According to Jason Beck of MLB.com,

Todd Jones, Bobby Seay, Tim Byrdak, Jason Grilli and Zach Miner are in, according to Leyland, barring something drastic happening. Fernando Rodney is also in if/when he’s healthy.

There are five or six candidates fighting for the final two spots, according to Leyland, depending on Rodney’s status. That list is believed to be Denny Bautista, Yorman Bazardo, Freddy Dolsi, Preston Larrison, Aquilino Lopez and Francisco Cruceta (if he gets here anytime soon).

And that Fernando Rodney being healthy part sounds less and less likely by the day. According to the Detroit News, Jim Leyland does not expect to have Rodney at the start of the season.

I am pretty sure Denny Bautista will make the team. So that leaves one spot left for the rest of the guys. I find Preston Larrison and Freddy Dolsi interesting longshots and the other guys somewhat more likely. Except Cruceta. Who seems like he’ll never make it to camp in time.

Larrison, whose career has been mired in AA and AAA, kept his home run rate down last season in AAA Toledo.  But he didn’t exactly strike out many and walked nearly as many as he struck out. The 25-year-old Dolsi will be trying to make the jump from High-A Lakeland to the majors. He did make a brief stop in AA Erie last season. He had a decent K/BB rate but not as high of strikeouts per nine innings as you’d expect of someone going from the minors to the majors.

Personally, I don’t feel like Lopez really did anything last year in Detroit to make me consider him this season. My best bet for the second reliever to come north (until Rodney is healthy) is probably still Bazardo, unless Cruceta gets here quick and really makes a compelling case.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under 2008 Spring Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.