BRADENTON -- The Bradenton Marauders are back.
The high Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates has the colors, the logo and the mascot.
Tuesday afternoon at Pirate City, team officials unveiled the most important part of the team -- the 25-man roster, which will be in action when the Marauders open their second season at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Port Charlotte.
The Marauders return to McKechnie Field on Friday for a 6:30 game with the Stone Crabs.
“I’m really excited about for this team,” new manager Carlos Garcia said. “This is a group of young men who want to make a career in this game, and they’re going to have a good one.
“The last four weeks, I’ve seen these guys work day in and day out trying to become big leaguers.”
There are some familiar faces among the group. Pitchers Nate Baker, Tyler Cox, Matt McSwain, Kyle McPherson, Hunter Strickland and Duke Welker along with infielder/outfielder Calvin Anderson and outfielder Robbie Grossman logged time last season with the Marauders.
Jason Erickson, Jeff Inman, Phillip Irwin, Quinton Miller, Eliecer Navarro and Jhonatan Ramos make up the rest of the pitching staff.
A first baseman last season who clubbed 11 home runs, Anderson will move to the outfield this season, with Aaron Baker taking his spot in the infield. Baker hit 18 home runs last year for the Pirates’ low-A team in West Virginia.
Kelson Brown, Jarek Cunningham, Benjamin Gonzalez, Elevys Gonzalez and Adalberto Santos round out the infield. Brown, who was taken by the Pirates in the 34th round of the 2010 draft, will forgo a stint in West Virginia after batting .293 in 62 games with the Pirates’ short-season affiliate in State College, Pa.
Grossman, who drew 66 walks and swiped 15 bases last year for the Marauders, will man the outfield along with David Rubinstein, Cole White and Evan Chambers.
Chambers is a Lakeland High School graduate and a Tampa resident. A third-round pick of the Pirates in 2009, Chambers hit .239 with 35 steals and 12 home runs last year with West Virginia.
“It’s a pretty nice area. I like Siesta (Key) and Sarasota. ... I hang out over there a lot,” Chambers said. “Bradenton’s a real quiet place just to kind of get away from everything else ... (McKechnie Field) is a real nice field.”
Ramon Cabrera and Carlos Paulino will do the catching. The Pirates acquired Paulino in an offseason trade with the Florida Marlins.
The Marauders won the Florida State League’s South Division last season, but the real success was in the development -- there are 14 Marauders on this year’s roster for the Pirates’ Double-A affiliate in Altoona. And Nathan Adcock, who won 11 games for Bradenton last year, made his major-league debut last week with the Kansas City Royals.
“Obviously we had a great season and championship season, by winning the second half. But minor league baseball is all about development and getting players to the next level,” said Trevor Gooby, the Pirates’ director of Florida operations. “A few of these guys, hopefully all of these guys ... are going to be big-leaguers one day. And it’s pretty awesome to say they started here in Bradenton.”
