The Lakeland Flying Tigers open the season in Tampa on Friday. Here’s a preview of the Flying Tigers Opening Day roster, as they are boosting a relative young pitching staff.
Lakeland Pitchers
The pitching staff for the Lakeland Flying Tigers is, compared to the rest of the system, not the most prospect heavy as far as names go. But there are a few names that are returning to the staff. The first arm to remember is right-hander Carlos Marcano. He is the youngest to make his Low-A debut since Joel Zumaya in 2003. He features a fastball that has some good riding action and a curveball with good darting action against righties.
Wait for it. Carlos Marcano’s pitch at 2-2 before he gets that double play. Keep in mind he doesn’t turn 19 until July. pic.twitter.com/EPGMvCk8WU
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) April 13, 2022
Erick Rodriguez, another reliever that was with Lakeland last season, returns. He features a fastball that sits 91-94 and a short slider that sits around 82-84. The rest of the staff features several picks from the 2021 and 2022 draft. Among them, is Aaron Haase, who has one of the highest spin sliders in the system. The list of pitchers is below, including links to videos for each one that we were able to locate.
RHP Ulices Campos
RHP Marco Jimenez-video
RHP Jose Diaz-video
LHP Eduardo Ibarra
RHP Carlos Marcano-video
RHP Troy Melton-video
LHP Jake Miller-video
RHP Patrick Pridgen-video
RHP Erick Rodriguez-video
RHP Garrett Apker-video
RHP Cam Brown-video
RHP Max Alba-video
RHP Gregoris Chalas
RHP Aaron Haase-video
RHP Trevin Michael-video
RHP Cole Patten-video
LHP Cleiverth Perez-video
LHP Chris Williams Jr- (video)
Lakeland Tigers Positional Players.Â
On the offensive side, the Lakeland Flying Tigers will have some of the more well known names among prospects list. 2022 2nd round draft pick Peyton Graham was playing short in Lakeland, but it appears he will be starting the season at 3rd. Manuel Sequera, who led the FSL in home runs, is projected to start at short. Cristian Santana, who looks better defensively at second than he did at short, appears to be the Opening Day second baseman for Lakeland. Both Graham and Santana will be ones to watch early on. Both of them could earn a quick promotion to West Michigan early on.
Cristian Santana leads off the game with a 390-foot blast for Lakeland. It’s his 5th home run of the season. pic.twitter.com/PYoH2dfNfa
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) July 30, 2022
https://twitter.com/Tiger_Lifer/status/1560059347157368833?s=20
Rounding out the rest of the infield is Andrew Jenkins, who looks to be starting at first, Luke Gold and Adinso Reyes. In the outfield, Jose De La Cruz, Dom Johnson, who saw sometime in spring training with the Tigers, Carlos Pelegrin and Seth Stephenson. All the infielders and outfielders all bat right-handed. In fact, the only player on the roster who can hit from the left side is catcher Mike Rothenberg, who is a switch-hitter. Sergio Tapia and Moises Valero are both new to Lakeland, coming up from rookie ball. They were both international signings from the summer of 2019.
Jerry McKennan