Grapefruit Diet

Ah, Spring Training is upon us! Finally!

The full squad reported on Sunday (except for one minor leaguer who is apparently missing in Venezuela. Yikes!), and the race is on to turn a 40-man roster and a huddle of non-roster invitees into a contending team. I'll break down the battles for the open spots in future posts, but for now, let's just look at who's in the mix:

* - non-roster invitee

Pitchers	Catchers	Outfielders
Scott Baker	Rob Bowen	Michael Cuddyer
Ricky Barrett *	Kyle Geiger *	Lew Ford
Boof Bonser	Chris Heintz	Torii Hunter
Jesse Crain	Joe Mauer	Jason Kubel
J.D. Durbin	Kyle Phillips *	Jason Pridie
Willie Eyre	Mike Redmond	Josh Rabe *
Dave Gassner	Shawn Wooten *	Tim Raines *
Ryan Glynn *		Alex Romero
Matt Guerrier	Infielders	Denard Span *
Adam Harben	Jason Bartlett	Shannon Stewart
Justin Jones	Tony Batista	Andres Torres *
Francisco Liriano	Luis Castillo	Jason Tyner *
Kyle Lohse	Juan Castro
Darrell May *	Jason Hart *	Designated Hitters
Jose Mijares	Garrett Jones	Rondell White
Pete Munro *	Luis Maza *	Ruben Sierra *
Joe Nathan	Justin Morneau
Pat Neshek	Nick Punto
Glen Perkins *	Luis Rodriguez
Brad Radke	Terry Tiffee
Dennys Reyes *	Tommy Watkins *
Juan Rincon	Glenn Williams *
Johan Santana
Carlos Silva
Errol Simonitsch
Gabe White *

And the guys who are pretty much a lock for the final roster:

Pitchers	Catchers	Outfielders
Jesse Crain	Joe Mauer	Michael Cuddyer
Matt Guerrier	Mike Redmond	Lew Ford
Kyle Lohse		Torii Hunter
Joe Nathan	Infielders	Shannon Stewart
Brad Radke	Jason Bartlett
Juan Rincon	Tony Batista	Designated Hitters
Johan Santana	Luis Castillo	Rondell White
Carlos Silva	Juan Castro
	Justin Morneau
	Nick Punto

That's 21, right there. The rest of those guys will be fighting for spots as: a starting pitcher, a lefthanded reliever, a reliever, and a reserve outfielder/pinch hitter/bench rider.

Who's got the edge? More on that another day.