Atlanta Braves low-A Affiliate Rome Braves Official Roster and Preview
The Rome Braves are defending a South Atlantic League title in 2017. Can they win another title for the Atlanta Braves organization?
The Atlanta Braves celebrated a league championship with the Rome Braves in 2016, and this season’s team looks to have plenty of excitement as well!
Let’s look at the roster, starting with the batsmen:
Hitters
Catchers – Brett Cumberland, Lucas Herbert, Tanner Murphy
This is an incredibly confusing group. For all the organization’s discussion about their desire to get as many reps as possible for Murphy and Jonathan Morales in discussions I had over this offseason, this is a very surprising set up.
All three are catchers who need plenty of time behind the plate, so it’s odd for all three to be at Rome, which leads me to think there will be a quick move coming forward, especially with some of the other odd catching set up across the minors.
Infielders – Derian Cruz, Kurt Hoekstra, Kevin Josephina, Marcus Mooney, Anfernee Seymour, Juan Yepez
This grouping is also a departure from some of the word from the organization over the winter. There was plenty of discussion about playing Yepez at third base, and from this grouping, he’s really the only corner infielder at all, so it’d be unlikely that any of the other infielders play first.
There are guys at other spots that could play some 1B, like Cumberland or Concepcion. I also would imagine that Seymour plays a little bit of utility, but as a starting utility guy, starting some games at second, short, and left field, perhaps even third base.
Outfielders – Anthony Concepcion, Randy Ventura, Cristian Pache
Not a ton of depth here, and I’d imagine you’ll see a lot of guys like Leudys Baez, Bradley Keller, and J.B. Moss coming up from extended spring as needed if there are any dings to the roster as outfield is certainly shallow.
I’d imagine that Seymour actually gets a lot of the OF time, which would make this one of the speediest outfields in the system. One thing to note is that Ventura does frequently get mislabeled as a speed-only guy due to his 2015 season in the Dominican Summer League. He’s really got some raw power to his swing and a very powerful arm in right field, and with Pache having an incredible arm next to him in center field, there should be little running going on for opposing runners on balls to the outfield.
Analysis
Next: Pitchers