Rainiers and Diamond-Jaxx Rosters

Kirby Arnold with a fascinating piece.

"PEORIA, Ariz. — More than two weeks before the Seattle Mariners begin spring training, their facility at the Peoria Sports Complex was teeming with baseball players Monday."

The Mariners’ depth in the high-minors is better than it’s been in a long time and waxing. With the 2010 team mostly complete and spring training around the corner, let’s take a look at the likely rosters for the Tacoma and West Tennessee teams.
Please note: I constructed these rosters making a whole lotta assumptions that may not come to pass. With the open competition during spring there are so many variables. As such, here are those assumptions:

• Michael Saunders goes to AAA
• Matt Tuiasosopo goes to AAA
• Adam Moore goes to AAA, Bard and Johnson break camp on the 25-man roster
• I didn’t list the bench players because who cares?
• Nick Hill is a starter until I see him converted
• Jason Vargas and Garrett Olson fill out the back-end of the pitching on the M’s.
• Matt Mangini is booted in favor of Alex Liddi. I’m not a Fan-gini. *chortle*
• Carlos Peguero and his strike-out parade makes AA simply to see what we might have in him. Sometimes High Desert is hilarious but gosh I really dislike it most other times. We *really* need to get outta there.

So without further ado…

Rainiers

CA  A. Moore
1B  M. Carp
2B  C. Woodward
SS  J. Wilson Josh. Not Jack. Yep, we still have him
3B  M. Tuiasosopo
LF  M. Saunders
CF  E. Carrera
RF  C. Patterson
DH  B. Nelson

SP1  D. Fister
SP2  L. French
SP3  N. Hill
SP4  A. Baldwin
SP5  D. Pauley

Also: Ryan Fierbebend and Terrence Engles. Possibly Gaby Hernandez and Yusmeiro Petit if they clear waivers.

Bullpen S. Bray, S. Shell

Diamond-Jaxx

CA  J. Yepez? Maybe? Some organizational soldier or another
1B  R. Poythress
2B  D. Ackley
3B  A. Liddi
SS  C. Triunfel
LF  C. Peguero
CF  G. Halman
RF  K. Hui Lo
DH  J. Dunigan

SP1  D. Cortes
SP2  M. Pineda
SP3  M. Robles
SP4  S. Hensley
SP5  K. Parker

Bullpen Josh Fields, Anthony Vavarro, Ricky Orta, Robert Rohrbaugh, Brodie Downs

Couple of notes:

• Man, the Diamond-Jaxx are *stacked* this year.
• Dustin Ackley is limited only by his performance. There’s no one in front of him except for Jose Lopez.
• Band-aids on the M’s at 1B and in LF allow Saunders, Carp, and Poythress easy access to the big leagues after this year if it were so warranted. There is some nice flexability on the M’s to improve even more in 2011.
• I’m excited to see what Ezekiel Carrera might do in AAA. Poor Corey Patterson.

What do you think? Who are you excited to see? What would you do with these teams?