Around the MWL: 4/7/10

A couple of stories on the first opponent:

Young and restless: Cougars ready to go

Youth will be served.

With some fava beans and a nice chianti?

If the Kane County Cougars were looking for a team motto for the 2010 season, that might be a good place to start. As usual, the roster is littered with new faces -- 17 in all, but with five of those players 20 or younger, it is the youngest team assembled since the Cougars became an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics prior to the 2004 season.

Kane County Cougars get a leg up

Kane County Cougars infielder Conner Crumbliss prevented at least one media day disaster with a textbook execution of etiquette on Tuesday afternoon.

Asked by rookie outfielder Rashun Dixon whether he smiled for each camera assembled, the veteran of 15 Midwest League games turned and answered simply.

“Yeah,” Crumbliss said. “You have to.”

Well, you don't have to.

Fort Wayne TinCaps fans expecting another 100 win season might not like this headline.

TinCaps temper expectations

The familiar names of the franchise’s most magical season; names that were just as unfamiliar then – Tekotte, Carroll, Dykstra, Decker, Cumberland – have all moved on, and taking their places are Nate Freiman, Edinson Rincon, Wande Olabisi and Everett Williams.

The 2009 Midwest League season in Fort Wayne wasn’t just a summer of love; it was a happening, if not an awakening of a city’s spirit.

Last year’s TinCaps didn’t just win the league championship; they stepped on it, grabbed it by the throat with a 10-game winning streak to begin the season, and never let go, winning an unheard of 101 games, setting 16 franchise records and ending it all by being selected as the MiLB.com Team of the Year.

All very nice, first-year manager Jose Flores says inside the same office where last year’s manager, Doug Dascenzo, held court. Glad the town enjoyed it.

“It’s up to me to let (the players) know there’s a difference this year,” said Flores, who is coming off a two-year, 61-51 stint with the Padres’ rookie team in Arizona. “We’re not going to duplicate what they did last year; it’s almost impossible. With the team they had last year, they were put together to win. It was a great team from top to bottom. That’s one of the things I’ll mention here in my team meeting later on (Tuesday) evening about the expectations that I have. … As everybody knows, we’re a real young team, and there’s going to be a lot of learning as we go on with this team.”

And in the QC...

Bandits revise tandem system

When the Quad-Cities opens its Midwest League schedule Thursday at Burlington, River Bandits pitchers will be part of a modified tandem starter system.

Unlike recent seasons when as many as 10 Quad-Cities pitchers were put into two-pitcher tandems who rotate between starts and relief appearances, this year's rotation has a different look.

There still will be three tandems that rotate roles every fifth day, but pitchers on the second and fourth days will find themselves in a more traditional starting role.

"It's a bit different, but I think it is an arrangement that will work well for the pitchers on this staff," River Bandits pitching coach Tim Leveque said. "I'm excited about seeing it how it plays out."

Scott Schneider and Deryk Hooker form the tandem that takes the mound in Thursday's 6:30 p.m. opener against the Bees, who will counter with a tandem of their own.

Eric Fornataro, who is scheduled to start Friday at Burlington, and Shelby Miller, the scheduled starter for Sunday's 1 p.m. home opener against Cedar Rapids, will fill traditional starting roles.

Jorge Rondon and Michael Blazek will form a tandem scheduled to pitch Saturday, while Joe Kelly and Dan Calhoun are penciled in for tandem work on Monday.

That system sounds familiar.