Non-Roster Invitees

With Spring Training around the corner, many teams have released their non-roster invitees to the Big League Camp.

Everyone listed on the 40-man roster goes to the Big League Camp, along with a number of prospects that have a shot of a call up during the 2009 season.

A lot of catchers are always invited, for the Angels I have seen most of the catchers and I am most impressed (on the non-roster side) with Ben Johnson. They call him BJ. His hard work ethic is evident and he has a silent demeanor about him. I enjoyed his humility, which is rare for a professional athlete.

Angel de los Santos is supposed to be a guy to keep an eye on. I've heard good thing but I haven't seen him yet. I imagine that he will be up to triple-A this season.

As far as pitchers are concerned, I'm pretty suprised that Matt Wilhite was invited. He had a rough season last year. His side-arm style makes him unique, but I didn't see it as super effective.

Pav is up for the Big League Camp this year. He had an amazing year this past season so I'm glad he'll get a look.

Brad Coon is going up for and so is Peter Bourjos for the outfielders. Bourjos was called up to triple-A at the end of last year but I never saw him take a cut outside of BP. He had 50 stolen bases at single-A Rancho Cucamonga. Baseball America named him the Angels top position playing prospect.

Jordan Walden will be up at the Big League Camp this year. At 6'5 and 220 he is a big guy, and can do some real damage. I've heard scouts talk about them and most are pretty excited to see him progress, but nothing compared to the way they talk about other pitching prospects.

Walden's young though, so we'll see what happens.