With his sights set on a West Coast League championship, Raptors head coach Chris Cota went to work on assembling a roster that could withstand the rigors of a professionally modeled playing schedule. Having been through the inaugural Raptors season in 2019, Cota honed in on ways to build a roster that would be filled with quality young men who would compete throughout a long summer. “You don’t need to be around this league long to realize that pitching will take you where you want to go. Having quality starters is a given, but keeping a fully loaded bullpen of quality arms is really the key to success, given the volume and frequency of our playing schedule”. Cota loaded up on talented arms who could fill a variety of roles as either starting, or relief pitchers. The roster offered geographical diversity with players coming from some 27 different colleges and universities.
Another focus of the roster was the Raptors Southwest Washington roots. “We always want to remember where and why we play. I was thrilled to be able to fill nearly 1/3 of our roster with players from in and around the area. It’s no secret that the Vancouver area is talent rich when it comes to baseball, and this year would have been no exception. When appropriate, we always want to provide top college talent in the area an opportunity to showcase in front of our home crowd.”
While the Raptors coaches and staff are disappointed to not be playing this summer, we are still thankful to the young men who were on the roster, many of whom we hope to see in a Raptors uniform at the RORC in 2021.