Jays Affiliate Assigments Begin

The following players have been asigned to some of the Jays affiliates over the last few days. It does not guarantee that these players will begin the 2011 season with these teams, but it’s an indication that it is the plan, for now. Since all of the recent assignments deal with AAA and AA rosters, those are the ones I will present below. Here are the additions that the Jays have made to those affiliates:

AAA Las Vegas

Assignments:

C Brian Jeroloman (returns), CF Darin Mastroianni (promotion from AA), RP Alan Farina (promotion from AA), RP Josh Roenicke (returns), SP Brad Mills (returns), SP Luis Perez (promoted from AA), SP Robert Ray (returns), and the newly acquired SS Chris Woodward have been assigned to Las Vegas.

Implications

This means that the LV roster currently has the following players on board:

• Infield: C Brian Jeroloman and Ryan Budde, 1B Ryan Shealy, 2B Ivan Contreras, SS Chris Woodward, 3B Al Quintana (could become Brett Lawrie if he begins 2011 in the minors).
• Outfield: LF Corey Patterson or Dan Perales, CF Darin Mastroianni, and RF Jason Lane.
• SP: Robert Ray, Brad Mills, Luis Perez, Ryan Page (Page was also promoted from AA New Hampshire).
• RP: Alan Farina, Josh Roenicke, Clint Everts, Dumas Garcia, Rommie Lewis, Wil Ledezma, Mike Hinckley, Jamie Vermilyea, Sean Henn, Winston Abreu.

AA New Hampshire

Assignments

SS Adeiny Hechavarria (will repeat AA, at least to begin 2011), SP Joel Carreno (promotion from HiA), and CF Moises Sierra (promotion from HiA) have been assigned to the New Hampshire roster.

Implications

This means that the NH roster currently has the following players on board:

• Infield: C Matt Liuzza, 1B David Cooper and Roan Salas, 2B Callix Crabbe and Jonathan Diaz, SS Adeiny Hechavarria and Luis Sanchez, 3B Craig Stansberry and Niuman Romero.
• Outfield: LF Eric Thames (yet to be given assignment) and Adam Calderone, CF-RF Moises Sierra, and RF Adam Loewen and Ricardo Nanita.
• SP: Joel Carreno, Reidier Gonzalez, Mike McDonald, B.J. Lamura, Randy Boone, Zach Stewart (yet to receive his 2011 assignment)
• RP: Mike McDonald, Vince Perkins, Ronald Uviedo, Vince Bongiovanni, Boomer Potts.

Other majors and minors rosters notes:

• RP Dustin McGowan has been placed on the 60-day disabled list and will now attempt to return as a RP. I still can’t believe they were trying to have him return as a SP. That didn’t make any sense from the get-go.
• There’s a chance that RP Octavio Dotel will begin the season on the 15-day DL, likely allowing for Casey Janssen to begin the 2011 season with the Jays and easing the pressure on the Jays to figure our the Jo-Jo Reyes situation.
• Another RP, Frank Francisco, is also dealing with injury issues to his pectoral area and will be a close call to make it onto the roster for opening day. If that’s the case, it has been said that Jon Rauch will likely get the first shot at closing for the Jays.
• There promises to be many changes to be made to the AA roster in particular when Anthony Gose, Travis d’Arnaud, and Michael McDade receive their assignments. This could result in some older players being released or traded. My inclination is that Eric Thames should join Mastroianni in AAA, allowing for Anthony Gose to take over CF in AA and Moises Sierra manning LF instead of Thames in AA. We should know if that’s the case fairly soon, but it could result in the Jays letting Jason Lane go or using him as a DH the majority of the time.
• OF Joseph Hage, signed this off-season, has been added to the LoA Lansing roster and seems likely to begin his minors time with the Jays alongside Jacob Marisnick, Michael Crouse and Brad McElroy.

I’m still looking forward to seeing how will round out the HiA and LoA rosters. As the upper-level rosters do take shape, however, you do see that the Jays have a lot of “close to MLB ready” talent in the works. Hopefully the newly promoted do well on their new squads and force the Jays to make the toughest decisions possible as 2011 goes on while providing them with as many great assets to use as possible.

– MG

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