Your 2011 Albuquerque Isotopes (Updated)
April 5, 2011 at 7:19 am | Posted in Albuquerque Isotopes, Josh Lindblom | 26 CommentsThanks to Christopher Jackson of the Albuquerque Examiner and the Isotopes themselves, we now know what the Opening Day roster for the 2011 AAA squad will look like. Keep in mind, of course, that Tim Wallach’s 2010 edition ran through approximately 287 players, so the crew you see today will hardly resemble what we see ending the season, thanks to injuries, promotions, and trades. They haven’t yet announced the actual roles of the pitchers, so I’m going to do my best guesses on that. Since it’s AAA in a high-offense environment, I won’t bag on them too badly for going with the dreaded 13-man staff.
Starting Rotation (5)
R Tim Redding
R John Ely
L Dana Eveland
R Carlos Monasterios
R Jon Link (who apparently made it through waivers after being DFA’d)
Relievers (8)
L Scott Elbert
L Randy Keisler
R Roman Colon
R Travis Schlichting
R Merkin Valdez
R Oscar Villarreal
R Jon Huber
R Ramon Troncoso
How about that – each member of the 13-man staff has seen previous big-league time. That’s either a very good thing (experience) or very bad thing (no highly-touted young prospect coming up), depending on how you look at it. This collection might change before the season even starts, of course, if Redding or Ely need to start in place of Jon Garland in San Diego this weekend.
Hitters (11 + 1 DL)
C JD Closser
C Damaso Espino
C Keyter Collado (DL)
1B John Lindsey
2B Justin Sellers
SS Dee Gordon
3B Russ Mitchell
IF Juan Castro
LF Jerry Sands
CF Trayvon Robinson
RF Jamie Hoffmann
OF Trent Oeltjen
Only six of the eleven bats – Closser, Lindsey, Mitchell, Castro, Hoffmann, and Oeltjen – have MLB experience, though that’s likely to change by season’s end. I didn’t expect that Gordon would start off in AAA, but the idea of having him, Sands, and Robinson all in the lineup together is going to make me want to catch more than my share of Albuquerque baseball. This lineup is likely to change shortly as well, with Ivan DeJesus almost certainly headed back to AAA this week when Casey Blake returns.
As you may remember, a few days before Christmas I took a shot at predicting what the Opening Day roster might be. Of the eleven bats, I nailed eight: Closser, Lindsey, Sellers, Mitchell, Sands, Robinson, Hoffmann, and Oeltjen. I’m taking a mulligan on two others; DeJesus would be here if not for Blake’s injury and will be here anyway soon enough, and A.J. Ellis would be here if Dioner Navarro hadn’t hurt himself in the last week of spring. I whiffed on Castro not going to AAA and Gordon starting in AA, assuming that Eugenio Velez and Travis Denker or an NRI would be there instead.
On the pitching side, I successfully got eight: Ely, Eveland, Monasterios, Link, Elbert, Villareal, Schlichting, and Troncoso. Redding, Colon, Keisler, and Valdez all signed after my post. I’ll take it.
Overall, the Isotopes seem to have an interesting collection of experienced – though not that exciting – pitchers, and young – and very exciting – bats. So there’s plenty of reasons to watch the ‘topes this year, considering you can expect to see at least five of these pitchers as fill-ins in LA later in the season, you can gauge the progression of Sands, Robinson, Gordon, & DeJesus, and you can root for Juan Castro to strike out every time so no one is tempted to recall him back to the big club yet again. Should be a fun season.
******
Where’s Josh Lindblom? He’s not listed on the Isotope roster, nor does he appear on the AA roster of the Chattanooga Lookouts (which does feature Rubby De La Rosa and Chris Withrow, among others). He pitched just two innings in big league camp, though I don’t recall hearing about any injury. My guess, for the moment, is that he’s going to remain in Arizona getting some work in until a roster spot opens up with the Isotopes.
(Update: lovely blog commenter c.lo points out that Lindblom is indeed on the updated AA roster. That can mean one of two things; either that it’s a procedural thing, and he is just getting some extra work in Arizona without taking up an AAA roster spot, or that his 2010 – 6.54 ERA, 13.5 hits/9 – was so dreadful that he’s being demoted back to AA for the first time since 2008.)
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Media day is in an hour, so I will see what I can find out about Lindblom’s fate. Should be a fun team to cover this year.
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 5, 2011 #
Perfect. News directly from the source! Thanks, Chris.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— April 5, 2011 #
Lindblom is on the Lookouts.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/documents/2011/04/05/17387352/1/4-4-10_roster.pdf
Comment by c.lo— April 5, 2011 #
Good find. Will update.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— April 5, 2011 #
Hopefully they decide to skip pitchers like Lindblom and De La Rosa from AA to the MLB. I would assume that pitching in the hitter’s heaven of Albuquerque can really mess up a young player’s confidence.
