Your NWA Naturals Report

As a huge Royals fan who lives 1.5 miles from the new Northwest Arkansas Naturals, I will be providing intermittant updates as the season goes on.

Opening Day: It was fantastic. The park is great - maybe the best minor league park I have seen. Lots of fanfare including a flyover, the Naturals mascot being helicoptered into the stadium (he's a 6'9" Sasquatch named Strike), and David Glass making some comments. There were some major opening day logistical glitches (horrible parking coordination, long lines at the concession stands, etc), but the facility is just top notch. Now onto the team.

Unfortunately, the Naturals performance on opening day may be very indicative of things to come. No batta, no batta, no batta. They mustered one run that day. For the season, the team is batting .225. No, that is not a typo. Their offense if horrifically anemic. Going into tonight's game (where they have mustered one run through 8 1/3), here are the key stats of the starters:

CF Duarte - .207, 0 extra base hits, 5 SBs
SS Sanchez - .188, 2 errors, 8 K's in 32 ABs
3B Lisson - .132, 1 BB, 11 K's in 38 ABs
DH Richardson - .225, 10K's in 40 ABs
1B Kaaihue - .294, 5 HRs, 16 RBIs, 2 errors
2B Maddox - .179, 2 SBs, 7 K's in 28 ABs
RF McFall - .160, 1 HR, 1 SB
LF Valentin - .405, 0BB's, 1 HR
C Donachie - .150, 6 Ks in 20 ABs

Yuck. The two bright spots are Kaaihue and Valentin. Kaaihue shows lots of power, but a propensity to not do much else (including field). Valentin is the classic "tweener" outfielder. Not quite enough power, not quite enough speed.

The most alarming thing is the high strikeout ratio. They just aren't making contact. The team has a K/BB ratio of 2.84/1. They are averaging a strikeout every 4.7 AB's. But hey, they are AA kids and I imagine the contact will come. They have been raided of significant talent at this level over the past couple of years.

The pitching staff has a couple of ones to watch. *on 40 man MLB roster

Daniel Cortes - 2 starts and a 1.08 ERA. In 8 innings he has struck out 6 (but walked 6 as well).

Carlos Rosa*- made his 3rd start tonight and through 14 IP has a 1.83 ERA with 10 Ks and only 2 walks allowed

Julio Pimentel* - Getting rocked early. 8.59 ERA. 12 hits allowed in 7 innings. Should come around.

Dusty Hughes - 10.2 innings of relief with only 1 run allowed (0.83 ERA). 0.66 WHIP.

Rowdy Hardy - My personal favorite - you just gotta root for this guy and his backyard fastball. A rough start to the season in his first 2 starts (7.27 ERA) - but of course - no walks.

That's it from Northwest Arkansas for now. Let's hope the sticks come alive soon.