Third-year manager Nick Belmonte greeted about 25 players Monday morning in Derks Field for the first official Salt Lake Trapper practice of 1992. Sixteen players are under contract, including four returnees from the 1991 Pioneer League championship team. The rest are in camp on a tryout basis, including three others from last year's Trapper club.
Several more players are expected to arrive within the next day, and Belmonte hopes to have a fairly firm roster by late Thursday.Pitching, with eight contracts already signed and John Gilligan, Jim Guidi and Chris Shultea back from last year, seems the most solid position. That's more pitchers than the Traps usually have this early, and there are even three lefties, a Trapper rarity.
Belmonte and player-personnel boss Van Schley are high on catcher Randy Snyder (from the Milwaukee Brewers' Stockton California League team, a No. 2 draft choice from Washington State), shortstop Tim Rigsby (from the '91 Cleveland Indians' Carolina League farm club at Kinston) and returning Trapper second baseman Eddie Ortega (.382, seven errors in 37 games).
Current needs seem to be a regular third baseman and a utility infielder, though the staff seems high on third baseman Bill Vosik (from Cleveland's New York-Penn League team in Watertown). Belmonte thinks his outfield and first base positions are solid, but several of those players are late arrivals.
The Trappers begin defense of their crown June 17 in Butte, with the home opener June 20 against Idaho Falls. The Pioneer League season adds six games for '92, playing 76 total and going until Sept. 5 in the regular season.
The toughest thing to do, says Belmonte, will be to replace what he calls one of the best outfields in any Class A league last year - Rick Hirtensteiner, Benny Castillo and Theron Todd. Hirtensteiner has already progressed to Double A and is hitting .300, leading his team in average and RBI. Castillo, too, is doing well in the Florida State League (long-season A).
Belmonte and Schley have hopes that collegian Pookie Wilson, due in for a tryout today from Auburn-Montgomery, is as good as his coach told them. "The fans are going to like him," Belmonte guesses.
Belmonte expects two outfielders released by the Brewers, Tim Clark (.274 at Stockton) and Bobby Benjamin (.260 at Beloit of the Midwest League), yet to arrive, to be power hitters. So far, Ortega's the only sure contact hitter.