By: Ken Lipshez
New Britain Herald Press

New Britain Rock Cats lefthander Errol Simonitsch has been diagnosed with
shoulder tendinitis and will remain at the Minnesota Twins' spring
training site in Fort Myers, Fla., for 10 days.

Simonitsch, a Double-A veteran who went 8-14 with a 4.48 ERA for New
Britain last year, was slotted in the second spot of manager Riccardo
Ingram's rotation for the season-opening Eastern League series against the
New Hamsphire Fisher Cats.

Ingram said Simonitsch's spot will be filled by lefthander Brian Duensing.
Nick Blackburn is slated to start in Thursday's opener. Righthander
Anthony Swarzak, the Twins' second-round choice in the June 2004 draft,
gets the nod in the series finale Saturday afternoon.

The Rock Cats are off Easter Sunday before traveling to Portland where
righthander Jesse Floyd will start the series opener Monday night. Ingram
remains undecided about Tuesday.

"We could bring Blackburn back because of the day off," Ingram said.
"We'll probably bring him back weather-permitting."

Righthander Brad Baker, a first-round pick for the Red Sox in 1999, could
get a start in the Portland series, although he's pitched exclusively out
of the bullpen the last three seasons.

"It depends on who gets the ball in relief and how deep our starters go,"
Ingram said.

Starters are limited to 75 pitches coming out of spring training, Ingram
said.

With Baker replacing Simonitsch on the active roster, the Rock Cats will
come north tosday with 11 pitchers and 13 position players.

Here is the team's opening-day roster:

PITCHERS - Brad Baker, Nick Blackburn, *Brian Duensing, Jesse Floyd,
*Brian Forystek, Tim Lahey, J.P. Martinez, *Jose Mijares, Danny Powers,
*Jay Sawatski, Anthony Swarzak.

CATCHERS - Korey Feiner, Kyle Geiger.

INFIELDERS - Brock Peterson (1B), Luke Hughes (2B), Felix Molina (2B/SS),
Trevor Plouffe (SS/2B), Brian Buscher (3B/1B), Dave Winfree (3B/1B).

OUTFIELDERS - Matt Allegra, Rashad Eldridge, Garrett Guzman, Brandon
Roberts.

* lefthanders

04/04/2007