MARION - Tony Roth is back at home.

After a three-week hiatus at shortstop, Roth is back at second base for the Southern Illinois Miners.

The brief switch to shortstop was necessitated by Gered Mochizuki signing with the New York Mets organization. Roth moved back to second base earlier this week when the Miners signed Pedro Lopez, who had been with the club in spring training.

"It kind of feels like going back to second base, it's an off day," Roth said. "The throw is shorter. It's like I'm back at home. At second base, I get to the point when I don't really have to think about what's going on because I'm so used to it."

Miners manager Mike Pinto said moving Roth to short until he could sign another shortstop was the obvious thing to do.

"Actually, he played short before he got here," Pinto said. "When he was in Evansville, he played short. We were the only place at the time he said he'd go and not play shortstop. He said he'd come here and play second because we had (Mike) Scanzano. Other than that, he wanted to play shortstop every day."

Before coming to Southern Illinois, Roth had played in the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers organizations. He played all four infield positions in his time with affiliated clubs.

While the two positions are different, Roth said the transition wasn't difficult.

"I don't have any preference at all," Roth said. "I'm in the middle of the infield, that's where I want to be. They both have different aspects about them that makes them fun to play.

"I think it's (shortstop) a little more physically demanding, you know a longer throw. You kind of have to be a little quicker and you have a lot of responsibilities over there. I think I handled those pretty well over those three weeks. It really wasn't too different."

Pinto said although Roth made a seamless transition to short, it was his goal to sign another shortstop.

"He's done an exceptional job," Pinto said. "Tony could play shortstop every day for anybody.

"The reason I moved him back to second base and really aggressively went after a shortstop is because over the course of a season I don't want to kill him. Tony is a phenomenal defensive second baseman and if I could get a good shortstop, I've got a guy who I can keep healthy."

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5088