Timber Rattlers Notes

Had a great time at the Border Battle between the Timber Rattlers and the Peoria Chiefs last night at Miller Park and took many pictures, which we'll get too more in depth later.

Some quick thoughts:

*I was super-impressed with the fielding and the arm of SS Michael Marseco. He's incredibly small - listed at 5'10" and 155 pounds - but both of those seem rather generous. That being said, he made short work of any ball hit his way, including a few short hops and he gunned the ball to first.

The first play he made was an odd hop into his gut which he gathered and rifled to first. It was pretty early in the game and the bf and I were both a little shocked - he doesn't look like he's going to have that kind of arm speed.

He went on to make a few more good plays in the field and hit a ball to the base of the right-center wall for a double, later scoring.

Clearly the kid needs to find some bulk - he's hitting just .119 this year, though he was .311 with 47 hits and 24 RBI last season.

*Brett Lawrie had three hits - but none of them left the infield. There's something to be said for being able to make plays happen and get on base that way - but the lack of power, RBI, or runs scored was probably not a good sign.

*Cutter Dykstra, on the other hand, had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI.

*Brock Kjeldgaard's home run to right was a no-doubter that was in the second deck.

*The game made us appreciate major-league outfielders. It's not that these guys were bad - but the lack of experience when compared to the guys we see every time at MP was really obvious. The wind was really blowing last night and you could see a few of the outfielders on both teams had trouble getting a read.