Potomac Announces Its 2014 Opening Day Roster
The Potomac Nationals unveiled its 2014 Opening Day this afternoon, which as per usual, will return quite a few familiar names. Without further ado, here’s the rundown (watchlist players in bold, notables in italics):
| PITCHERS | INFIELDERS | OUTFIELDERS | CATCHERS |
| Dakota Bacus | Kevin Keyes | Brandon Miller | Cole Leonida |
| Robert Benincasa |
Mike McQuillan | Justin Miller | Pedro Severino |
| Ian Dickson | Stephen Perez |
Randolph Oduber | |
| Brian Dupra | Tony Renda |
Piwnica-Worms | |
| Pedro Encarnacion | Adrian Sanchez | ||
| Bryan Harper | Oscar Tejeda | ||
| Travis Henke |
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| Nick Lee |
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| Gilberto Mendez | |||
| Brett Mooneyham |
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| Ronald Pena |
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| Brian Rauh |
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| Derek Self |
This more in line with past Potomac rosters, where there are some prospects, but not many high-profile ones (two Top 20 guys per BA in Renda and Severino) and a sizable chunk of guys repeating or returning — nine by my quick count here, with three (Keyes, Oduber, and Sanchez) coming back for their third season.
Eyeballing it, we’re looking at a (alphabetically) rotation of Bacus-Dickson-Encarnacion-Lee-Mooneyham unless Rauh and Pena are returned to a starting role, which is entirely possible since Bacus and Dickson have switched between starting and relieving.
As is always the case, if the Hagerstown core can pick up where they left off last season, the High-A veterans should offset any hiccups and make for a contender. If they can win the first half — a big IF, as it’s only happened twice in the last six seasons — a wave of callups from Western Maryland (especially the pitchers) could make for another fun summer and perhaps another title run.
Here is a quick recap of the guys who will be facing a new level for the first time to start 2014
Syracuse
Brian Goodwin
Steven Souza
Blake Treinen
Harrisburg
Gabriel Alfaro
Colin Bates
Matt Purke
Felipe Rivero
Blake Schwartz
Cutter Dykstra
Caleb Ramsey
Michael Taylor
Drew Vettleson
Potomac
Dakota Bacus
Ian Dickson
Pedro Encarnacion
Bryan Harper
Nick Lee
Gilberto Mendez
Ronald Pena
Mike McQuillan
Stephen Perez
Tony Renda
Pedro Severino
Hagerstown
Andrew Cooper
Lucas Giolito
Nick Pivetta
Hector Silvestre
John Simms
Wander Suero
David Masters
Drew Ward
James Yezzo
Rafael Bautista
Wilman Rodriguez
Spencer Kieboom
Lots of work for Springfield Fan.
Speaking of, I don’t think most people realize just how much Sam Palace has jumped around the past two years. Clearly, he was in a role that a person either can embrace or will hate. I’m so happy that I won’t have to be moving him all around the Big Board this year, as he settles in to a new role: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/wp/2014/04/01/bullpen-catcher-sam-palace-finally-gets-his-major-league-opportunity-with-the-nats/
Thanks for the link. Cool story.
So where does Jefry Rodriguez go? Auburn?
Could he be held back at XST and debut in Hagerstown when one of the other starters is promoted to Potomac?
Yes – Pedro Encarnacion got that treatment a couple of years ago when he was held back until mid-May.