Pieces

So who exactly are the 39 players on the 40-man roster?

A few worth knowing about if you don't know them already:

Greg Fertel of Pending Pinstripes is counting down his top Yankee prospects.  Yesterday, he shared his thoughts on Romulo Sanchez, whom the Yankees acquired from the Pirates in a minor league trade last May:

He throws his changeup at around 86 MPH, a nice difference from his heater. Again, his slider is just decent, coming in at 85-86 with decent movement but a lack of command. He  has a great [94-99 MPH] fastball, and that is what he works off of. He can struggle with command in a given outing, but he generally is able to throw his fastball for strikes and generate swings and misses with it. Because his other pitches are probably below average, he's only a bullpen option in the majors. His heater gives him the upside of being a guy in the back-end of the bullpen.

Sanchez had thrown a few innings in the bigs with the Pirates in '07 and '08, but clearly they ran out of patience with him.  At 25, Sanchez is running out of time as a prospect, but he's definitely a piece.  Maybe he never finds his control and has a Jose Veras-esque career.  But maybe he turns into Ugueth Urbina. His spot on the 40 man gives him a shot at making the big league squad.

Southpaw Michael Dunn raised his profile with his Arizona Fall League performance.  He struck out a mindblowing 20 batters in 10.1IP.  The converted outfielder's mid-90s heat makes him trade bait, but if he can repeat his motion well enough to locate either the slider or the change consistantly, he could push his way into the bigs.  He'll be 25 next season, but like all lefties, if his arm is still attached to his shoulder he can have a career.

Finally, I'd forgotten Christian Garcia was still on the 40 man, because it seems he's spent most of his career on the 60-day DL.  He had elbow surgery for a bone spur in June.  Before that he hurt his knee while he was rehabing from Tommy John.  But look at his career numbers since the TJ surgery: 87.2IP, 83H, 42BB, 98K.  Control is always the last thing to come back, but the stuff that made him a third round draft pick is still there.  He'll only be 24 nexts season.  He comes with a lot of red flags, but I spend so much of the off-season saying 'if,' what's one more between friends?