Prior to tonight's start in Portland, the Thunder activated Manny Banuelos and catcher Myron Leslie from the Temporarily Inactive List and placed outfielder Damon Sublett and left-handed reliever Wilkins Arias on the Disabled List.

Banuelos was in Mexico to be with his sick grandmother. The reason for Leslie's TIE was unknown, but it could just have been a paper move with a backup catcher really not necessary over the first few games.

Sublett hasn't played at all this season, and Arias appeared in two games.

Before I hit the hay here in Tampa, here are a few stray photos from the day that was. Included in the mix: Robinson Cano laughing it up with past and future Thunder reliever Wilkins Arias, Mitch Abeita's bat, Yadil Mujica ready in the rain, Jeremy Bleich testing out that repaired labrum and Jake Anderson fielding grounders in the rain, with a few seagulls in the outfield.

Today marks the middle of a pretty light week, blog-wise. Sure, there was the Rafael Soriano press conference, but that was mostly it, and I really don't do the major leagues. Don't worry, though, I have a few surprises left in my bag of tricks, but you probably won't see those until next week.

For now, here are a few standouts from the Yankees class of Winter Leaguers:

1. Justin Christian: A lightning rod at the top of the Thunder lineup, Christian simply dominated with Los Caneros de los Mochis. He hit .356/.452/1.013 with 10 HRs, 32 RBIs and 24 stolen bases in 25 attempts. I guess that shoulder is fully healed now.

2. Jorge Vazquez: With his success, and the fact that Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez have placed a pretty solid block in front of him, maybe he should just return to the Mexican League and mash. He hit .346/.401/1.048 with 10 doubles, 10 longballs and 30 RBIs. Someone, however, decided it was wise for him to try to steal a base. They didn't make that mistake twice.

3. Wilkins Arias: That's right, when he wasn't causing massive labor stoppages, Wilkins Arias was dominating for Estrellas de Oriente, of the Dominican Winter League. The lefty, who takes great pride in luring reporters over to his card table for no apparent reason, put together quite an offseason for himself. In 17 appearances, Arias went 3-0 with a 3.21 ERA and 19 strikeouts against two walks over 14 innings.

4. Josh Schmidt: When he's with the Thunder, he's an oft-forgotten long man. When he's in Venezuela, however, he morphs into a pretty darn effective starter. With Aguilas de Zulia, Schmidt made 13 starts (14 appearances overall), allowed 52 hits and fanned 69 over 71 innings.

Good morning, everybody.

After a long night of sleep after a long day of travel back from Tampa (someone should have told me before I got up at 3:15 that the Tampa Airport gates don't open until 4:30), it's back to work.

Today's main goal will be acquiring and posting the roster. I know it's out there, it's just a matter of pestering the right sources long enough. This, fair readers, is what I will do for you.

Like I said on Saturday night, after confirming about two thirds of the roster, I expect the rest of the team to shake down this way:

C - Jose Gil
1B - Kevin Smith
SS - Walter Ibarra
IF - Luis Nunez
RP - Pat Venditte
RP - Grant Duff
RP - Phil Bartleski
RP - Adam Olbrychowski

That said, it wouldn't surprise me if Nunez or Ibarra were replaced by Marcos Vechionacci, or two of the relievers were replaced by Wilkins Arias and Noel Castillo, especially considering both of them spent the entire camp with the Double-A work group.

Until the roster comes out, however, here's a few more pics from the trip to tide you over (I took 524 pics down there, according to my camera). Clockwise from top, Ramiro Pena signing autographs, Andy Pettitte lounging in the bullpen, Justin Snyder talking things over with Jody Reed, and Tony Franklin throwing BP.

Once again, per the Thunder and Tim Lentych. Zach McAllister started in the Double-A work group today, probably because CC Sabathia started for the Triple-A work group. With that said, here are the results of today's loss.

PITCHERS
Zach McAllister: 3 2/3 innings, 2 runs
Lance Pendleton: 3 1/3 innings, 3 runs
Wilkins Arias: 2 innings, 0 runs

HITTERS
Austin Romine: Two singles
Brandon Laird: Two singles
Ray Kruml: Single, Triple, Run
Jeff Farnham: Single
Kevin Mahoney: RBI