The 32-man 2009 season-opening roster for the Gulf Coast League Cardinals follows. It includes ten 2009 draftees, led by sixth-rounder Virgil Hill, plus a new signing, pitcher Hector Hernandez, drafted in the tenth round. All 2009 draftees are noted below with round taken in this draft.
Hernandez is the 38th member of the 2009 draft class to be signed. 11 are assigned to Batavia, 16 to Johnson City and one, third-rounder Joe Kelly, is non-rostered at this time.
On Wednesday morning, I will update the Roster Matrix for the entire organization, including Batavia, Johnson City and GCL.
| P (16) | Butler, Keith | 2009-24 |
| Calero, Jose | ||
| Castellano, Julio | ||
| Castillo, Amaury | ||
| Cruz, Angel | ||
| Daugherty, Patrick | 2009-12 | |
| DeJesus, Angel | ||
| DeLaCruz, Manuel | 2009-43 | |
| Diaz, Omar | ||
| Hernandez, Hector | 2009-10 | |
| Javier, Omar | ||
| Johnson, Cale | 2009-41 | |
| Muñoz, Orlando | ||
| Orozco, Luis | ||
| Rios, Geney | ||
| Russell, Zach | ||
| C (4) | Castillo, Juan | |
| Garcia, Anthony | 2009-18 | |
| Moscatel, Kevin | ||
| Polanco, Luis | ||
| 1B (2) | Medina, David | |
| Rodriguez, Jonathan | 2009-17 | |
| IF (5) | DeLaCruz, Roberto | |
| Mambell, Geraldo | ||
| Mosquera, Juan | ||
| Teran, Kleininger | ||
| Valera, Cesar | ||
| OF (5) | Babrick, Joseph | |
| Bighames, Tyler | 2009-31 | |
| Hill, Virgil | 2009-6 | |
| Rivero, Alberto | ||
| Washington, David | 2009-15 |
Last year, high school signee Babrick was outmatched in this league. A year later, he hit a homer in the first game. Good to see men adjust to the level of competition, as they will, if we can spare them enough at bats.
Bighames was a SS in high school, but may outgrow the position, so the Cards are trying him in the OF.
Encouragingly, Hernandez is our 38th signee, among 50 recently drafted, elevating the share signed to 76%. He is the next Jaime Garcia, we hope, out of Puerto Rico. Welcome aboard, Hector.
Rds 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 16, 21 lead the unsigned. Few #1 picks have signed, so Miller may take a while. Bittle and Conley are seniors, so do not have a lot of room for negotiation. There are plausible reasons for Stidham, McCully, and Bibona to sign. If those six sign, this would get us up to 88 percent.
So Brian, where is Oneli Perez going to start at?
Perez is 25 and has pitched at AA. He could land at Springfield.
Thanks for the correction on Hernandez, Jumbo. I fixed the above. Since Stidham and McCully (plus Heisler) were on the preliminary Batavia roster, they must have been pretty close to signing recently.
Axcion, Oneli Perez has been assigned to Memphis. In corresponding transactions, 1B Javier Brito was released and Kat Maekawa went onto the DL.