two more rosters

Cotuit and Orleans have released their early rosters in the last few days, which means we’ve now gotten a look at half the rosters in the league. Still waiting on Falmouth, Yarmouth-Dennis, Harwich, Chatham and Brewster.

The biggest thing that stands out from these last two: Cotuit’s freshmen. They’ve got some serious talent, rivaling that of Wareham’s freshmen crop last year. Of course, a lot of those freshmen never made it to Wareham, so we’ll see how this plays out.

Some first impressions:

Cotuit

• Kevin Patterson, Seth Blair, Brandon Cumpton and Drew Storen are the returning players. I’d rank Patterson and Blair among the top 10 freshmen in the league this year, and I think, at this point, you could call Patterson the top returning hitter in the league.

• Ricky Hague should be a a familiar name. The Rice shortstop was on Wareham’s roster last year before getting invited to Team USA. Because of an injury, he ended up back home for the summer.

• Over the years, Wareham has had the market cornered on players from the University of Texas, but Cotuit has grabbed a few Longhorns for 2009, and they’re good ones. Chance Ruffin was one of the top freshman pitchers in the nation, while outfielder Cameron Rupp was named the top prospect in the California Collegiate League this summer. Catcher Kevin Keyeswas third on the same list.

• Cotuit had Robbie Shields from Division II Florida Southern this year, and they’ve gone to the well again for pitchers Daniel Tillman and Max Russell. Tillman was PG Crosschecker’s top prospect in the Clark Griffith League this year.

• And now to the freshmen. Righty Gerritt Cole heads to UCLA as the first unsigned first-round pick to go to college in quite some time. So, he’ll also be the first unsigned first-round pick to play on the Cape in quite some time. Vanderbilt righty Sonny Gray was thought of as a first-round talent as well. Fellow Vandy recruit Navery Moore was pegged as the top pitcher in his class before an injury his junior year of high school. UC-Santa Barbara pitcher Chris Joyce was a 10th-round pick and played in the Cal Collegiate League this summer, where he was named the fifth-best prospect. Arkansas 3B/P Zach Cox was a 20th-round pick, but he’s another guy who many thought would go higher.

Orleans

• The Cardinals (?) currently have eight players slated to come back, led by Cal-State Fullerton’s Gary Brown, UCLA’s Rob Rasmussen and Loyola-Marymount’s Martin Viramontes, who was an all-star this summer. The list also includes three players who will be juniors: Florida’s Hampton Tignor (who, if he comes to the Cape, would be playing his third summer with Orleans), Nevada’s Shaun Kort and Duke’s Alex Hassan. North Carolina’s Rob Catapano, who pitched for Orleans in ’07 but not ’08, is also on the roster.

• In all, there are 10 juniors on the roster, which is a really high number.

• Long Beach State shortstop Devin Lohman played briefly for Chatham this summer before an injury sent him home. He’s a player to watch.

• Georgia Tech pitcher Deck McGuire is coming off a huge summer. After serving as a mid-week starter his freshman year, he headed to the Coastal Plain League, where he went 7-0 with a 1.28 ERA. He was named the league’s top prospect by Baseball America.

• There are only three freshmen on the roster, but they look three real good ones. Fresno State pitcher Josh Poytress was a 16th-round pick in June, Arizona’s Donnie Roach was a 27th-round pick and Arizona State’s Riccio Torrez went in the 32nd round.

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