Odds and Ends

Brett has this story at RattlersReport.com

Rattlers go through growing pains
Despite entering the year with high hopes, the Rattlers have sputtered throughout the first month of the season, dipping to 4-17 following Tuesday's 10-4 Midwest League loss to Dayton at Fox Cities Stadium.

That record is the second worst among the league's 14 teams and has them trailing Western Division leader Cedar Rapids by eight games. It's also the worst among the Seattle Mariners' four full-season affiliates.

It's not the expected course taken for a group considered by some within the Seattle organization to be a championship contender coming out of spring training.

"I think we really felt we were going to have a good club here," said Mariners special assignment coach Norm Charlton, a former big league pitcher who was in town to catch the first five games of the current eight-game homestand.

"But what you're seeing happening early shows our age. I think, down the stretch, as these young players get more accustomed to playing and our pitchers understand the game more, I think you're going to see this be a better club."

Steve Batterson of the QC Times goes Around the Midwest League. Items include Lance Parrish finally making it to Clinton; Fort Wayne's new stadium, and the game ending call against the Rattlers on Monday night.

Anything I find that references the College of Coaches gets a link. Like this story at PJStar.com on Cub roving instructors arriving in Peoria.

Ryan Feierabend (WI '02) was the subject of yesterday's M's Farm Report in the Seattle Times.

Dave at USS Mariner udpated his Future Forty and there was this about the Rattlers.

In other good news, Carlos Triunfel has a .684 OPS for Wisconsin. No, seriously, that’s good news. As a 17-year-old playing in the Midwest League, the bar for what would be considered a successful statistical season is very low. The MWL is death to hitters of any age - the league average for MWL hitters is .245/.313/.350. That’s the league as a whole. Triunfel, who is seventeen years old, is hitting .298/.333/.351. Yea, he’s basically all singles at this point, with only 3 doubles and 2 walks to his credit, but keep in mind, there have been 12 home runs hit in the 19 T’Rats games this year. That’s 12 home runs by both teams combined. The Midwest League is death to hitters, especially in April, and Triunfel is essentially hitting .300 in what would be his junior year in high school. This kid is really, really good.

Also, while we’re in Wisconsin, can I just point out that the T’Rats as a team have a 26/185 walk to strikeout rate. That’s ridiculous, even for a low-A ball team. Alex Liddi is the only guy on the team with any remblance of an idea of how to work the count, drawing 8 walks by himself. The next highest guy on the team is Kuo-Hui Lo with 3. Greg Halman is continuing to run up obscene BB/K rates, drawing 1 walk against 27 strikeouts in 76 at-bats. The offense is full of young kids who have been pushed aggressively to full season ball, so some degree of hackishness is expected, but 26 walks and 185 strikeouts? Can we get a roving hitting instructor down there, please?

Sticking with the Wisconsin theme, Chris Tillman is featuring his four seam fastball more this year and his command has taken a pretty big step forward. Meanwhile, Tony Butler’s been unable to find the feel for any of his pitches, and has walked 14 batters in 14 innings. I still prefer Butler’s overall package, and I’m not worried about the walks at this point. His command will come around, and when it does, his combination two-seamer and curveball are going to be lethal. There’s just a lot of upside there.