Hagerstown Announces Its 2013 Opening Day Roster
The official press release is not yet in hand, but per MASN’s Byron Kerr, here’s a look at the 2013 Hagerstown Suns (watchlist players in bold, notables in italics):
| PITCHERS | INFIELDERS | OUTFIELDERS | CATCHERS |
| Dixon Anderson | Carlos Lopez | J.R. Higley | Craig Manuel |
| Robert Benincasa | Mike McQuillan | Estarlin Martinez | Pedro Severino |
| Brian Dupra | Khayyan Norfork | Brandon Miller | |
| Pedro Encarnacion | Stephen Perez | Wander Ramos | |
| David Fischer | Tony Renda | ||
| Bryan Harper | Wes Schill | ||
| Travis Henke | |||
| Will Hudgins | |||
| Brett Mooneyham | |||
| Ronald Pena | |||
| Ivan Pineyro | DISABLED LIST | ||
| Brian Rauh | Wirkin Estevez | Spencer Kieboom | Narciso Mesa |
| Blake Schwartz | Matt Purke | Todd Simko | Dean Weaver |
Well, the gang’s all here. Just four of the 25 active players here didn’t play for the Auburn Doubledays last summer.
However, like Potomac, there’s a question of who’s gonna start and who’s gonna relieve. Nine of the 13 were starting pitchers for significant periods of time in Auburn, Hagerstown, and the GCL. Sight unseen, and without knowing folks’ health, it’s tough to guess… especially if the Nats do what they did last year with Nathan Karns and begin one of the guys coming off surgery (e.g. Dupra, Anderson) in the bullpen to keep the innings count down in the early going.
Health, of course, is going to probably be a theme with these guys… injuries shortened the already short seasons of Miller and Perez — how will they do over the course of a full season? Matt Purke; ’nuff said.
Of course, it bears repeating that even though this largely the same team that racked up .605 winning percentage in the New York-Penn League, it’s no guarantee that they’ll do the same in the Sally. But if the pitching improves as much as the hitting declines, it could be another playoff run for this group.
5 IFA signings on the active roster has to be some kind of record for us, and there are 2 more on the DL. Maybe we will finaly see some good players come from the DR
No kidding after Jose Rijo soap opera!
??? Where is Shawn Pfefffffffner?
This is a really unimpressive roster. There’s maybe 4 players worth watching. Quite the difference from last year, which was full of interesting players.
Did I miss Olbrychowski? Where is he this year?
We still haven’t been told who’s on the Harrisburg DL, but I have a feeling a lot of these names are either in XST or have been released. BA’s last post was through the 20th, but I expect the next one to have the names that we’ve already reported.
Same thing happened last year… a sizable number of guys at the end of ST that we don’t know for sure what happened (XST or released). I’d love to be proven wrong, but I suspect this is on purpose because they know that once the season starts, folks will stop asking.
Harris even more than Rizzo likes to keep things very close to the vest. He behaves like he is working for the NSA not the Nats.
They’ve got some interesting players starting with Purke and Wirkin Estevez as they rehab. Mooneyham is a big left-hander. Renda and McQuillen might be very interesting. This roster is still pretty young … just have to wait and see.
True and Pfeffnercafds some pop once he gets a bus ticket north
I’m very interested in Norfork …. outside of that, i’m thinking it could possibly be a long summer. 🙁
Lippincott not appearing on the HAG roster must mean he slated for XST >>> AUB. As a 22 yr old, he’s already old for GCL and really NYPL as well. But I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.