Tagged: Robinzon Diaz

2014 Opening Day Affiliates Rosters

Opening Day is here for the minor leagues!

What follows are the announced rosters for each of the full-season minor-league affiliates for the Milwaukee Brewers, broken down by position group.

Nashville Sounds

Class-AAA Affiliate (Twitter: @nashvillesounds)

Manager: Rick Sweet

28 Total Players

Pitchers (13)

Catchers (3)

Infielders (9)

Outfielders (3)

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Huntsville Stars

Class-AA Affiliate (Twitter: @HuntsvilleStars)

Manager: Carlos Subero

28 Total Players

Pitchers (14)

Catchers (3)

Infielders (7)

Outfielders (4)

  • Kentrail Davis
  • Mitch Haniger (@M_Hanny19)
  • Brock Kjeldgaard
  • D’Vontrey Richardson

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BC Manatees

Class-A Advanced Affiliate (Twitter: @BCManatees)

Manager: Joe Ayrault

26 Total Players

Pitchers (13)

Catchers (2)

Infielders (8)

Outfielders (3)

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Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

Class-A Affiliate (Twitter: @TimberRattlers)

Manager: Matt Erickson

27 Total Players

Pitchers (13)

Catchers (3)

Infielders (6)

Outfielders (5)

*Player/Coach

Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers ’14 – #66 Robinzon Diaz

BBtJN Logo

Friday, January 24th is 66 days away from Opening Day on March 31st. You’ve found my “Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers” series which counts down to Opening Day by way of Spring Training uniform numbers.

Today’s article is going up very late (though still on the proper day) due to some outside factors. Enjoy, and come back over the weekend for more columns.

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He was a late invitee to camp last year as he handled some of the available catching duties while both Jonathan Lucroy and Martin Maldonado were away from camp. He played a bit of third base for the Class-AAA affiliate Nashville Sounds in addition to catching duties at both Nashville and Class-AA Huntsville. He even appeared in one game each at both first base and left field.

He’ll be wearing a jersey numbered 66 when he reports to Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix, Arizona no later than Saturday, February 15th. He is…

Robinzon Diaz.

RobinzonDiaz

A native of the Dominican Republic, Diaz was signed as an international free agent back in 2000 by the Toronto Blue Jays. He would eventually make his MLB debut for Toronto in 2008 at age 24 before being sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates as the “Player to be Named Later” in the deal that sent Jose Bautista north of the border. Diaz would make 43 appearances for Pittsburgh and hit pretty well in an extremely small sample size.

The Brewers are the sixth franchise to employ Diaz in his 13 professional seasons. (He had two stints with Texas.) And as he gets up in years he’s looking to add to his versatility in an attempt to break back into the big leagues.

The versatility and his bat would be what get him there if he makes it. Diaz has a career minor league slash line of .298/.332/.396 which includes a .284/.312/.393 line exclusive to the Triple-A level.

As for 2014, Diaz will likely break camp by heading to Nashville where some combination of he, Adam Weisenburger and Matt Pagnozzi will pair together as the primary catchers.

Diaz saw a ton of time behind the plate in the 2013 edition of the Cactus League. He won’t catch as much in games this spring but you can expect him to still get a fair share before being ultimately reassigned to the minor league side.

While he’s in, enjoy the stick.

Brewers Finally Announce 2014 Jersey Numbers

Earlier today, the Brewers finally announced the jersey numbers that the players coming to big league camp will be wearing whilst at Maryvale.

The majority of the players who saw time at the MLB level in 2013 have not changed numbers, though two did. One coach gave up his number for a player. And of course the newest acquisitions and non-roster invitees all need number assignments as well.

Here are all the changes. (Keep in mind that my uniform number repository only counts players wearing a specific number while on the big league roster. I’ll update those pages after camp breaks.)

