The Semi-Official ALDS Roster

Jack Curry his “projected” ALDS roster. In all likelihood this is the actual roster the Yanks plan on using, but as Yankee Manager Joe Girardi said in his weekly radio interview this afternoon he’s not allowed to release the official roster just yet due to league rules. So here it is:

Pitchers:

CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, AJ Burnett, Mariano Rivera, David Robertson, Rafael Soriano, Boone Logan, Cory Wade, Luis Ayala and Phil Hughes.

Position Players:

Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Eric Chavez, Eduardo Nunez, Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, Andruw Jones, Russell Martin, Jorge Posada, Jesus Montero, Chris Dickerson

There’s a few interesting omissions that jump out at me. Leaving off Hector Noesi and taking AJ Burnett tells me Burnett is assuming the long man role. Detroit features a righty-heavy lineup, and they probably feel the veteran AJ is a safer bet than the rookie Noesi. If Freddy gets knocked out early, expect AJ to pick up a few innings to bridge the gap. We have heard for days that they were leaning toward taking Montero and Posada as a DH/backup Catcher tandem and leaving Austin Romine off. Catchers get hurt pretty rarely, but I can’t imagine either Montero or Posada handling wicked curves in the dirt from Burnett or Robertson. The Tigers won’t be using a Lefty starter, so it appears Montero is there as a late inning PH (Mr Coke, meet Mr Montero) and won’t see much playing time. Bartolo’s omission doesn’t surprise me. Colon was running on fumes, and in all honesty we already got more out of him than anyone expected this year. Raul Valdes may be an interesting Lefty, but this Detroit team is so righty heavy that a second lefty isn’t a good use of a roster spot. We may see him in the next round, but that’s the right call for the Tigers series.