40 Man Rosters, Opening Day: All-Selected Team 2013

UPDATE: I read somewhere that the great Persian weavers would always incorporate an intentional imperfection into their finest rugs, because they felt that no one should be perfect except God. While I never went in for such blatant narcissism (it is of course implied that they could reach a level of divine perfection if they chose to do so), I always keep this practice in mind whenever I discover a mistake in a piece of work I've produced. Because whether it's a segment of a power hour that's cut a little too abruptly or a key player left off a hypothetical lineup, it's true that anything we mortals attempt will fall short of perfection.

Which is why I never shy away from admitting my mistakes, at least when nobody is negatively affected by them. And the fact that I completely overlooked Lyle Overbay's call-up to play first base for the Yankees in Mark Teixeira's absence doesn't impact anybody's real or fantasy lives -- not even Lyle Overbay's, since he wouldn't have surpassed Kotchman or Duncan in the depth chart at 1B or DH. I also blatantly misrepresented Miguel Tejada's player ranking: 325 actually belongs to Mets SS Ruben Tejada, who will be playing every day. Miguel Tejada on the other hand should be a much more reasonable 718, which is still good enough for him to keep his position on the list, but I felt like admitting my mistake was the right thing to do. While I'm on the subject of my shortcomings, I also still haven't seen A League of Their Own yet. But if it's any consolation, I use Randy Newman's theme song from The Natural as my alarm to wake up each morning...

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The 40 Man Roster. Each Major League Baseball club has one. It's the list of players on each team that are either currently in or closest to playing in the big leagues. If the name sounds a bit chauvinistic, that's only because women aren't allowed to play Major League Baseball. At least not since Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna tried it out in A League of Their Own (one of the few iconic baseball movies I still haven't seen).

Rick Ankiel is on HOU's 40 Man Roster.

Of the players on the 40 Man, 25 of them are also on the Active Roster, which means they suit up for the big club every day and are eligible to play in major league games. The rest (up to but not to exceed 15) are deemed Inactive, which can mean one of two things. Either they play for their respective minor league teams, but can be called up to the majors at any time, or they are injured and on the 15-day (or newish concussion-related 7-day) disabled list. Players on the more severe 60-day DL and players on the Restricted List (i.e. serving a suspension) do not count against a team's 40 Man Roster.

As you could expect, there's not a lot of movement within each team's 40 Man Rosters during the season. Generally a player gets injured or struggles and is sent down (optioned), and another player is brought up (recalled) to replace him. In these cases, the faces and the numbers generally stay the same - only the labels change. The main period of roster upheaval takes place in the days immediately leading up to the start of the season, when teams are scrambling to call up those last minute minor leaguers to fill in the final roster spots. In the weeks past, I've been keeping track of roster moves across all MLB, cuz that's how I roll, and now that every team has gotten down to the requisite 25 and 40, I can start making some observations about the final rosters. Today's observation comes in the form of a hypothetical lineup I put together from players who meet a certain criteria: the All-MLB All-Selected Team.

When a team wants to add a minor leaguer to its major league roster, the team "selects the contract" of that player. All of the above players had their contracts selected prior to the 2013 season. Most of these players made their way into the organization on minor league deals signed during the off-season that included invitations to Spring Training, and many of those so-called non-roster invitees were profiled in my All-NRI Team earlier in the off-season. Notable exceptions to this rule include a trio of ranked prospects. Baseball America's #5 prospect Jose Fernandez earned an unexpected spot in Miami's dismal rotation when Nathan Eovaldi and Henderson Alvarez both went down with shoulder inflammation in the last week before the season. Jedd Gyorko (MLB's #50 prospect, although he's just #71 according to B.A.) won the starting second base job with the Padres (and a corresponding bench spot on one of my two fantasy teams this year). And don't forget Jackie Bradley Jr. (even though it does not appear that Jackie Bradley Sr. was a baseball player with whom we might get him confused), B.A.'s #31 prospect who was put in a position for an early run at the Rookie of the Year award by the Red Sox.

But now back to my All-NRI Lineup. Some of the players on that list have since been released: a couple of those players then turned around and sign major league deals (Yunieski Betancourt, Miguel Olivo), two more of them were content to sign other minor league deals (Freddy Garcia, Matt Capps), and some are still unemployed (Juan Rivera, Rod Barajas, Ryan Sweeney, Aaron Cook). But others earn roster spots with the team that invited them, and those are the ones that follow. Casey Kotchman earned the Marlins starting first base job in place of the outspoken Logan Morrison, who I'm starting to doubt will ever make that transition from OF to 1B because he just can't stay on the field long enough. Cody Ransom holds on to the SS spot, even though he will spend most of his time in reality (TIR) at third base for the Padres until either a) Chase Headley or b) Logan Forsythe return. Shelley Duncan will likely get some Rays at bats with Luke Scott's recent trip to the DL.

Now for the new appearances: players who made their teams, but weren't deemed important enough by me to be included on my previous list from more than a month ago. That's alright, I don't mind admitting my oversights, rare though they admittedly may be. The first one I'll mention, the highest-ranked non-prospect in the lineup, is Miguel Tejada, whose role on the WBC champion Dominican Republic team likely played no small part in his winning the utility infield spot for the Royals. I admittedly didn't give Rick Ankiel enough credit back in February, but he has already made an impact with the transitioning Astros in the big #OpeningDay game (above). Tejada's former pre-Moneyball A's teammate Jason Giambi makes the team as an honorable All-DL mention for the Indians, as does post-Moneyball former Athletic Brandon Inge with the Pirates. It was not such a good time for yet another former Oaklander Ramon Hernandez, who was designated for assignment (read: removed from the 40-man roster, upon threat of waivers, trade, or releasitude) despite the $3.2 million Colorado is paying him in the last year of his 2year deal, in favor of former Rockie Yorvit Torrealba as the backup catcher. And veteran Marlon Byrd won a spot in the highly-contested (read: absolutely terrible) Mets outfield, but it was his teammate via trade Collin Cowgill (a trade with the Oakland Athletics, no less) who claimed the opening day heroics in New York.

On the mound, two of the four top-ranked pitchers, according to MLB, featured in Sunday's opening day extravaganza, but both out of the bullpen. The only pitcher ranked within the top 500, and considered a lock to make the Astros' starting rotation, Erik Bedard curiously entered the game in relief and earned a 1980's style save - the one you get for pitching 3+ innings rather than just the ninth with a three-run lead. Let's hope they're not trying to convert him like they did Brett Myers last year: in addition to lowering his potential trade value, it bugs me to see pitchers who could start coming out of the bullpen, unless the team is stacked with good (or at least better) starters. Derek Lowe finds himself in that very situation in another part of Texas, and his night out of the bullpen ended in the polar opposite as Bedard's. The other two ranked pitchers (Scott Atchison and LaTroy Hawkins) are both relievers and are both with the Mets, which tells you how much confidence MLB.com has in New York's pitching staff. Jonathan Sanchez is there despite his horrible 2012 because he has had the better MLB career than anyone else on the list, and I chose to round out the rotation with Gonzalez and Volstad just because they were the only other two starters to reach the majors last year. Bonus historical honorable mention goes out to reliever Rich Hill, the first NRI to be called up to the big club in the 2012-13 off-season.

So those are the best players who burst into the majors this year at the last minute from barely atop the minor league bubble. I choose to dedicate the 2013 baseball season's first post to them because everyone's heard of the top ranked players in the game and they're not generally involved in too many roster moves. Here's to the movers and the shakers, and here's hoping they stick with their big clubs and are allowed to play this children's game a little while longer.