Preview: 2015 Buffalo Bisons Season Opener

Mandatory Credit – Buffalo Bison, Coca-Cola Field. Jsayre64 via WikiCommons

The Buffalo Bisons will open the 2015 season on April 9th with a 4-game, home and away, series against the Rochester Red Wings. The Red Wings finished 2014 four and half games back of 1st place Syracuse Chiefs and half a game back for the 3rd place Buffalo Bisons.

The International League will be littered with high ceiling prospects from teams within the American League East. The Bisons can expect to see the following ALE Top Prospects:

Boston- C Blake Swihart, SP Henry Owens, and OF Rusney Castillo

New York Yankees- 2B Rob Refsnyder, OF Tyler Austin, SP Jacob Lindgren, and SP Byran Mitchell

Tampa Bay- SS Hak-Ju Lee and CF Mikie Mahtook

Baltimore- 1B Christian Walker, RF Dariel Alvarez, SP Zach Davies, SP Tim Berry, SP Mike Wright

Baseball’s oldest minor league will be entering their 132nd season, but will be facing several new rules to speed up the game. The time between innings and pitches will be monitored and the time between pitching changes will be decreased.

ʺMinor League Baseball is excited to implement the pace of game initiatives at the Triple‐A and Double‐A levels of our organization,ʺ said Minor League Baseball President Pat OʹConner. ʺWe feel the emphasis on pace will lead to more fan enjoyment and better play on the field and is another example of the cooperative relationship between our leagues and Major League Baseball in the advancement of player development.ʺ (source)

It’ll be interesting to see how these rule changes will impact the pace of the game, but let’s hope that it doesn’t take away from the product that is on the field. Speaking of which, lets look at how the Bisons and the Red Wings stack up.

Rochester Red Wings

Parent Team: Minnesota Twins

Coaches: Manager Mike Quade, Tim Doherty, and Marty Mason

Ball Park: Frontier Field

2014 record: 77-67

Offence: .266 BA, .722 OPS,  .395 OBP, 89 HR, 581 RBI, 73 SB, 325 extra base hits

Pitching: 3.53 ERA, 99 HR, 8 CG, 12 SHO, 39 SV, 501 BB, 1141 K, and 1.30 WHIP

Red Wings are expected to field an impressive starting rotation. Returning from last year, 2015 Twins #3 top prospect (#10 MLB Pipeline), Alex Meyer will anchor the staff and be the Red Wings Opening Day starter. Meyer will be followed by 20 year-old (2015 Twins #4 top prospect) RHP Jose Berrios, (2015 Twins #30 Top Prosepect) LHP Logan Darnell, (2015 Twins #11 top prospect) RHP Trevor May, (2015 Twins #26 Top Prospect) LHP Jason Wheeler, and (2015 Twins #20 top prospect) RHP Tyler Duffey…not necessarily in that order and yes I know that makes 6 starters.

Rochester won’t have Top Prospects Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and Jorge Polanco to start the year, but should expect to see them at some point in 2015. Until that time Rochester will rely it’s pitching staff to win them some games because the offence will be punch less, relying on Twins #9 Top Prospect OF/2B Eddie Rosario, OF Aaron Hicks, OF Danny Ortiz, and a handful of veterans or future career minor leaguers. Aaron Hicks will attempt to re-establish himself and put him back into the Twins future plans. Eddie Rosario will hope to play a full season and not getting a third drug suspension.