And Now...Your 2007 Visalia Oaks!

The Visalia Oaks replace the Lancaster JetHawks as the Hi-A affiliate for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The California league still favors hitters, but moving out of the bandbox in Lancaster should make it easier to evaluate Diamondbacks players at the Hi-A level.

The Oaks' roster closely resembles the roster of the playoff-bound 2006 South Bend Silver Hawks with a few notable exceptions.  Brandon Burgess remains in the California League after pacing it with 26 homers a year ago.  Top hitting prospect Cyle Hankerd looks to spend a full year at Hi-A after having made it his own in his fleeting stint there last season.  John Hester, after having trouble rising to the top of Stanford's catching depth chart, is flying through the Diaondbacks organization after a terrific professional debut.  Brooks Brown, Dallas Buck, Hector Ambriz, and Daniel Stange are among the pitchers drafted by the D'Backs last year that already find themselves at the Hi-A level.

But as it was in South Bend last season, all eyes in Visalia will be trained upon Justin Upton.  Most scouts anticipate better numbers out of the 18-year old last season.  Now a year older, Upton may again disappoint simply because his numbers will be dwarfed by others in a stacked Oaks lineup.  All in all, 13 of the players on the Oaks' opening day roster were ranked on the FutureBacks Top 50 Prospects list last November.

In addition to their 25-man roster, some guy named Randy Johnson showed up and pitched six solid innings on Sunday, April 8th.

No	Name	Pos	Bat	Thw	Ht	Wt	DOB
23	Hector Ambriz	SP	L	R	6-1	210	5/24/1984
33	Vince Bongiovanni	RP	R	R	6-5	215	1/11/1983
34	Brooks Brown	SP	L	R	6-3	205	6/20/1985
12	Derek Bruce	SS	R	R	6-2	190	8/3/1982
20	Dallas Buck	SP	R	R	6-2	195	11/11/1984
30	Brandon Burgess	OF	B	R	6-4	225	2/24/1983
7	Bryan Byrne	1B	L	R	6-3	200	4/30/1984
2	Pedro Ciriaco	SS	R	R	6-0	150	9/27/1985
13	Forrest Cory	RP	R	L	6-3	205	10/13/1983
27	Anthony Cupps	SP	R	R	6-3	200	5/31/1983
37	Ryan Doherty	RP	R	R	7-1	255	2/2/1984
21	Cody Evans	P	R	R	6-5	190	9/3/1983
22	Hipolito Guerrero	RP	L	L	6-0	150	6/13/1983
5	Cyle Hankerd	LF	R	R	6-3.5	180	1/24/1985
35	John Hester	C	R	R	6-4	210	9/14/1983
19	Orlando Mercado	C	R	R	5-10	215	3/13/1985
25	Jereme Milons	OF	R	R	6-2	205	2/5/1983
40	Daniel Pohlman	RP	R	R	6-1	215	1/1/1982
8	Rusty Ryal	3B	R	R	6-2	195	3/16/1983
26	Leyson Septimo	RF	L	L	6-0	150	7/7/1985
17	Daniel Stange	RP	R	R	6-3	185	12/22/1985
4	Greg Thomson	CF	L	L	6-1	205	6/13/1984
31	Matt Torra	SP	R	R	6-3	225	6/29/1984
9	Justin Upton	CF	R	R	6-1	195	8/25/1987
15	Kyle Wright	SP	R	R	6-3	170	4/27/1983
No	Name	Pos	Bat	Thw	Ht	Wt	DOB

Current Roster with College and Birthplace info