2006 Scouting Report

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

• Fox Cities Stadium, Appleton, Wisconsin.
• Affiliated with the Seattle Mariners.
• Manager: Jim Horner.
• Coaches: Tommy Cruz, Lance Painter (pitching).

This page profiles the 2006 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and a member of the Midwest League.

• History: MWLguide.com

Profile

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics on this page are through September 4, 2006.

Season Summary

• Second Half: 27-43, .386 (7th place, 15.5 behind)
• First Half: 27-43, .386 (7th place, 14.5 behind)
• Pitching: 54-86, 4.41, 27 saves, 3 complete games, 1039 strikeouts
• Hitting: .245, 563 runs scored, 71 HR, 138 steals (64% success)
• Defense: 159 errors (1.14 per game)
• April: 11-12 (.478)
• May: 8-21 (.276)
• June: 10-17 (.370)
• July: 10-19 (.345)
• August-September: 15-17 (.469)

• Position Players used: 27
• Pitchers used: 23
  • Includes 2 position players used as pitchers.
• Pitchers per game: 3.6

Leading Players

• Best Player on the Team: Shortstop Christopher Minaker

• Best Starting Pitcher: Nicholas Allen (3.86, 7-4, 52 Ks)
• Bullpen Stopper: Brian Kappel (1.61, 4-0, 8 saves, no holds, 29 strikeouts)
• Strikeout Pitchers: Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Ruben Flores, Edgar Guaramato, Brian Kappel, Harold Williams, Joseph Woerman
• Control Pitchers: Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Brian Kappel, Roman Martinez, Justin Thomas, Joseph Woerman

• Best Hitter: Christopher Minaker (.315, 4 HR, 24 RBI)
• Home Run Leader: Ronald Garth (10)
• High Batting Average: Christopher Minaker (.315)
• High On Base Percentage: none
• High Slugging Percentage: Christopher Minaker (.451)
• Notable Baserunners: Casey Craig, Robert Hudson, Kuo Hui Lo, Brian Sabatella, Michael Saunders, J.B. Tucker, Luis Valbuena
• Notable Batting Eye: Luis Valbuena

Mid-July Profile

A long summer in Appleton: The T'Rats have poor hitting, and the league's weakest pitching staff. There's been enormous change in the Wisconsin lineup over the course of the season, and a couple of the mid-season arrivals are putting up interesting numbers.

While there's a little power throughout the lineup, this team's best asset is speed--except you've got to get on base to score, and they really don't do that well. While there aren't a bunch of truly weak performers on the team, there's no big star, either. New outfielder Kuo Hui Lo looks like he might have some potential.

New reliever Austin Bibens-Dirkx is by far the best pitcher on the staff, at this point; Juan Colon and Lance Beus have also pitched well. (Collectively, these guys have thrown about 45 innings, so that opinion's subject to change.) Nick Allen's the best of the starters; although he basically throws junk, he's been very effective with it. Past these guys it's a disaster.

May Profile

The Timber Rattlers have scored 213 runs while permitting 283 runs to score--that's the MWL's worst defense. There's not a lot of strength in Appleton this summer

Starters Jose Escalona, Justin Thomas, & Harold Williams have pitched acceptably, but reliever Joseph Woerman's really the only obvious talent on the pitching staff.

The hitting's not bad, though there are no star players on this squad, and little power at any lineup position. Outfielder Casey Craig's the most rounded talent, here; catcher J.B. Tucker is also playing well. Another half-dozen hitters are more or less league average. Craig, OF Michael Saunders, and 2B Luis Valbuena supply the speed which makes the offense work.

April Profile

The Timber Rattlers are basically a league-average squad, both at the plate and on the mound. Ninth-inning specialist is the sole player whose stats really stand out, and they're not getting a lot of value out of him. As a team, they permit far too many hitters to reach base.

Starters Jose Escalona and Justin Thomas have been reasonably successful, thus far; from the pen, Guaramato's been nearly flawless; Rolllie Gibson and Harold Williams have also pitched well, though both have control issues.

Infielders Jeffrey Dominguez and Robert Hudson have been fairly success in setting up team power sources OF Casey Craig and catcher J.B. Tucker. Luis Valbuena has some success drawing walks, but needs some polish. IF Mike Saunders is the team's best speedster.

Pre-Season Profile

Manager

Jim Horner has never managed professionally before.

First Round Draft Selection

• none

Team Age Information

• Average Team Age: 21.4
• Pitchers: 21.6
• Hitters: 21.3

• Oldest Player on the Team: J.B. Tucker (born 2/20/1982)
• Youngest Player on the Team: Michael Saunders (born 11/19/1986)

The average player in the Midwest League this season is 21.9 years old. This information is based on opening day rosters as published on the team website and will not be updated.

Where they played last season

This summary is based on the team's opening day roster and will not be revised to reflect roster changes.

This year's Appleton team is basically last season's Everett AquaSox, with a few hitters from the AZL Mariners.

Team           League          W/L    Place    Hitters Pitchers
                                     (Teams)
Inland Empire  California (A+) 58/82  9(10)       2      0
Wisconsin      Midwest (A)     76/64  2(14)       0      1
Everett        Northwest (A-)  42/34  3(8)        9      9
Mariners       Arizona (R)     27/29 5T(9)        5      2

All of these players were under contract to Seattle last summer. There was light movement in the Mariners system; a handful of these players played at two levels last summer and one appeared at three. Three of these folks had brief Triple-A outings. One player did not play last year (apparently on the DL), another played for the Mariners' farm in the Venezuelan League.

Organizations have styles, and Seattle's is a little different from the norm. This is an absolutely typical Timber Rattlers roster. No other organization always does this combination of things....