health questions of Rick Hague and Anthony Rendon are the twin elephants in the room, and while I’m optimistic that they’ll be healthy, I think a reunion of the Rice IFs in Potomac this April is highly unlikely.
I’ll expand this series to a third part, which will address the Harrisburg roster, but be forewarned: I’m gonna have to punt and waffle [insert GOP debate joke here] on some of the slots.
As always, discuss in the comments. Ten days until pitchers and catchers report.