Just 40 days to go until Opening Day, and fortunately in baseball, we have a great designation. It’s called the 40-man roster.

From Wikipedia: The 40-man roster comprises all of the players on the 25-man roster, plus anyone who is on the 15-day disabled list, and contracted players on “optional assignment” in the minor leagues.

The important difference between the 25-man roster and 40-man roster is obviously that the 25-man roster members are the active players on gameday. The others are either in the minors or on the disabled list.

But what then is the importance of the 40-man roster? It comes later in the calendar year. Players, after being drafted, have three or four years of exemption (depending on if they were drafted out of college or high school / signed as a free agent). After that period, if they are not on the 40-man roster, they are eligible to be selected in the Rule-5 Draft at the Winter Meetings. It was through this process the Phillies acquired Shane Victorino.

The BlueClaws have several former players (13) on the 40-man roster of the Phillies, including recent additions Joel Naughton, Sergio Escalona and Drew Naylor. Ex-BlueClaws on other rosters include Gavin Floyd (White Sox), Matt Maloney (Reds) and Josh Outman (A’s).

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am and is filed under 70 in 70, General Baseball, Past BlueClaws, Phillies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.