Playing Time and the Bulls Roster

Playing time, and when you come in the game, are great indicators of who’s going to end up where at the end of spring training. At least that’s what Cork Gaines over at Rays Index thinks. I agree. So first you should take a look at the chart he’s developed and his conclusions he's drawn regarding the Rays 25-man roster.

Based on Cork's table we can make some educated guesses about the Bulls’ starting lineup.

For example, just looking at three infielders we see that the playing time of three players  — Cole Figueroa, Ray Olmedo, and Jerry Sands — have mostly come in the later innings. Looking back at our last post, we see that Vince Belnome and Hak Ju-Lee have already been sent down so it looks like the Bulls have an infield (and a pretty darn good one at that). Two loose ends, from a Rays perspective, are Wilson Betemit and Jayson Nix.

At catcher, Ali Solis is the only one getting any early playing time. Curt Casali has already been sent down. Still some room for guesswork here.

Based on this list we’d have to guess at Justin Christian and Jeremy Moore being added to outfielder/DH slots, but a lot will depend on whether or not the Rays think Mikie Mahtook is ready for Triple-A.

Meanwhile, of course, with four (count ‘em, four!) Triangle teams in the NCAA tournament, we’re going to be hard-pressed to pay attention to baseball for a while.