In preparation for their Sunday home exhibition against the Springfield Cardinals, the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Single-A Midwest League have announced their season-opening roster.
It includes 25 players plus one on the disabled list*, catcher Blake Murphy. Over half of the new River Bandits were members of the 2008 New York-Penn League champion Batavia Muckdogs.
| No. | Pitchers (13) | Ht. | Wt. | B/T | DOB | Age | Obtained | 2008 Club |
| 12 | Brown, George | 6-1 | 195 | L/L | 6/18/86 | 22 | 27th Round, 2008 | Batavia |
| 31 | Cardenas, Hector | 6-3 | 188 | L/L | 12/14/86 | 22 | Free Agent, 4/20/06 | Batavia |
| 28 | Carpenter, Dave | 6-2 | 200 | R/R | 7/15/85 | 23 | 12th Round, 2006 | QC/PB/GCL/JC |
| 44 | Daley, Gary | 6-3 | 200 | R/R | 11/1/85 | 23 | 3rd Round, 2006 | PB/GCL |
| 16 | Delgado, Ramon | 6-3 | 195 | R/R | 9/3/86 | 22 | 41st Round, 2007 | Batavia |
| 18 | Fick, Chuckie | 6-5 | 187 | R/R | 11/20/85 | 23 | 15th Round, 2007 | Quad Cities |
| 24 | Hooker, Deryk | 6-4 | 185 | R/R | 6/21/89 | 19 | 7th Round, 2007 | JC/QC |
| 10 | McGregor, Scott | 6-3 | 200 | R/R | 12/19/86 | 22 | 15th Round, 2008 | GCL/JC/QC |
| 21 | Mulligan, Casey | 6-2 | 190 | R/R | 10/5/87 | 21 | 22nd Round, 2006 | GCL/PB |
| 41 | Nieto, Arquidemes | 6-0 | 175 | R/R | 4/28/89 | 19 | Free Agent, 3/3/07 | Batavia |
| 32 | Tapia, Miguel | 6-1 | 198 | R/R | 2/6/88 | 21 | Free Agent, 4/4/06 | Batavia |
| 11 | Thomas, Kevin | 6-3 | 215 | R/R | 7/8/86 | 22 | 33rd Round, 2008 | Johnson City |
| 14 | Veres, Adam | 6-4 | 235 | R/R | 3/19/88 | 21 | 49th Round, 2008 | JC/Batavia |
| No. | Catchers (2+1) | Ht. | Wt. | B/T | DOB | Age | Obtained | 2008 Club |
| 37 | Cutler, Charles | 6-0 | 200 | L/R | 7/29/86 | 22 | 14th Round, 2008 | Batavia |
| 4 | Espinoza, Roberto | 5-10 | 165 | R/R | 3/8/89 | 20 | Free Agent, 3/6/06 | Quad Cities |
| 5 | Murphy, Blake* | 6-1 | 195 | R/R | 5/19/85 | 23 | 42nd Round, 2008 | Batavia/QC |
| No. | Infielders (5) | Ht. | Wt. | B/T | DOB | Age | Obtained | 2008 Club |
| 25 | Morales, Osvaldo | 6-3 | 200 | R/R | 7/4/87 | 21 | Free Agent, 3/25/06 | QC/JC/Batavia |
| 3 | Bolivar, Domnit | 5-11 | 165 | R/R | 5/12/89 | 19 | Free Agent, 7/12/05 | QC/Batavia |
| 8 | Castellanos, Alex | 6-0 | 195 | R/R | 8/4/86 | 22 | 10th Round, 2008 | JC/Batavia |
| 6 | Vasquez, Niko | 6-0 | 170 | R/R | 2/26/89 | 20 | 3rd Round, 2008 | JC/Quad Cities |
| 9 | Luna, Aaron | 5-11 | 200 | R/R | 3/28/87 | 22 | 9th Round, 2008 | QC/Palm Beach |
| No. | Outfielders (5) | Ht. | Wt. | B/T | DOB | Age | Obtained | 2008 Club |
| 23 | Buck, Brian | 6-1 | 190 | R/R | 2/3/86 | 23 | 27th Round, 2007 | GCL |
| 20 | Cruz, Paul | 5-10 | 190 | L/L | 9/20/85 | 23 | 40th Round, 2008 | Johnson City |
| 7 | Edwards, Jon | 6-5 | 230 | R/R | 1/8/88 | 21 | 14th Round, 2006 | Batavia/QC |
| 33 | Rodriguez, Ryde | 6-3 | 232 | S/R | 2/2/88 | 21 | Free Agent, 7/25/07 | GCL/JC |
| 26 | Swauger, Chris | 6-0 | 200 | L/L | 8/11/86 | 22 | 26th Round, 2008 | Batavia |
I’m a little surprised to see Casey Mulligan on the QC roster. He had decent numbers at Palm Beach last year after being converted from catcher. Is he down there as the closer?
Plenty up from Batavia’s team, as would be expected. Daley gets a chance to get back on course. A few low profile players like Cruz, Buck, and Thomas get an opportunity. There will be a quite a few more players based at EST, ready to head to Quad Cities to replace those who do not play well from the onset.
8 tandem starters, 5 relievers, one more reliever than usual.
The five QC relievers should be Mulligan, Dave Carpenter, Daley, Delgado, and Tapia.
Some of the pitchers who have been bumped down to EST are Zawacki, Fornataro, Gorgen (who might be DLd for a week or two), Frevert from Univ of Missouri, Gonzalez, Peralta, and Rondon.
The Cards have invited a new wave of players to report to EST, supplementing those who have not made the opening 4 minor league rosters. Adding together 20 new incoming pitchers plus 25 pitchers who have been in spring training but not made the QC roster, there should be circa 45 pitchers available for the Extended Spring Training program.
The Quad City team should be able to score runs, with Luna, Swauger, Edwards, Vasquez, Cutler, Morales, and Domnit. It will be interesting to see how Ryde-Rod does; its not an easy step up from Johnson City.
Mulligan is definitely a surprise as is Luna. Luna dominated at QC and played some at PB last year. Luhnow defended him stringently over the Winter.
The Cards seem to be flexible in assignments between the two A level squads. Mulligan is a converted catcher with little pro pitching experience. Maybe there is an opportunity for him to close at Quad Cities, while Reifer or someone else does this at Palm Beach.
Luna had a fine OPS last summer at Quad Cities, but his batting average was low there. He is also shifting position to 2B, so the Cards may see no need to rush him.
Of the 26 names, 7 are international signees, probably a higher percentage on the QC roster than in the past.
I see that Tommy Pham isn’t lised on the QC roster; would it be correct to assume he’s won a promotion to Palm Springs or even Springfield?
FWIW, Pham and Niko Vasquez were high-school buddies here in Las Vegas.
Jerry, it is about time you stopped by! Pham has been playing with Palm Beach this spring and that is where I expect him to land.
In case you didn’t see them, here are the working rosters for each of the five spring training clubs as of one week ago.
Well, my Quad Cities – Fort Wayne scouting report won’t happen until July this year, but, if the roster stays the same (which it won’t), I like the talent level.
Hooker, Cardenas, Nieto, Bolivar, Morales, Vasquez, Luna, Edwards, Rodriguez, etc.
…there is some nice upside there.
How do I post a great big old SMILE on here? I got the roster via email while I was at work and I’m just HAPPY!