Spring Training Non-Roster Invitees for Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics have 19 players joining them for spring training this year who do not appear on their 40 man roster. Each of these men will have a fair shot at getting evaluated against major league pitchers and hitters and their 2015 seasons could be dramatically shifted in that hot Arizona sun. MLB writer, Jane Lee tweeted out the complete list last week and I’d like to take a closer look at each man so that we know what we have to look forward to this spring training.

There are ten non-roster pitchers set to join the team for spring training.

Matt Buschmann is a 30 year old right-handed pitcher from Vanderbilt who has been throwing in the minor leagues since 2006. He has a career 4.09 ERA and .563 W-L%. With 90 games at the AAA level, Buschmann seems to have struggled with keeping the ERA down but has kept a healthy K:BB ratio.

Angel Castro is a 32 year old right-handed pitcher with a career ERA of 3.88 in eight minor league seasons. His ERA in AAA sits at 4.31, including a 7.78 through 19 innings in Sacramento last year. Castro has held a winning season record at every level of the minors and his K:BB ratio is almost 2:1 for his career.

Jim Fuller is a 64 year old outfielder who…wait…I think that’s the wrong guy. Our guy is a 27 year old left-handed pitcher with six seasons of minor league ball under his belt. None of those seasons were higher than AA teams but through 121 career games and 364 innings, he has held his career ERA at 2.87.

Brock Huntzinger is a 26 year old right-handed pitcher with eight seasons of minor league play on his baseball card. His best ERA has been as a AAA bullpen member where he’s posting a 2.59 ERA over 121.2 innings with a K:BB ratio of around 2.6:1.

Brad Mills

, that’s right, he’s back! Dollar

Bill Mills

threw 16.1 innings for the Oakland Athletics in 2014 where he posted a 4.41 ERA with a K:BB ratio of 2:1 on the money. His spring training invite indicates, to me at least, that they liked what they saw at the major league level enough to give him another chance to prove what he’s made of.

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Rudy Owens is a 27 year old left-handed pitcher with a 3.38:1 K:BB ratio and a 3.61 ERA.

Fernando Rodriguez is a 30 year old right-handed pitcher who has thrown 132.1 major league innings, including 9 for Oakland where he grabbed a win and a 1.00 ERA. His minor numbers are a bit more erratic so a look at him in spring training may have a bigger impact than his stat sheet does.

Pat Venditte is a 29 year old left-handed/right handed pitcher with a career ERA of 2.46 in 384.2 minor league innings. With very little experience above AA+ ball, it will be very interesting to see if his 4:1 K:BB ratio holds up against big league hitters. Of course, we all want to see him get the call simply because he’s a very rare ambidextrous pitcher.

Ryan Verdugo is probably eager to get some big league innings added to his stat sheet since he currently sits with a major league 32.40 ERA, albeit in only 1.2 innings with Kansas City. His minor league stats are much easier to digest with the 27 year old lefty throwing for a 3.56 ERA in with more than half of his time in various AAA clubs.

Kevin Whelan is a 30 year old with ten seasons in the minors. He is primarily a reliever, having only started 8 games in his entire career, with 116 saves to his name.

In what will truly be a spring training that Ray Fosse will never forget, there will be three non-roster catchers on the team this year.

Bryan Anderson is a 28 year old catcher with a career line of .281/.351/.417 with 67 HR and 381 RBI’s over 3,193 plate appearances.
Carson Blair is a 25 year old with seven years of minor league service in the Boston farm system. His line is .239/.341/.414 and he strikes out about 29% of the time.
Bruce Maxwell is a 25 year old who was drafted by the Athletics in 2012. His time in their farm system has seen him grab a .264/.345/.359 line with a 16% SO rate. He has never played higher than AA Midland.

The A’s are bringing five non-roster infielders to spring training in 2015.

Alden Carrithers is a 30 year old left-handed batter with experience playing 2B, 3B and all the outfield positions. His minor league career line is .295/.399/.363. Obviously, that .399 OBP looks good to Billy Beane but Carrithers offers virtually nothing in terms of power with a .363 SLG he has earned that OBP through his plate discipline with a 13.7% walk rate.
Max Muncy is a 24 year old 1B and 3B. With no time above AA ball, it’s impossible to truly gauge his ability in the majors but he excelled in Stockton with 21 HR and 76 RBI through 93 games and he walks a fair amount.
Daniel Robertson plays SS and 3B and had a great season in Stockton in 2014. His 2014 campaign ended with a .310/.402/.471 line knocking out 15 home runs and driving in 60. If Robertson can translate those numbers to the majors, he’ll be a big star in Oakland very soon.
Niuman Romero plays SS, 2B, and 3B and has a .268/.351/.350 minor league line. Again, not a lot of power off of Romero’s bat with only 33 home runs in his total career. With a 10% walk rate, it will be surprising if he gets the big league call in 2015.
Joe Wendle is a 24 year old 2B and 3B who will have all eyes on him since he was the sole return on the Brandon Moss trade. Wendle was the ninth best prospect in the Indians’ organization with a minor league career line of .292/.357/.471. This may be the trade for which Billy Beane is most harshly criticized if Wendle doesn’t turn into an all star major leaguer or bait an all star through trade.

Last but not least, we get to the outfield non-roster invitee.

Boog Powell is the player every A’s writer wants to see play just so they can report about a guy named Boog. Powell, who is not related to the Orioles legend who undoubtedly is now linked to this article, has three seasons in A and AA ball with a line that reads .317/.412/.384. Again, this is another non-roster invitee who has a good average and decent OBP but no real power to speak of.

There you have it, the 2015 non-roster spring training invitees for the Oakland Athletics. This may be the only time this year that we get a chance to see these young men play alongside their major league team mates so it will be interesting to see how things play out this March.

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