One additional move, the Suns added OF Boomer Whiting from extended spring training. Whiting was a 28th round draft pick in 2007 out of Louisville. Over 62 games for the Vermont Lake Monsters in 2007, he batted 250/347/323 with 37/42 stolen bases. Whiting replaces OF Francisco Plasencia on the Hagerstown roster. Plasencia was promoted to Potomac.
Additional roster note, both RHP Jamie Lehman and Hassan Pena are on the DL in Hagerstown. That puts the Suns at 24 players out of a 25-man limit, meaning there is one additional move to be made in Hagerstown.
Steve | 05-May-08 at 10:14 am | Permalink
Is Whiting a switch hitter now?
Brian Oliver | 05-May-08 at 10:20 am | Permalink
Steve - He’s still listed as right-handed on the Hagerstown roster. I do recall he was working on switch-hitting and I’ll ask the question.
diane | 05-May-08 at 10:36 am | Permalink
Happy for Plasencia!!
Positively Half St | 05-May-08 at 11:37 am | Permalink
Is extended Spring Training essentially a holding pen for kids who will end up in Vermont? It seems that these are players who aren’t good enough to crack the full-season A-squads until someone else is moved. Some of them seem destined for Vermont, and others just seem to be place-holders in the organization.
Whiting certainly seems to be pretty good.
Brian Oliver | 05-May-08 at 11:41 am | Permalink
Extended spring can be both the holding pen for the guys who will be in Vermont and the GCL as well as a place players can go who are rehabbing from an injury, learning a new position, or learning a new skill (e.g. switch-hitting).
Suns Fan | 05-May-08 at 12:33 pm | Permalink
Plasencia had a great season with the Suns. He was hitting really well–much better than last year. Happy to see him get a promotion. He deserves it.
NatsWin83 | 05-May-08 at 12:39 pm | Permalink
Brian,
Do you happen to know why Brad Meyers was held back in Extended Spring Training? He was recently promoted to Hagerstown, where I thought had a reasonable season.
Do you have a feel for how he will project/his upside?
Brian Oliver | 05-May-08 at 1:00 pm | Permalink
NW83 - The answer I was given when I asked about Meyers was that he was building up arm strength. Nothing official about any sort of injury.
As for projections, this is what I said back in February … The tall righthander has a four pitch repertoire (fastball, curveball, slider and changeup) that he can throw for strikes. He is adept at getting groundballs but has a low strikeout total. Presently, he projects as another back of the rotation starter or long reliever.