Nearly 50 O's open in full-season
MISSOULA, MONT. - Full-season clubs in the Arizona Diamondbacks system spanning from Triple-A Reno, Double-A Mobile, Advanced-A Visalia and Class-A South Bend all opened their season's late last week and 49 Osprey alums were included on their opening day rosters.
Since the end of last week when rosters were announced and play began, there are still 49 former Osprey on full-season rosters, but there was one move made that saw the return of one alum and another series of moves that saw the release of another.
Ender Inciarte, who made the Philadelphia Phillies opening day major league roster to become the 40th alum to earn a major league roster spot, is now back in the Diamondbacks system. Inciarte did not have any prior experience beyond Advanced-A Visalia, but was taken by the Phillies in the Rule V Draft at the Baseball Winter Meetings and stuck around through spring training and opening day. The Phillies had to keep Inciarte on their 25-man major league roster for the entire season as part of the Rule V Draft rules, but instead claimed Ezequiel Carrera off waivers and had to offer Inciarte back to the Diamondbacks, which they accepted and assigned him to Double-A Mobile.
In another move, Right-handed pitcher Blake Cooper was sent down from Mobile to Visalia, to make room for Cooper, Frank Santana was sent down from Visalia to South Bend. Left-handed pitcher Taylor Siemens was released following South Bend's game on April 6.
Here are the Osprey alums on full season clubs in the Diamondbacks system by team -
Triple-A Reno (7): RHP Chase Anderson, RHP Charles Brewer, LHP Eury De La Rosa, 2B Taylor Harbin, SS Chris Owings, RHP - Bryan Henry (DL), OF - Keon Broxton (DL)
Double-A Mobile (10): RHP Derek Eitel, RHP Bradin Hagens, LHP David Holmberg, RHP Anthony Meo, RHP Eric Smith, C Rossmel Perez, 1B Jon Griffin, OF David Nick, OF Ender Inciarte, OF Ollie Linton (DL)
Advanced-A Visalia (18): LHP Andrew Barbosa, RHP Archie Bradley, LHP Andrew Chafin, LHP Keith Hessler, LHP Patrick Schuster, RHP Conrad Flynn, RHP Diogenes Rosario, RHP Blake Cooper, RHP Seth Simmons, C Raywilly Gomez, 3B Jake Lamb, UTL Matt Helm, UTL Raul Navarro, OF Tom Belza, OF Chris Ellison, OF Evan Marzilli, RHP Ray Hernandez (DL), RHP D.J. Johnson (DL)
Class-A South Bend (14): RHP Jesse Darrah, RHP Blake Perry, RHP Frank Santana, RHP JR Bradley, RHP Enrique Burgos, RHP Chris Capper, C Roidany Aguila, 2B Fidel Pena, SS Pedro Ruiz, UTL Ryan Court, OF Breland Almadova, OF Socrates Brito, OF Alex Glenn, P Matt Sample (DL)
That leaves 19 alums at extended spring training with five of them rehabbing on the disabled list.
The Osprey opened the season with 16 alums on 25-man rosters in the major leagues.
Short-season clubs - Hillsboro (formerly Yakima), AZL and DSL all begin play in June.
The 2013 version of the Osprey opens their season at home against the Helena Brewers on June 20. Season tickets and mini-plans are now on sale by calling the Osprey at (406) 543-3300, by visiting the MSO Hub Box Office at 140 N. Higgins or on the web at MissoulaOsprey.com.