Updated Roster

It appears as though I have been slacking in my updates on the 2010 Blue Crabs Roster and for that I send my apologies. One major movement was the signing of Blue Crabs workhorse Starter Ryan Bicondoa and his subsequent trading to rivals The Long Island Ducks. Since a player has not yet been named in the trade it leaves open the opportunity for Ryan to return to the Blue Crabs. Regardless we wish him luck in the upcoming season, just not in the 20 games against us.

Below is an Updated Roster taken directly from the Blue Crabs Website:

Pitchers

Starters:
Craig Anderson
Paul Fagan
Dave McKae

Relievers:
Bryan Dumesnil
Jerry Dunn
Joe Newby
Jim Ed Warden
Jeff Williams
Joe Winkelsas

Catchers

Christan Lopez
Octavio Martinez

Infielders

Casey Benjamin - Utility
Travis Garcia - Short Stop
Patrick Osborn - Third/First Base

Outfielders

Ben Harrison
Brian McFall
Jeremy Owens - Center Field/Coach


Analysis

With only 5 players returning from last years roster, it may take some time for the players to get into the flow of the season. Hopefully by having the spring training in the local area it will allow for the players to more quickly adapt to life as a Blue Crab. With less then a month until the open tryout at Regency Furniture Stadium, we still need about half our roster.

In my opinion we need at least one more starter if not two, in order to have at least a four-man starting rotation with a substitute available should one of our starters become injured or have an off game. Assuming that Jim Ed would take the role of the closer we may be set with our relievers, although signing one or two more would not be a bad move.

As far as the position players go we may be set at the catcher position, though bringing back someone such as Anthony Perry as a bull pen catcher would not be a bad idea, especially if one of our catchers gets hurt. While we are set on the left side of the infield, some serious work needs to be done our right side. While I haven't heard any specific offers or talks regarding the right side, the openings may leave room for the return of former Crabs. We will need to find two or three more infielders either before or during the open tryout.

In the outfield we need at least two more players. Assuming that one of our outfielders would take the designated hitter role, we would also want to maintain one outfielder who could play any of the three outfield positions so that they could be a substitute for any of our signed out fielders should they get hurt.

With only 17 players signed so far, I believe we can sign 8 additional players until the end of May bringing our roster total to 25. However I could be wrong but I am unable to find the article on the Atlantic League Website describing the legal number of players a team can carry. Hopefully we will be able to fill these positional gaps either through more signings or from players at the open tryouts held at the stadium on April 10th. I will work to update this blog with any information regarding the roster as it comes in. Hopefully we will have a complete roster soon and we'll be watching our boys make their way towards another championship appearance though hopefully with a slightly better result then last season.