Miracle Roster

UPDATE: This post was originally based on a roster available on the minor league baseball website. A slightly different roster has now been posted on the Miracle website which seems more accurate. I will be updating this post later this afternoon when I have the opportunity to do so, and will note when I'm done with another update. Until then, view this roster as nothing more than tentative.

UPDATE II: The post has now been updated to reflect the roster on the Miracle website. Hopefully, this is correct -- if not, I'll update the post again.

This is the third in a series of posts covering the Twins minor league affiliate rosters for the start of the 2008 season. I've already covered the Rochester roster and the New Britain roster, so be sure to check those out if you're interested. Now, here's the roster for the High-A Ft. Myers Miracle:

Starting Pitchers:

Francisco Liriano, Jeff Manship, Deolis Guerra, Tyler Robertson, Alex Burnett

Liriano will only be with the Miracle for one start before moving to Rochester for a start, and then on to the Twins. Cole Devries will replace Liriano in the rotation when The Franchise moves on. This is, perhaps, the most interesting starting five in the organization top to bottom. Jeff Manship was one of the top players to watch in the lower levels of the system last year, and after starting the season in Beloit he was promoted to the Miracle. He has an excellent shot of moving up during this season as well if a spot opens up ahead of him. Guerra, of course, was the youngest prospect who came over in the Johan Santana trade. Robertson is one of the Twins prospect-watchers favorites, and with his eye-popping numbers last season there's good reason for that. Meanwhile, Burnett is now slouch either, as his 3.02 ERA with Beloit last season proved. When Devries joins the rotation, he'll be the slouch of the bunch -- and when the slouch had a 3.41 ERA last season, you know you're in pretty good shape. This bunch will be a lot of fun to watch this year.


Relief Pitchers:

Robert Delaney, Cole Devries, Matthew Fox, Jose Lugo, Frank Mata, Anthony Slama, Danny Vais, Kyle Waldrop (DL)

As already mentioned, Devries will move into the rotation almost immediately, so it's fairly likely that he won't make so much as a single appearing out of the bullpen. Of the players in the Miracle bullpen, I'm particularly interested in seeing how Anthony Slama performs. Slama was selected in the 2006 draft, and got his first action in the organization last year. In 21 games with Beloit, he had a 1.48 ERA to earn his promotion -- but that was in just 24.1 innings, so who knows how meaningful it is. Robert Delaney is another hot prospect -- he had a scathing hot 0.77 ERA in 46.2 innings with the Snappers, and a 1.54 ERA in 23.1 innings with the Miracle after being promoted. He'll probably get the opportunity to close out games for the Miracle this year.

In the original version of this roster, Adam Hawes and Winston Marquez were listed as being on the roster, and Frank Mata was not -- the changes reflect the differences between the roster released on minorleaguebaseball.com and the one that can now be found at miraclebaseball.com (and linked to above).


Catchers:

Allan de San Miguel, Rodolfo Palacios, Wilson Ramos

Allan de San Miguel was originally the only catcher listed on the roster, but Palacios and Ramos have since been added. Both of the new names are interesting -- Ramos had a solid year in Beloit last season and deserved a promotion, and Palacios is a guy who has spent three partial seasons at the rookie league level without ever getting enough at-bats to really make an impact. His assignment directly to Ft. Myers, bypassing Beloit entirely, is particularly interesting. Expect Ramos to get the most playing time, with the defensive-minded de San Miguel being #2 on the depth chart and Palacios getting whatever is left.


Infielders:

Daniel Berg, Brian Dinkelman, Toby Gardenhire, Yancarlos Ortiz, Whit Robbins, Daniel Valencia, Johnny Woodard

There are a few interesting names here, notably second baseman Brian Dinkelman and third baseman Daniel Valencia. However, there are also players like Daniel Berg, Toby Gardenhire, and Johnny Woodard who are basically just filling space on the roster. Robbins and Woodard will probably split time at 1B, Dinkelman will be at 2B, Valencia at 3B, and Ortiz at SS. I expect the averages to be pretty low and the runs to be rather scarce.


Outfielders:

Edward Ovalle, Juan Portes, Danny Santiesteban, Rene Tosoni

Tosoni turned some heads last year with a really solid season in Elizabethton (.301/835 in 236 AB's), but the 36th round draft pick from 2005 will need to back it up to prove it wasn't a fluke (or just limited to rookie league). With bigger name prospects like Chris Parmelee and Joe Benson returning to Beloit for another season, Tosoni was given a pass on Beloit -- but that could be sticking him in over his head. The rest of the crew backing him up isn't particularly compelling -- Ovalle hit .222 in Ft. Myers, Santiesteban hit .219 in Beloit, and Portes hit .269 in Ft. Myers. I don't know that I expect any of them to improve this year, and if they don't, Parmelee Benson may find themselves changing uniforms mid-sason. Incidentally, the originally released roster had Dwayne White on it, but he is now in purgatory and has perhaps been let go.