
The Altoona Curve roster for the 2011 season was announced today by the Curve and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Â The breakdown is as follows:
C – Tony Sanchez
1B – Miles Durham
2B – Brock Holt
SS – Jordy Mercer
3B – Jeremy Farrell
OF – Quincy Latimore
OF – Starling Marte
OF – Brad Chalk
Bench – Eric Fryer, Kris Watts, Shelby Ford, Jose Hernandez
SP – Bryan Morris
SP – Jeff Locke
SP – Aaron Pribanic
SP – Brian Leach
SP – Aaron Thompson
Bullpen – Tim Alderson, Tom Boleska, Anthony Claggett, Mike Colla, Michael Dubee, Jared Hughes, Noah Krol
I’ve previewed most of the roster in the past month (infield, outfield, rotation, bullpen). Â A few notes on some of the differences between my projections and the actual roster:
-Jeremy Farrell will make the jump to AA, despite missing a lot of time in 2010. Â That’s not a huge surprise, since Tony Sanchez, Brock Holt, and Starling Marte are basically doing the same thing.
-Brad Chalk will round out the outfield. Â Chalk was a Rule 5 pick in the minor league phase of the draft this year. Â Jose Hernandez will skip over high-A, moving right to the AA bench. Â Those two moves demonstrate that the outfield is an area of weakness in the upper levels of the Pirates’ system, at least as far as prospect depth goes.
-No word on who will start between Aaron Thompson and Tim Alderson. Â I saw both of them being used as starters in Spring Training, so there’s a chance that they could piggyback at the start of the season. Â They could both get starting time once Morris and/or Locke move up to AAA. UPDATE: Cory Giger reports that Alderson will start out the year in the bullpen. Â I guess he could still be in a spot starter role, or manage to get a lot of innings in that scenario.
This means Lambo at AAA for sure? Hope he can make it there; I’m a little surprised they didn’t start him at Altoona
Yeah, Lambo has been slated for AAA for awhile.