Comment by c.lo— April 5, 2011 #
The word, directly from catcher JD Closser, is that the Dodgers want Lindblom to work on being a closer, and they feel it’s easier to do that at Double-A than Triple-A.
Lorenzo Bundy said that Roman Colon is probably going to get the first crack at closing for the Isotopes, though he and pitching coach Glenn Dishman haven’t made it official as of yet.
I will have more on the nitty gritty details from Topes media day up on the site later today.
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 5, 2011 #
Thanks, Chris. That’s very interesting, and not something I’d heard before – especially with how poorly he pitched last year.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— April 5, 2011 #
What’s up with Travis Denker in A ball again?
Comment by SamAdams— April 5, 2011 #
Definitely disappointed with no De La Rosa. I would think his spring performance would at least earn him a spot in AAA. I hope we can see him in the bigs this year as well.
Comment by Bip— April 5, 2011 #
as c.lo mentioned, I do think the Dodgers sometimes keep top pitching prospects out of Albuquerque, due to the ridiculous offensive environment. I know he’s obviously a special case, but Kershaw never pitched a single inning in AAA.
Comment by Dave— April 5, 2011 #
April and May are especially bad months here because of the strong winds that turn lazy fly balls into 500-foot home runs.
But don’t forget, De la Rosa has a whopping 110 1/3 innings of experience in full-season leagues, including just 51 at Double-A. I think he was always headed to Chattanooga, no matter how he did this spring.
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 5, 2011 #
First half of my season preview, focusing on the pitching staff:
http://www.examiner.com/baseball-in-albuquerque/season-preview-isotopes-bolstered-by-veteran-pitching-staff
Take note of the guys in the rotation. There’s a southpaw in there that surprised me.
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 5, 2011 #
Randy Keisler?? wow.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— April 5, 2011 #
I am greatly relieved to see no sign of Eugenio Vélez on the Isotopes’ roster. By all rights, he is forever a Gnat.
Comment by WBB— April 5, 2011 #
more importantly, he is forever not very good at baseball.
Comment by Dave— April 5, 2011 #
I also imagine having someone as slender as Velez around is not good for Juan Uribe’s body image.
Comment by PartyShorty2K— April 5, 2011 #
Yeah, but on the Isotopes roster, he could be a model for what Dee Gordon would look like if he hits the weight room hard and
bulks up significantly.
Comment by Dave— April 6, 2011 #
That’s why he’s forever a Gnat.
Comment by WBB— April 5, 2011 #
So where is spring training mauler Corey Smith (former Royal) starting? I believe he put himself on the Dodger map this spring with his monster performance.
Comment by Rob C— April 6, 2011 #
He’s in Chattanooga with the AA Lookouts. I really hope he continues mashing like he did this spring.
Comment by Dave— April 6, 2011 #
Smith is moving to 1B with the Lookouts, it should be noted. He’ll come up to ABQ if one of the following happens: A) Lindsey has to go on the DL; B) Lindsey signs with a Japanese team in-season (something he’s told me he’d jump at the chance to do); C) Sands goes up to LA if he hits the bejeezus out of the ball here.
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 6, 2011 #
I really like option C. Let’s all root for that one. Chris, is Sands going to be playing more 1st base or outfield?
Comment by Dave— April 6, 2011 #
The way it appears to be working is that Sands will play 1B against AL teams (like Omaha) when the DH spot is available for John Lindsey. When they play NL teams (like Iowa), Sands will be in LF and Lindsey at 1B.
Here is my preview of the Isotopes’ position players, which includes a comment from Bundy that if necessary, Sands can even play CF, though he’s probably option #4 for that spot:
http://www.examiner.com/baseball-in-albuquerque/season-preview-isotopes-feed-their-need-for-speed
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 6, 2011 #
Chris Jackson has Link in relief while Mike has him starting. I believe Mike is correct as the Dodgers said in the spring they wanted to see Link as a starter. But it’s hard to think Chris doesn’t know this. Hope to get a reply but we will learn as time passses in any case.
Comment by a— April 6, 2011 #
Link is probably going to fill the role of long reliever/spot starter, but of the guys on the current staff, he is most likely to move into the rotation if someone struggles, gets hurt, gets released, etc.
For now, the rotation is Eveland tonight, Monasterios Friday, Keisler Saturday, Bastardo (who will be activated when Ely is called up) Sunday and Redding Monday.
If anything changes, I will post a link here or you can always keep up to date over at our site.
But considering the Topes blew through 40 pitchers by July last year, nothing with this team is ever written in stone.
Comment by Chris Jackson— April 7, 2011 #
[...] of the Isotopes, Chris Jackson of the Albuquerque Examiner kindly stopped by my comments section to lay out the early-season rotation. Dana Eveland starts the opener tonight, followed by Carlos Monasterios tomorrow, Randy Keisler (!) [...]
Pingback by Hold On, Ely’s Coming « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— April 7, 2011 #