AA St. Paul Saints

Saints Sign Two Arms with Triple-A Experience

April 5, 2012 - American Association (AA)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN (April 5, 2012) - Proving a team can never have too much experience on its pitching staff St. Paul Saints manager George Tsamis signed two right-handed arms with Triple-A experience, including one that was a first round sandwich pick. Wes Roemer and Billy Spottiswood, both from the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, will join the Saints in 2012.

The 25-year-old Roemer is coming off of a solid season at Double-A Mobile and Triple-A Reno. He went 8-8 with a 4.39 ERA and one complete game in 28 games (27 starts). In 164.0 innings he walked 45 and struck out 115. He was named to the 2011 Southern League All-Star team. While he only pitched four games at Triple-A he was 0-1 with a 3.70 ERA in those four starts while walking five and striking out 18 in 24.1 innings.

Roemer was drafted as a compensatory pick, the 50th pick overall by the Diamondbacks in the 2007 June Amateur Draft out of Cal State Fullerton. He pitched his entire career in the Diamondbacks organization and after spending 2007 at Low-A Yakima as a reliever, he was moved to the starting rotation in 2008 at High-A Visalia. He recorded a career high 12 wins between two stops in 2009 (High-A Visalia and Double-A Mobile) and split 2010 between Mobile and Reno.

In 2006, his sophomore season at Cal State Fullerton, he was named Collegiate Baseball's Co-National Player of the Year and didn't allow a walk in his first 65.2 innings pitched and finished with a 21:1 strikeout to walk ratio (145:7).

The 26-year-old Spottiswood spent all of last season at Double-A Mobile and was tremendous. He went 5-3 with a 2.86 ERA and two saves in 51 relief appearances. In 72.1 innings he walked 20 and struck out 61.

Spottiswood was a 25th round selection by the Diamondbacks in the 2007 June Amateur Draft out of Chico State and spent that season in Yakima while recording a 2.49 ERA in 26 relief appearances. In 2008 he was dominant at Single-A South Bend recording 13 saves along with a 2.11 ERA. That earned him a promotion to High-A Visalia in 2009 and he impressed so much that he pitched 17 games at Triple-A Reno. He spent most of 2010 at Visalia and pitched two games in Reno.

The Saints roster currently stands at 21, 10 pitchers and 11 position players. They have re-signed six players this offseason, agreed to terms with three players and signed 10 free agents. Along with those 19 players the Saints picked up the option on two others. The Saints can carry a maximum of 23 players on their roster during the first 10 days of the season and then must be down to the league maximum of 22 players after that.

The Saints begin their 20th season on Thursday, May 17 with a 7:05 p.m. game against the Gary SouthShore Railcats. Single game tickets, group tickets and specialty seating areas are on sale by contacting the Saints office at 651-644-6659 or visiting saintsbaseball.com.

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