Opening Day is Monday (!!), meaning rosters are now being finalized. A lot of focus has been on the make-up of the big league roster, but Tom Haudricourt gives us an update today on the final roster in Nashville.
Overall, we don’t see many of the big-name prospects we’ve come to expect at that level, although there are a couple — Angel Salome will be the starting catcher there, and there’s a good chance Zach Braddock will be the closer (not to mention Mat Gamel, who will play third when he gets off the DL). What I do like, though, is the depth provided by the starting rotation.
As outlined by Haudricourt, the Sounds rotation will be Chuck Lofgren, Marco Estrada, Kameron Loe (pictured), Chris Waters, and Chase Wright. Josh Butler will slot in somewhere once he recovers from his elbow injury.
Even without Butler in the fold, the rotation provides the Brewers a handful of good emergency starters if injuries hit the Milwaukee rotation hard again this year. Granted, with Parra and Narveson still with the big league club in a bullpen capacity, things would have to go extremely wrong before any of the Triple A guys would have to make a start, but this group represents a definite improvement over last year’s stopgaps.
Who would you rather see start a game for the Brewers, one of Lofgren/Estrada/Loe or Mike Burns?
Sure, there’s probably no worldbeaters in that group, but like we saw last year, you need to have all the depth you can get. It’s even possible that some guys in Double A (Rivas, Periard) could be called on ahead of the Triple A guys. All in all, I think I feel a lot better about the team’s pitching depth than I have in recent years.
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