New Players on 40-Man Roster:

  • #50 – Jose De La Torre
  • #63 – Brooks Hall
  • #60 – Kevin Shackelford
  • #13 – Will Smith
  • #51 – Wei-Chung Wang
  • #25 – Hunter Morris
  • #61 – Jason Rogers
  • #3 – Elian Herrera

Players on 40-Man Roster Last Year With New Numbers:

  • #30 – Tyler Thornburg (switched from #63)
  • #38 – Wily Peralta (switched from #60)
  • #58 – Ariel Pena (switched from #73)

Both New Non-Roster Invitees (Players on MiLB contracts invited to big league camp) and Repeat Invitees w/New Numbers:

  • #59 – Zach Duke
  • #77 – David Goforth
  • #70 – Dustin Molleken
  • #66 – Robinzon Diaz
  • #72 – Cameron Garfield
  • #68 – Matt Pagnozzi
  • #71 – Adam Weisenburger (switched from #91)
  • #65 – Irving Falu
  • #24 – Lyle Overbay
  • #7 – Mark Reynolds
  • #67 – Eugenio Velez
  • #73 – Kentrail Davis (switched from #93)
  • #75 – Mitch Haniger
  • #76 – Kevin Mattison

This Week in Brewers Transactions (9/30-10/4)

MatGamel

It’s been just four business days since the Milwaukee Brewers played their final game of the 2013 Major League Baseball regular season. A number of transactions — both at the 40-man roster level and elsewhere in the organization — have happened so far this week, so here’s a full “recappening” to make sure you’re up to speed.

I include my tweets about the bullet items to illustrate that the best way to get this information quickly is to just follow me on Twitter (@BrewerNation).

During the week of September 12-18:

  • RHP Arcenio Leon was signed to a 2014 MiLB contract (but it would be announced officially by the team finally on 10/1).

Tuesday, October 1

  • RHP Austin Blaski (21st round draft pick in 2012) retired from professional baseball. Blaski was a 2013 All-Star for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers before an arm injury cost him the rest of his season. He had surgery and retired, no doubt, as a result.
  • The Brewers announced the minor league resigning of several players to 2014 contracts
    • The aforementioned Arcenio Leon.
    • C/3B Robinzon Diaz
    • SS Hector Gomez
    • INF Eugenio Velez
  • OF Eric Patterson was released.

  Wednesday, October 2

    • LHP Chris Narveson elected minor league free agency
  • C/1B Blake Lalli (who was DFA’d more than two weeks prior) elected minor league free agency

 

  • RHP Dylan Brock (34th round draft pick in 2013) was suspended 50 games for violating the MiLB drug policy.

 

 

 

Thursday, October 3

  • 1B Mat Gamel was lost on waivers to the Chicago Cubs. Gamel was waived to open up a spot on the swollen 40-man roster. (The Brewers have until five days after the World Series to reinstate any players not currently counted against that roster due to 60-day DL designation, suspension, etc.)
  • INF Taylor Green was reinstated from the 60-day Disabled List.
  • Green, OF Josh Prince, and RHP Nick Bucci were outrighted to Triple-A Nashville.

Friday, October 4

  • (THIS SPACE WILL BE UPDATED WITH ANY TRANSACTIONS SHOULD THEY OCCUR ON FRIDAY)

A couple of notes about the transactions this week:

  • The removal of Prince and Bucci from the 40-man roster opens two spots on it. It currently stands at 38.
    • The Brewers have at minimum two players to add back in Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun.
    • Two spots should open when Michael Gonzalez and Yuniesky Betancourt declare free agency following the World Series.
    • There will be some names requiring protection from the Rule V Draft that will be added as the weeks progress as well.
  • Nick Bucci’s removal from the 40-man roster shouldn’t come as a big surprise. He was only added after last season following a breakout campaign. A shoulder injury cost him almost the entirety of 2013 (he got into one game and recorded two outs) and position him for a good amount of work. It’s significant that he was outrighted to Nashville despite never having pitched above High-A. That means that though he will be exposed to the Rule V Draft in December, any team selecting him would need to add him to their MLB roster and keep him there the entire 2014 season. That’s quite frankly unlikely to happen.