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MOOSIC — For the first time in 2015, fans and media members met their local professional baseball team.
On Tuesday, the RailRiders held their annual media day and Meet the RailRiders festivities with all 24 rostered players, hundreds of fans and more than a dozen members from the media on hand at PNC Field.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre unveiled its roster consisting of 13 players who saw time with the club last season and 11 newcomers to start the 2015 campaign, which begins on Thursday when the team hosts Syracuse at 7:05 p.m.
“First part is player development, but along with that we hope to win some ballgames,” manager Dave Miley said. “I know one thing to get word out to the fans, if they come out here they’re gonna like what these guys bring to the table on a daily basis. They’ll play hard, they’ll compete and hopefully we play some September baseball.”
One of those who was with the team last season for a bit is left-hander Bryan Mitchell, who Miley will call on to take the hill for his club in the opener. Mitchell started eight games for Miley last season posting a 4-2 record. The soon-to-be 24-year-old (he turns 24 on April 19) started the 2014 season with Double-A Trenton and by August he was making his Major League debut. Now, he gets the Opening Day nod.
“It’s a big deal yeah, but I try not to pay too much attention to it,” Mitchell said. “I just want to go out, pitch my game and not try to do too much.”
Mitchell bolsters a pitching staff that consists of nine arms who were either in the team’s bullpen or starting rotation from a year ago. Matt Tracy, the No. 3 starter, and Chase Whitley, the fourth member of Miley’s rotation, also return to the club. Jaron Long, a 23-year-old righty is set to start the second game of the season, Friday at 7:05 p.m. game against the Chiefs, while right-hander Kyle Davies, who was signed to a minor league deal in February by the Yankees, rounds out the rotation.
Diego Moreno, Branden Pinder, Tyler Webb, Danny Burawa, Nick Rumbelow and Jose Ramirez are members of the bullpen who pitched for the RailRiders last season. The only newcomer to the ‘pen is lefty Jacob Lindgren, who pitched on four different levels for the organization in the minors last season seeing time in the Rookie Gulf Coast League, Low-A South Atlantic League, High-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton after being drafted by New York in the second round of last year’s draft out of Mississippi State University.
With lots of talent in the bullpen, Miley doesn’t expect to have a set closer, instead just use a committee, at least for now.
“If you look at those names there’s a lot of real good arms down there,” the skipper said. “We got a lot of flexibility down there. Without naming a closer, I’m sure (pitching coach) Scotty (Aldred) and I will sit down and come up with a few names in case one of them is not available.”
The position players are mostly new with just four of 12 players seeing time with SWB in 2014. The most notable of the returners is second baseman Rob Refsnyder, who was one of the last players sent to the minors from Major League Spring Training. First baseman Kyle Roller, infielder Rob Segedin and outfielder Ramon Flores also saw significant playing time with the RailRiders.
Joining Flores in the outfield are three newcomers to Triple-A, but are well-known and highly-touted in the organization with Slade Heathcott, Tyler Austin and Ben Gamel. It may be hard for Miley to platoon all four, but he’s juggled talent in the past with success.
“We kinda got a good idea of the matrix. And I’ll talk to these guys and tell them where we’re coming from,” Miley said. “But it’s a long grind, 144 games with travel we don’t get a lot of days off so we’ll be able to move some guys around and give a day off here and there so I don’t foresee it being an issue.”
Minor league veterans Cole Figueroa, Nick Noonan and Jonathan Galvez are new comers to the team’s infield, but not to Triple-A combining for nearly 800 games in the Triple-A level heading into the season.
The pitching staff will be tossing to backstops Kyle Higashioka and Eddy Rodriguez. Higoshioka played in the Rookie and Florida State leagues, while Rodriguez was signed as a minor league free agent.
Miley starts his ninth season as skipper of the team, while pitching coach Scott Aldred also returns. Marcus Thames and Justin Tordi join the coaching staff replacing Luis Sojo and Butch Wynegar.
“In my opinion, it’s a Major League staff,” Miley said. “These guys bring a lot to the table.”