[jksander]

March 10, 1947: Spring training officially begins today, and though we’ve signed many great players this offseason, a reminder of our previous doormat status is that we’ve only got 34 players on our 40-man and do not have any intention of inviting more to the party this spring. The good thing is that we won’t have to deny players their playing time to prove their worth -- when we cut our rosters down to 25 in a few weeks, we’ll know we have our best players on the field ready to get this team out of the American League basement.

Here’s our spring training roster:

Lineup
C - Joe Schultz, Frank Mancuso, Les Moss
1B - Wally Judnich*
2B - Jackie Robinson, Johnny Berardino, Ellis Clary, Johnny Lucadello, Ben Steiner
3B - Vern Stephens, Bob Dillinger
SS - Arky Vaughn**
LF - Phil Cavarretta, Joe Grace, Paul Lehner, Don Lenhart, Glenn McQuillen, Mayo Smith, Dick Whitman
CF - Harry Walker, Tommy Glaviano, Jerry Witte
RF - Wally Moses, Al Zarilla

* 3B Bob Dillinger and LF Joe Grace will be playing for a chance to back him up out of position
** 2B Ellis Clary will be playing to most likely be his primary backup at short.

Starters
L Diomedes Olivo
R Dutch Leonard
R Jack Kramer
R Bob Moncrief
R Fred Sanford
L Tom Seats

Bullpen
L Sam Zoldak (MR)
R Al Jurisich (MR)
R Ned Garner (LR)
L Stan Ferens (LR)

Of our many left fielders competing, it’s going to be a matter of who gets to stay up and be a potential pinch hitter, and who is not major league ready at all (McQuillen and Smith in particular are playing for their very baseball future, as if they don’t make the team, they’re likely trade bait at best.

We’ll play thirty exhibition games starting today against Washington and ending on April 10th against the Yankees. Official opening day is April 14th, but we’ll open our season with a three-game home series against the Tigers April 15-17.