2013 Minor League Rosters

Today, to mark the opening of the minor league season, I'll present you with the minor league rosters of the Jays' four full-season minor league teams.  If you want to read a little bit more about each player, go back to some of my earlier posts from the off-season where I recapped the prospects from the Blue Jays' minor league system.  To find the more notable prospects, I'm linking them to my earlier posts, so just click on that players name and you'll be taken to the article where I discuss him.

I'll be doing daily minor league recaps of our teams and weekly prospect summaries throughout the season.  I'm also hoping to get down to Buffalo and Lansing (for sure) and even to Manchester, NH to see some of these guy again in person. 

I've cobbled together these rosters from a couple of different sources.  The Buffalo and NH rosters I got from the teams' websites, but I've gotten some help from Bluebird Banters' posts for Dunedin and Lansing rosters because their sites appear to be incomplete.  

As you know, in AAA, the Jays reached an agreement with the Buffalo Bisons in the offseason and have returned to Western New York and the International League.  

Buffalo Bisons

Pitchers

Buddy Carlyle

Alex Burnett

Mickey Storey

Ramon Ortiz

Claudio Vargas

Justin Germano

Dave Bush

Juan Perez

Alex Hinshaw

Neil Wagner

Todd Redmond

Brad Lincoln

Catchers

Mike Nickeas

Josh Thole

Infielders

Adam Loewen 

Munenori Kawasaki

Mike McCoy

Ryan Goins

Luis Jimenez

Eugenio Velez

Jim Negrych

Andy LaRoche

Outfielders

Anthony Gose

Ryan Langerhans

Moises Sierra

There are no real surprises here.  The Bisons have tweeted their lineup for today's Opening Day game:

Buffalo Bisons ‏@BuffaloBisons1h

#Bisons Opening Day Lineup: Negrych (4), Gose (8), Sierra (9), Jimenez (3), LaRoche (5), Thole (2), Langerhans (7), Velez (DH), Goins (6)

So we can see that Negrych actually gets to hit leadoff with Gose batting second. This is really the expected configuration, with Velez DHing and Justin Germano getting the start. This is a fairly old AAA team, with a lot of ML experience up and down. 

New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Pitchers

Danny Barnes - DL

Fernando Hernandez - DL

Chad Jenkins - DL

Chorye Spoone - DL

John  Stilson- DL

Evan Crawford - DL

Marcus Stroman - Restricted

Deck McGuire

Ryan Tepera

Trystan Magnuson

Chad Beck

Clint Everts

Matt Wright

Austin Bibens-Dirkx

Randy Boone

Tyson Brummett

Joel Carreno

Tommy Hottovy

Marcus Walden

Catchers

A.J. Jimenez - DL

Seaon Ochinko

Jack Murphy

Infielders

Jon Talley - DL

Brian Van Kirk - DL

Ryan Schimpf

Clint Robinson

Kevin Ahrens

Kevin Nolan

Amadeo Zazueta

Outfielders

John Tolisano

Brad Glenn

Ricardo Nanita

Kevin Pillar

Kenny Wilson

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats roster is very interesting, particularly because the number of players who have been put on the 7-Day DL to start the season, including Catcher A.J. Jimenez, and highly ranked pitching prospects Chad Jenkins and John Stilson.  Also somewhat unexpected is the appearance of Ricardo Nanita on the Fisher Cats Roster.  He's a guy who's got a ton of minor league experience and played in AAA last year, so I'm not sure what's up with that.  Also showing up here is Clint Robinson, who was picked up off waivers from the Pirates and essentially takes Lars Anderson's place on the 40-man roster.  Anderson was traded to the Chicago White Sox for cash.

Prospecty guys on this roster include Pillar and Wilson.  Some people that I talked to at Spring Training think that Wilson is one of the most improved players in the system and might open some eyes in AA.  He's a speedster, so don't expect him to light up the scoreboard, but I did see some pop to the gaps, so he could hit doubles and triples.

While the website doesn't have Sean Nolin on their roster, Bluebird Banter reports HERE that Sean Nolin will be on the Fisher Cats roster, but starts the season on the DL.

Dunedin Blue Jays

(Note: the roster listed at the Dunedin Blue Jays' website are incomplete, so I'm using this list, compiled at Bluebird Banter)

Pitchers

Dayton Marze - DL

Tyler Ybarra - DL

AaronSanchez
Casey Lawrence
Jesse Hernandez
Ricky Romero
Scott Copeland

Dustin Antolin
Scott Gracey
Tony Davis
Marco Grifantini
Efrain Nieves
Blake McFarland
Andrew Meyer
Shawn Griffith

Catchers

Pierce Rankin - DL

Aaron Munoz
Derrick Chung

Infielders

K.C. Hobson - DL

GabeJacobo
Jon Berti
Peter Mooney
Andy Burns
Oliver Dominguez

Outfielders

Nick Baligod  - DL

MarcusKnecht
Jonathan Jones
Michael Crouse
Matthew Newman
Kevin Patterson

Dunedin's pitching staff is quite a veteran one, with the exception of Aaron Sanchez.  Marcus Stroman, while listed on the NH Fisher Cats roster, is frozen there until his suspension is over.  The word is that he will be sent to Dunedin to start when he's able to play again, around mid-May.  The infield and outfield have some younger players.  Pretty much all of the outfield is full of guys who are "toolsy."  Including Canadians Knecht and Crouse, and speedster Jonathan Jones.  On the infield, Andy Burns could be a surprise, we'll see how he reacts to the Florida State League.

Lansing Lugnuts

Pitchers

Kramer Champlin - DL

Roberto Osuna

Javier Avendano

Taylor Cole

Alonzo Gonzalez

Daniel Norris

Griffin Murphy

Wil Browning

Matt Johnson

Arik Sikula

Chuck Ghysels

Tucker Donahue (click link to read our exclusive interview with Tucker)

Ian Kadish

Ben White

Catchers

Santiago Nessy

Seth Conner

Leo Hernandez

Infielders

Balbino Fuenmayor

Christian Lopes

Emilio Guerrero

Gustavo Pierre

Kellen Sweeney

Jorge Flores

Shane Opitz

Outfielders

Ron Melendez

Dalton Pompey

Chris Hawkins

Carlos Ramirez

If you want to go out and see prospects, the Lansing Lugnuts are the boys to see.  This team is chock full of high-upside guys who are going to be tested in full-season ball for the first time.

Leading the pitching staff is consensus #2 Jays prospect Roberto Osuna as well as Top 5 guy Daniel Norris. I've liked what I've seen out of Javier Avendano and Taylor Cole dominated in Vancouver last year.  

Out of the bullpen, you can see friend of Blue Jays from Away Tucker Donahue and Griffin Murphy, who's worth seeing just for his moustache.  

Behind the plate is up-and-coming catching prospect Santiago Nessy, while Christan Lopes will be at 2B.  In the outfield you've got Mississauga born prospect Dalton Pompey as well as Chris Hawkins who, while scouts have mixed feelings about him, could be a sleeper.

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