Durham Bulls in the Spring — Part 1

That's ice hanging down from the camera!
DBAP Thursday Morning, 13 Feb 2014

Now, just what does a Bulls fan do when Spring Training starts? Stand by. WDBB is about to take a stab at telling you.

Pitchers and catchers report to the Rays camp in Port Charlotte, Florida tomorrow. We aren’t going to know who is on the Bulls’ roster until April 2nd. That means we’ve got a month and a half to speculate. Won’t that be fun?

Let’s start with some basics. We will assume that all of the 2014 Durham Bulls are to be found (at first) in the Tampa Bay Rays major league camp. Once Spring Training gets into full swing we will see 64 (or so) ballplayers in camp. How do we know that? Because that’s how the Rays do things. They have a 40-man roster (dictated by Major League Baseball) and they have published a list of Non-Roster Invitees that has 24 names on it. (40 + 24 = 64 — Take that, Mr. Hochheim! I am so going to graduate from 2nd grade!)

Of those 64 names, only 25 will be allowed to play baseball for the Tampa Bay Rays on opening day March 31. Most of the Rays media (including bloggers) are going to be focused on just who those 25 might be. We don’t really care about that, except as it has an effect on the other 39 guys — the source of the 2014 Bulls.

We want to keep an eye on guys on the 40-man who aren’t a “lock” to make the team. They include a mix of prospects and veterans. Just to have a start point, we can take a look at how Rays Index saw the roster a few days ago. But remember, this is a moving target. The Rays just traded Jose Lobaton, for example.

Pitchers first. What strikes me is the sheer number of pitchers at camp. By my count, there are 11 prospective Bulls on the 40 man list and another 10 on the NRI list. The Bulls usually carry 12-13 pitchers on their roster, so at least 8 of these guys won’t be coming to Durham at the end of March.

Looking at the table a couple of other things are interesting. This is a pretty young crowd.
Not a lot of lefties in the bunch. And 13 of them have already had some time with the Bulls. You might guess that previous AAA experience gives them quite an edge.

Name	Pos	Age	2013 Tm	Stats	WDBB Cmts
Jeff Beliveau*	LHP	27	Bulls	Stats	Notes
Brad Boxberger*	RHP	26	Padres/Tuscon	Stats
Alex Colome*	RHP	25	Rays	Stats	Notes
Josh Lueke*	RHP	29	Bulls/Rays	Stats	Notes
Mike Montgomery*	RHP	23	Bulls	Stats	Notes
Jake Odorizzi*	RHP	24	Bulls/Rays	Stats	Notes
Juan Carlos Oviedo*	RHP	31		Stats
C.J. Riefenhauser*	LHP	24	Bulls/Biscuits	Stats	Notes
Felipe Rivero*	LHP	22	Single-A	Stats
Enny Romero*	LHP	23	Bulls/Biscuits	Stats	Notes
Kirby Yates*	RHP	27	Bulls	Stats	Notes
Matt Andriese†	RHP	23	Padres AAA	Stats
Santiago Garrido†	RHP	23	Royals AA	Stats
Steve Geltz†	RHP	23	Bulls	Stats	Notes
Merrill Kelly†	RHP	25	Bulls/Biscuits	Stats	Notes
Braulio Lara†	LHP	25	Biscuits/Bulls	Stats	Notes
Adam Liberatore†	LHP	27	Bulls	Stats	Notes
Mark Lowe†	RHP	31	Angels	Stats
Victor Mateo†	RHP	24	Biscuits	Stats
Sam Runion†	RHP	25	Royals AA	Stats
Juan Sandoval†	RHP	33	Bulls/Biscuits	Stats	Notes

Note: * marks a player on the Rays' 40-man roster. The † designates a non-roster invitee.