[illeracula]

Norfolk Cavaliers Final Roster Decisions:

Pitching:
These were tough calls, and I am not sure I made the right choices or not... First on the pitching side of things, I decided to send down the following players (Spring Stats):

Paul Brown (2 GS, 8 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 11 K's, 3.38 ERA)
- Current control is 7, potential is 11, would like to see 10 and get him back on track to being the future of this rotation.

Claudio Perez (5 G, 13 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 5 BB, 9 K's, 0.69 ERA)
- This one was tough, but because he is only 22 and has a low control rating 8/12 he was the odd man out. He will be back up in the bullpen soon I am sure.

That gives me 11 pitchers on the Roster:
#1: Miguel Contreras
#2: Matt Hollis (L)
#3: Arturo Ramirez
#4: Takayuki Ieomichi (L)
#5: Vaughan Griffith

MR: Dan Nelson
MR: Luis Gonzalez (L)
MR: Ernesto Beneques
SU: Derek Carter
SU: Rick Kelly
CL: Dalton Whitaker

My biggest issue with this staff is the lack of lefties in the pen. Losing Elmer Hawkins to free-agency and Will Rose to injury depleted our lefites. Luis Gonzalez will be the specialist. Will Rose who will be a free-agent at the end of this season is set to return in 3-4 months. A trade for a lefty may be needed, if I deem that it needed.

Lineup:
I need to trim this down to 14, meaning 4 more players will need to be sent down. The first cut is the 3rd string catcher, and this one was really tough. John Phillips (.159-0-0, 44 Ab's) and John O'Donegan (.132-0-3, 38 AB's) really played crappy this spring. In the end I decided to send O'Donegan down, in AAA he will get more reps. He is the catcher of the future if anything happens to Duke.

The final 3 cuts weren't what I had expected going into spring training, but are what was needed. I am sure that these three guys will be up with us at some point this season.

Joe Chambers (.250-1-3, 10 H, 14 K's)
- He took some development hits over the year and hasn't performed like I was hoping. One thing I don't like is a guy who strikes out a lot and doesn't hit the long-ball. We will see what happens down in the minors.

Francisco Gallegos (.209-1-3)
- Gallegos is our best fielding 1B, but has struggled with the bat. He has some more development to do, and some plate discipline to learn, but at 22 he still has time. He is our 1B of the future.

Ramon Granados (.255-1-7)
- This was a tough call. I almost went with Ramon over Francisco Reyes, but I needed more IF help. I am torn and will be playing with the roster for a while. Right now I am carrying 3 1B (including DH Brock). Hmm... this is tough.

With those 3 cuts we have a finalized roster of 15 players:
Catchers:
Ed Duke
John Phillips

Infielders:
King Brock (DH)
Francisco Reyes (1B/LF)
Yann Gosselin (1B)
Cody Johnson (2B/3B/SS/LF/CF)
Mauro Candelaria (1B/2B/3B/SS/RF)
Maik Wassink (1B/2B/SS)
Mario Reyes (2B/SS)
Augusto Rodriguez (SS)

Outfielders:
Javier Janchez (1B/LF/CF/RF)
Kent Davis (CF/LF)
Sergio Galvez (1B/LF/CF/RF)
Jeff Lewis (1B/LF/RF)

That is it our 25 man roster heading into opening day. I will sleep on this and may end up moving Granados back up and Gosselin down. Looking over what I have on my roster it may make sense to bring up some more OF depth... The one thing I am lucky about is that all my bench players (less Cody Johnson) have options. Expect to see moves early in the season till I feel comfortable with who/what I have... Maybe Gosselin can go learn how top play OF, making him move valuable... hmm...

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