[illeracula]

We are 15 games into spring training, with 9 more remaining its time to start parring down our roster. Since we don't have many position players in camp I won't be making any moves. Pitching, however, is a different story with 20 players in camp and only 11 (maybe 12) slots available... I am debating what to do, but I think my roster will be 14 position players / 11 pitchers, meaning 4 position players will need to get moved and 8 pitchers.

Breaking down the pitching staff... we have a lot of players that could/should be up with the big league club but only so many roster slots.

The Starters
The starting rotation is pretty much locked down, there are some questions regarding it, but for the most part its set.

#1: Miguel Contreras
#2: Matt Hollis (L)
#3: Arturo Ramirez
#4: Takayuki Iemochi (L)
#5: Vaughan Griffith

The questions:
1) Can Arturo Ramirez be an effective starter with a stamina of only 7? He lost 3 ticks this off-season, here is hoping he can get it back.
2) Can Vaughan Griffith keep the ball in the park. He doesn't have much movement on his ball and posts a GB% of 46%. Last year he gave up 1.44 HR/9, that might not cut it as a starter.

The bullpen:
CL: Dalton Whitaker
SU: Derek Carter
SU: Rick Kelly
MR: Luis Gonzalez (L)

The battle for the last slot is really interesting and one reason I am tempted to go with a 12 man rotation. With SP like Armando Lopez and Paul Brown ready for the bigs, its hard to send them down.

The front runner for the last slot is Dan Nelson (14.2 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 4.30 ERA), but there are many players who are trying to make me change my mind. Two players to watch in the final 10 games will be Claudio Perez (3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R) and Ernesto Beneques (1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R), they will be getting more reps and plan on giving Nelson a run for his money.

Still Alive and not mentioned yet:
Ivan Pineda (5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 5.40 ERA)
Jeffrey Miller (1.1 IP, 1 H, 0.00 ERA)

Still up but most likely heading down:
Lowell Haas (O IP)

First Round of Cuts (Spring stats):
Min-bum O (8.1 IP, 12 H, 7 R, 7.56 ERA)
Lorenzo Reyes (10.1 IP, 14 H, 7 R, 6.10 ERA)

Other Happenings Around Norfolk:
Looking at Joe Chambers he may not quite be ready for the bigs, he is struggling a little bit this spring. He is hitting .280-1-3 in 25 AB's, but why I stay struggling is the 10 K's. It is possible that Mauro Candelaria will end up at 3B and Maik Wassink at 2B, the problem with that? Both Mauro and Maik are "fragile" ball players. Time to get Mauro some reps at 3B, which means Joe O'Donegan will lose at 3B reps.

19 Position Players (to be cut to 14)
18 Pitchers (to be cut to 11)

Ten more games, a lot left to be determined...