Charm City 2061.13 - Jimmies Promote 6 including Michels

[DaveB]

The rosters expanded for the BBA and the Jimmies announced the promotions of 6 players. Those players being Antonio Michels, Alonso Gonzalez, Dorian Tzannetakis, Evgeny Partyka, Jose Villa, and Jorge Aguilera. The biggest surprise among the group was starting pitching prospect Antonio Michels. It's not uncommon for teams to promote prospects or players who are already on the 40 man roster back to the majors when the rosters expand. The reason the promotion was seen as a bit of a surprise was because Michels isn't seen by anyone as one of the top 30 prospects in the Charm City organization and isn't on the 40 man roster.

We asked Assistant GM Chris Bennett about the promotion and here's what he had to say "You know Antonio has a solid pedigree. He was our 2nd rounder back in 2058. He has slowly worked his way up the ladder and was performing well in his second year in AAA. He posted a solid 3.37 ERA in 144.1 innings of work and was down there and we wanted to reward him for a solid year. We're putting him in the rotation because we'd like to see what we have with him going into next season. Some players take the next step when they're challenged, and we want to see if Michels is one of those players. We're also curious to see what we have with him. Can he be a starter in the bigs? Is he better suited for a relief role? Is he more of a depth piece? We really don't know. I'm hoping the 3-4 game sample that we get from him down the stretch can answer some of those questions You also have to realize that going into next season barring what we decide to do with the roster we might have some battles for the long inning reliever/spot starter role. We'd also like to have some depth in AAA in case of an injury. If Michels can show something during the last month it might put him in the running for a big league start next season or at least allow us to relax by knowing we have a guy who can step into the rotation and not kill our season if he performs."

Amongst other players called up the team expects Gonzalez to work as a LOOGY out of the pen down the stretch, Tzannetakis to work in the long inning relief role, Villa as a reserve infielder, and Aguilera to bounce around. The other notable name promoted was Partyka. It was expected by some to see him to the steps needed to move into the Charm City bullpen full time this season, but he was caught up in a numbers crunch. The organization is happy with the progress he's made hitting his spots as his walks have been down in AAA this year. Partyka is expected to battle in the spring for a bullpen slot next year.