[tenthreeleader]

Rob learned how it was going to be early on in spring training. He had no say in the players assigned to Chattanooga.

It stood to reason that a number of players from last season’s co-champions would be coming back, but obviously others would not. His job was to play ball with what he had been given and to keep quiet.

Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade, Jake Cave, Wynston Sawyer and Brent Rooker were all assigned to the Lookouts and that gave Rob plenty of reason to smile. That was a solid start.

Gordon, a shortstop who was trying not to be overshadowed by the considerable presence of Royce Lewis a level beneath him, nearly made the parent club out of spring training, being one of the final cuts. But the brain trust decided he needed more seasoning and so the player who had started 122 games for the Lookouts the season before was back for more.

Wade was a good-hit, so-so-field prospect who played center field, a spot positively locked up by Byron Buxton at the big league level for the foreseeable future. But the kid could rake and he would be counted upon.

Cave was one to watch. Nabbed from the Yankees in a trade for Dominican righthander Luis Gil, he had spent the last two seasons bouncing between the Bombers’ AA team in Trenton and their AAA team in Scranton, hitting 20 home runs in 2017 in the process.

Sawyer had made it a bad day for incumbent catcher Brian Navarreto when he was grabbed out of the Dodgers’ system. A 6’3” catcher who could hit was an interesting idea, and though Navaretto was far superior defensively, he would have to move down the bench on most days to make way for the other fellow.

Rooker was one of the organization’s top prospects. At 6’3” and 215 pounds, he reminded Rob of himself, only an inch shorter. The words once used to describe former Miracle Met Donn Clendenon also applied to Rooker – he could strike out with flair or drive a baseball out of sight.

On the mound, Ferrnando Romero, Cody Stashak, Mason Melotakis, John Curtiss and Tyler Jay were expected to shine.

Romero was supposedly on the fast track to the big leagues. A three-pitch pitcher with an above-average fastball, he could confound hitters by dropping his arm angle and throwing sidearm, which could make righties screw themselves into the ground swinging at his curve ball.

Stashak was an interesting candidate. Clearly a starting pitcher candidate, he had started 16 games at Fort Myers in 2016 and compiled a 3.89 ERA with a 1.8 WAR in only 83 innings of work. Continued progression would surely get him noticed.

Melotakis is the kind of pitcher everyone wants but never seems to be able to develop. A 6’2” lefthander who tops out at 96 on the gun, when his fastball is on he can’t be touched at this level. However, his only other pitch is a curve, which means hitters can sit on one of them if they get ahead in the count. He’d be a project, and a candidate for either a changeup or a second breaking pitch.

Curtiss was very popular in Chattanooga, having pitched in 21 games, saving 13, for the team last season before earning six saves in 18 games at Rochester and earning a callup to Minnesota, where he found out that pitching to major league hitters is hard. Only 25, time is still on his side.

Jay had been the fellow pegged to be the closer out of spring training. Not as fast as Melotakis, he had a changeup and two breaking pitches, making him harder to hit. Amazingly, he earned two promotions – from rookie ball to high-A to AA – while only working 11 2/3 innings all season.

There were others, of course – but they will be introduced in due time. For now, though, the Lookouts had a season to start.

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