Yesterday I made my best guess at the Louisville Bats roster. Today I will tackle the Pensacola Blue Wahoos roster.
The roster limit for the Double-A level is 24 players, though the teams can control more players than that, there can only be 24 active guys on a roster. This level was particularly tough as there was a lot of trying to figure out how to fit everyone onto the roster and there are some guys that I feel are going to be left out that really deserve to be here. It didn’t get any easier as I moved to the lower levels either. Here is my best guess at what the opening day roster will look like in Pensacola:
Pensacola Blue Wahoos | |||
Position | Name | Position | Name |
| C | Chris Berset | BN | Steve Selsky |
| C | Rossmel Perez | BN | Brodie Greene |
| 1B | Travis Mattair | BN | Rey Navarro |
| 2B | John Tolisano | BN | Mike Wilson |
| 3B | Juan Silverio | RP | Drew Hayes |
| SS | Devin Lohman | RP | Chris Manno |
| LF | Bryson Smith | RP | Daniel Renken |
| CF | Yorman Rodriguez | RP | Jamie Walczak |
| RF | Juan Duran | RP | Ryan Dennick |
| SP | Robert Stephenson | RP | Pat Doyle |
| SP | Jon Moscot | ||
| SP | Carlos Contreras | ||
| SP | Josh Smith | ||
| SP | Tim Crabbe | ||
Pensacola does use the DH at times, when they play an American League affiliate, so they will be able to use that spot in the lineup at times to spread around some at bats. There are a lot of guys returning to Pensacola and only a handful of newcomers. The system seems to be quite stagnant as the Reds are relying on a lot of veteran type of depth at from free agency to fill spots in the upper levels.
The starting rotation should be the strength of the team if I have it correct. Robert Stephenson, Jon Moscot and Carlos Contreras are among the top 10 prospects in the system and Josh Smith and Tim Crabbe are both returning after being very strong performers for the Blue Wahoos in the 2013 season.
As noted with the Louisville roster, as the big league roster settles there will be a trickle-down of players throughout the system. The Blue Wahoos roster on opening day is probably going to look quite a bit different from the roster that will be there to begin June.