Several familiar faces made their way onto the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees preliminary Opening Day roster, led by pitchers Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Hughes, who despite everything he’s gone through still doesn’t turn 23 until late June, and Kennedy, will be joined by several top prospects from the Yankees farm system on the SWB roster. From the pitching staff, Alfredo Aceves (No. 7 on Baseball America’s Top 30 list), Mark Melancon (No. 9), David Robertson (No. 15), Anthony Claggett (No. 26) and Steven Jackson (No. 29) all will join Hughes and Kennedy on the roster.

SWB has only two position players in the Yankees’ top 30. The first is no slouch, as the organization’s top prospect, Austin Jackson, will be manning center for SWB in 2009. The other, Juan Miranda (No. 20), will be in his second season at first base in Triple-A. Along with Jackson, some other players who Yankee fans should keep an eye on are Kevin Russo, a potential utility infielder call-up later on this season, and Angel Berroa, another middle infielder who was the AL Rookie of the Year with Kansas City in 2003 (and, incidentally, was traded to Kansas City from Oakland in 2000 as part of a trade that landed Johnny Damon with the Athletics).