A Premature(ish) Opening Day Optimization

I thought it would be a nice change from breaking down random relief pitchers to actually post what I feel the “best” way for the Padres to break camp is.

So here’s my 25-man roster, broken down by position, for Opening Day.

A couple quick notes: I only used players from the 40-man (so no Matt Stairs) on the list. Also, I’m not including analysis in this post–I’ll explain my decisions in my next post.

I encourage commenting and posting alternatives–it’d be very interesting to hear what others come up with.

BATTERS:

C–Yorvit Torrealba, Nick Hundley (backup)
1B–Adrian Gonzalez, Oscar Salazar (backup)
2B–David Eckstein, Jerry Hairston Jr. (backup)
3B–Chase Headley
SS–Everth Cabrera
LF–Kyle Blanks
CF–Tony Gwynn Jr., Scott Hairston (platoon)
RF–Will Venable, Aaron Cunningham (platoon)

PITCHERS:

Rotation

RHP Chris Young
RHP Jon Garland
RHP Kevin Correia
RHP Mat Latos
RHP Sean Gallagher

Bullpen

RHP Heath Bell (closer)
RHP Mike Adams (primary setup)
RHP Luke Gregerson (secondary setup)
RHP Ed Mujica (middle relief)
LHP Joe Thatcher (lefty specialist/setup/middle relief)
LHP Aaron Poreda (second lefty specialist/long relief)
RHP Adam Russell (long relief)