Luis Sanchez, now at Pulaski, was drafted #34 by the Braves a year ago as a draft-and-follow out of Lake City Community College. He didn't sign with the Braves, went undrafted in 2006, and signed with the Blue Jays as a free agent.

-- MWE

Luke Hochevar will make his pro debut Wednesday for low Class A Burlington.

What are the rules on deactivating players on minor league rosters? Is there anything stopping a team from deactiving a pitcher right after his start, then re-activating him in time for his next start?

What are the rules on deactivating players on minor league rosters? Is there anything stopping a team from deactiving a pitcher right after his start, then re-activating him in time for his next start?

Technically, a player normally isn't "deactivated"; he's moved to another roster (usually a short-season or rookie roster). For example, on July 6, Chris George was "sent" to the GCL Marlins to make room for Jose Garcia, who came up from Carolina to make a spot start for Albuquerque. The following day, Garcia was returned to the Mudcats, and George "came back" from the GCL. George didn't really go anywhere; he was simply removed from the active roster for a day. He's been used in this fashion several times this year.

Some minor league teams, like Albuquerque, are very good about reporting moves. Some minor league teams, like almost every team in the FSL, are very bad about it. I can usually find out that a player has been deactivated by checking gameday files on MiLB's Web site, and can usually make a pretty good guess as to whether it's a DL move or just a deactivation. But not always.

-- MWE

What are the rules on deactivating players on minor league rosters? Is there anything stopping a team from deactiving a pitcher right after his start, then re-activating him in time for his next start?
I don't believe that there are - in fact, this happens from time to time.

Sanchez is a good field (.950 FA), no-hit (.271/.386/.316 in juco) guy.

So is there nothing stopping teams from "shuttling" guys back and forth from their lower affiliates (with the player never physically leaving the team) between starts to make room on the roster and circumvent the roster limit?

What Mike said.

So is there nothing stopping teams from "shuttling" guys back and forth from their lower affiliates (with the player never physically leaving the team) between starts to make room on the roster and circumvent the roster limit?

There are some limits. The lower minors have an "age and experience" limit; the NY-P and Northwest league teams, for example, may have no more than four players age 23 or older, and no more than three players on the active list with four or more years of experience.

But for the most part, teams don't try to get around roster limits in this fashion, in large part because most teams don't really HAVE enough players - especially pitchers - to go around. When it's used, it's almost always a short-term strategem.

-- MWE

Gotcha. Thanks Mike, you are a wonderful encyclopedia of the inner workings of minor league baseball.

I found out over the weekend that Ria Cortesio suffered a concussion and is reportedly through for the season. This is the second time she's had a concussion during her professional umpiring career.

-- MWE

Courtesy of shoewizard:

According to one of his teammates at Lancaster (a pitcher who posts on the Dbacks espn board, who shall remain unnamed for now), Carlos Gonzalez has been promoted to AA Tennessee. No official word yet, but he'll take over the spot that Mark Reynolds is freeing up...

Will Guthrie ever pitch well in the majors?
I know, ever is a long time