Asheville Tourists Announce 2008 Opening Day Roster
March 28, 2008 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Asheville Tourists News Release
ASHEVILLE-The Colorado Rockies have assigned 25 players to the Class A Asheville Tourists to open the 2008 season. Eighteen of the players are entering their first full professional seasons after signing with the defending National League champions in 2007. Pitcher Craig Baker and infielder Spence Nagy are the only players on the initial roster who played for Asheville last year.
Manager Joe Mikulik, who will begin his ninth season at the Tourists' dugout helm on Thursday, April 3, at McCormick Field against Lexington, welcomes six players ranked among the top 30 prospects in the Colorado farm system by Baseball America. The overall depth of talent is also impressive, which has the Asheville coaching staff expecting a season of excitement for the home team.
Asheville's projected starting rotation consists of three highly ranked prospects, headed by number 18 Jhoulys Chacin. The righthander from Venezuela was tabbed as one of the premier pitchers in the Pioneer League in 2007, going 6-5 with a 3.13 ERA in 16 starts for Casper, including a 5-2 mark with a 1.20 ERA in his final 10 outings. Righthander Connor Graham was ranked as the Rockies' 29th-best prospect after he was drafted in the fifth round last summer out of the University of Miami (Ohio). In six games, Graham went 1-0 with a 2.37 ERA at Tri-City and was clocked as high as 98 mph. Another righthander, Cory Riordan, is deemed the 30th-best prospect among all Rockies' minor leaguers after he was a sixth-round draft pick out of Fordham University in 2007. Riordan posted a 2-3 record with a 4.25 ERA at Tri-City.
Rounding out the Asheville rotation at the start of the season will be righthanders Bruce Billings and Sheng-An Kuo. Righthanders Edgmer Escalona, Andrew Groves, Don Randall Taylor and Joseph Willliamson join lefties Matthew Reynolds and John Craig Rodriguez in the bullpen. Craig Baker, a righthander who saved five games for the Tourists in 2007, will open the slate as the team's closer.
Handling the catching chores will be Lars Davis and Beau Seabury. Davis, rated as the 26th-best prospect in the Colorado organization, was the 2007 Big Ten Conference Player of the Year while attending the University of Illinois prior to being drafted in the third round by the Rockies. Davis batted .400 with 13 home runs for the Illini before hitting .219 with three homers and 27 RBIs at Tri-City. Seabury posted a .304 batting average at Casper with three home runs and 11 RBIs.
Asheville's projected starting infield features first baseman Jeffrey Cunningham, second baseman Everth Cabrera, third baseman Darin Holcomb and shortstop Helder Velasquez. Cunningham tied for the Casper team lead with 29 RBIs last year while ranking second with eight home runs. Holcomb led Tri-City with 12 homers and 51 RBIs, while Cabrera contributed a .300 batting average to the same club. Velasquez is rated as the organization's 23rd-best prospect, displaying an outstanding arm with impressive defensive skills after hitting .262 with 43 RBIs at Tri-City last year. Spence Nagy and Warren Schaffer, both of whom split last year between Tri-City and Casper, will be reserves on the infield.
The Asheville outfield will consist of Kevin Clark in left field, Michael Mitchell in center and Brian Rike in right field. Rike was the Rockies' second-round draft pick in 2007 after leading the Western Athletic Conference with 20 home runs at Louisiana Tech. Rike proceeded to hit .296 with four homers and 29 RBIs at Tri-City and was ranked as the organization's 14th-best prospect. Completing the outfield will be David Christensen, who led Casper with nine home runs last season, and Brian Lapin.
Joining Mikulik on the Asheville coaching staff is former major league infielder Houston Jimenez, who returns for his second season with the Tourists, and pitching Doug Linton, a former hurler with the Toronto Blue Jays who toiled the past two years as the Tri-City pitching coach. Chris Dovey will spend his third season as Asheville's trainer.
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