One Night Only! (Roster Expansion Madness, AL Edish)

This marks the AL version of the post from earlier today, itself an attempt to catalog recently promoted players and inform the reader as to when said players might be seen.

As with that — and also yesterday’s — installment, none of what follows ought to be regarded as official prospect mavening. Bryan Smith, just yesterday, wrote two pieces about our very newest Major Leaguers. As is typical, Smith’s work offers things like “information” and “analysis” — i.e. a pair of traits far beyond the purview of the present work.

For each series, I’ve included (a) the start times of the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games, respectively, (b) the name, age, and position of each respective call-up, (c) said call-ups’ rankings both on Marc Hulet’s top-10 and Baseball America’s top-30 preseason organizational prospect lists, (d) the players’ lines at their most recent minor league stop, and (e) any notes relevant to better enjoying said players’ promotions.

(wOBA+, or park-adjusted wOBA relative to league average, courtesy of StatCorner.)

Toronto at New York | 1:05pm, 1:05pm, 1:05pm
Blue Jays
JP Arencibia, 24, C
Hulet / BA: 4 / 2
Line: 459 PA, .301/.359/.626 (.306 BABIP), .412 wOBA, 115 wOBA+ (Triple-A)
Notes: First, before you salivate all over the numbers, consider the team batting line for the Las Vegas 51s: .295/.360/.479. That’s like a .370 wOBA, and is most assuredly the product — at least in part — of park effects. Still, as the young catcher’s wOBA+ suggests, Arencibia has provided above-average offense this year after taking a step back in 2009.

Yankees
Notes on Greg Golson available in yesterday’s edition.

Tampa Bay at Baltimore | 7:05pm, 7:05pm, 1:35pm
Rays
Rocco Baldelli, 28, Handsome Man
Hulet / BA: NR / NR
Line: 48 PA, .273/.292/.477 (.303 BABIP), .325 wOBA, 90 wOBA+ (Triple-A)
Notes: As someone on the Twitters recently noted (I forget, sorry), the Rays now have two ex-minor league coaches on their roster. And, yes, I recognize that Baldelli isn’t a prospect, but I also understand this: if you’re not excited about the Woonsocket Rocket, you’re not excited about life.

One man’s treasure is another man’s moustache.

Desmond Jennings, 23, CF
Hulet / BA: 1 / 1
Line: 458 PA, .278/.362/.393 (.327 BABIP), .355 wOBA, 105 wOBA+ (Triple-A)
Notes: The idea is that he’s Carl Crawford, Part Deux. He definitely seems to have the “running fast” part down: Jennings was 37-for-41 on stolen base attempts at Durham before his promotion. TotalZone, per Sean’s Smith Baseball Projection, has him as a +4 fielder in center, which means he could be something like +10 to +15 fielder in left. Crawford, meanwhile, has +15.8 UZR/150 in left for his career.

Orioles
Notes on Brandon Snyder in yesterday’s edition.

Chicago at Boston | 7:10pm, 7:10pm, 1:35pm
White Sox
Tyler Flowers, 24, C
Hulet / BA: 1 / 2
Line: 412 PA, .220/.334/.434 (.283 BABIP), .339 wOBA, 100 wOBA+ (Triple-A)
Notes: A.J. Pierzynski‘s contract runs out after 2010, and Flowers is likely to replace him. Reports on his defense seem conflicting, but he seems rather adept at absolutely crushing the ball, posting ISOs of around .200 or greater throughout the minors.

Gregory Infante, 23, RHP
Hulet / BA: 9 / NR
Line: 26.1 IP, 11.62 K/9, 4.10 BB/9, 2.10 FIP (Double-A)
Notes: Dan Santaromita over at Future Sox has aggregated a couple scouting reports on Infante, saying that he (i.e. Infante, not Santaromita) throws an 94-98 mph fastball and demonstrates flashes of talent. Will probably be a member of Sox’ bullpen next year, where he’ll almost definitely drag down the collective BMI of Chicago’s relief corps.

Red Sox
None.

Texas at Minnesota | 8:10pm, 4:10pm, 2:10pm
Rangers
None. (Unless maybe you count Pedro Strop. But I’m not doing that.)

Twins
None.

Detroit at Kansas City | 8:10pm, 7:10pm, 2:10pm
Tigers
Notes on 30-year-old catcher Max St. Pierre in yesterday’s edition.

Royals
Lucas May, 25, C
Hulet / BA: NR / 17 (in Dodgers’ system)
Line: 285 PA, .296/.352/.496 (.347 BABIP), .369 wOBA, 99 wOBA+ (Triple-A)
Notes: Hey, this guy’s interesting. The Dodgers converted him from shortstop to outfield to catcher — then traded him to KC in July as part of the Scott Podsednik deal. Those numbers there are from his spell in Las Vegas. He actually performed even better (.275/.362/.516) at Triple-A Omaha with a lower BABIP (.294) and higher wOBA+ (119). With Kendall out, he’ll probably split time with Brayan Pena, which probably gives the Royals the coolest catching duo in the majors.

Los Angeles at Oakland | 10:05pm, 4:10pm, 4:05pm
Angels
None.

Athletics
Notes on relief pitcher Justin James in yesterday’s edition.

Cleveland at Seattle | 10:10pm, 10:15pm, 4:10pm
Indians
None.

Mariners
None.