Billings Mustangs Player articles

Ponies 1st baseman proves tough out

By MIKE SCHERTING
Of The Gazette Staff
Maybe it's something about the number 12.

Taken in the 12th round of the draft last season, shortstop Adam Rosales quickly established himself as one of the top players on the 2005 Billings Mustangs and wound up being promoted to Single-A Dayton in the Midwest League by the season's midpoint.

Impressive start
This year's 12th-round pick, Logan Parker, has gotten off to an impressive start of his own. Though hot streaks and slumps are always magnified at the start of the season, it's easy to see that Parker is ready to open some eyes.

Some have already been opened.
"If he was a second- or third-round pick, it wouldn't have surprised me," Mustangs manager Rick Burleson said. "I think he's that good. But the fact that we got him as late as the 12th round is a good bargain."

Parker collected two hits in the season-opener, and the next night he had three hits, including his first home run. The first baseman delivered two hits in each of the next two games before getting another hit in the fifth game of the season. Parker finally took his first 0-fer last Sunday, six games into the season.

Confidence important
By that time his average was at .526.

"Obviously, I didn't expect it," Parker said of his start. "It means a lot to me to get off to a hot start. The confidence is a major part in baseball. When you're confident you start playing better."

Parker, who stands 6-foot-3 and weights 220 pounds, has always hit well. He batted .425 with 15 home runs and 84 RBIs in 51 games as a sophomore at New Mexico Junior College, and after transferring to the University of Cincinnati, he hit .313 with 11 homers and 53 RBIs his junior year. This spring he finished .344-11-69 in 58 games.

One of the keys to Parker's early-season success has been his patience at the plate. Parker "doesn't panic with two strikes," Burleson said, and the numbers back that up: Through his first XX games, Parker has struck out just XX times, compared to XX walks. His batting eye has helped him obtain a .551 on-base percentage, second in the Pioneer League to only teammate Chris Heisey, who leads the league in hitting, as well.

The patience wasn't always there, though. As recently as his junior season at Cincinnati, Parker walked just 16 times and struck out 31. But Bearcats' associated head coach Brad Meador helped Parker make a minor adjustment to his stance before his senior season, and Parker swears it's had a major impact.

"My junior year I was crouched down so far, it kind of took some of my power away gap-to-gap," Parker said. "This year I stood back up, just got my timing down, concentrated on getting my (front) foot down early so I could recognize which pitch was coming.

"It's helped me out a lot with patience. You see the ball. It used to be I was out on my front foot so much and it didn't matter what the pitch was, I couldn't lay off because I was already committed. But now that I'm (standing) back and my foot's down and everything's back, I can see the pitch and see if it's going to go in the dirt. Just one little minor thing helped me a ton."

Parker, who graduated from Permian High School in Odessa, Texas (made famous by Friday Night Lights) has slowed down some. A hamstring injury limited his playing time on the Mustangs' recent road trip. After missing two games, he returned to the starting lineup on Sunday, and he's still batting .XXX as the Ponies open a three-game homestand against the Missoula Osprey tonight.

Parker also grades out as an above-average defensive first baseman.

"I'm really excited about his potential," Burleson said. "It's all right there for him to take and run with it."

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Mustang Report: Tordi hopes position switch is his big ticket

By MIKE SCHERTING
Of The Gazette Staff
Most catchers, it seems, are made catchers by default, and for good reason. There aren't many players eager to wear the "tools of ignorance," as the catcher's gear is called.

It's just that Justin Tordi became a catcher a little later in the day than most.

When Tordi started behind the plate in the Billings Mustangs' Pioneer League opener June 20, it marked his first game ever as a receiver.

"It was a lot of fun," Tordi said after the game. "I think my dad was more nervous than I was. My parents are both here, they came out for the (first) week. I was just so excited to get this going."

Scout Joe Siers tried to sign Tordi as a catcher out of high school when Siers was with the Toronto Blue Jays. Tordi instead decided to go to the University of Florida, where he played shortstop until the Cincinnati Reds drafted him in the 41st round last summer. Tordi left Florida tied for the school mark for career double plays (with David Eckstein) and second behind Eckstein in assists.

As luck would have it, Siers is now with the Reds, and this time he was successful in getting Tordi to change his mind and change his position.

"He still had something in the back of his mind, and told me 'You can make it to the big leagues as a catcher, you're a catcher,' " said Tordi, who didn't play at all last season.

Tordi has the tools to be a good catcher: Quick hands, a strong arm and quick feet. But his quick feet don't necessarily translate into the overall speed required to play shortstop at the big-league level.

"I was like, 'All right, let's do this,' " Tordi said about switching positions. "The goal is to make it to the big leagues, and if that's the way I'm going to make it there, why not do it?"

"I'm having a lot of fun with it," he added. "It's been a lot of hard work, but it's paying off, the long days, doing all the drills and starting from square one. I had no idea how to catch, nothing. Coaches Donnie Scott and Joe Breeden have been working with me the past eight, nine months and it's really helped. I thank them so much."

Heisey hot as July
Chris Heisey, a 17th-round pick from Messiah College (Pa.), comes back to town as the Pioneer League's leading hitter.

Heisey is batting .XXX, thanks in large part to his spectacular numbers on the just completed road trip: During the seven games in Great Falls, Heisey went 11-for-20 and hit his first professional homer on Sunday.

Change for the better
In the previous two seasons, Mustangs hitters have played under the edict from Cincinnati that they must take a strike before they could swing at a pitch. With new ownership taking hold in Cincinnati, the Mustangs' parent club, those mandates no longer hold. And on the surface, not being in a no-balls-one-strike hole every at-bat seems to make a difference.

The Mustangs ranked last in the league in hitting last season and had the second-highest strikeout totals. This year, after 13 games, the Mustangs are first in hitting and have the lowest strikeout totals.

And games move much quicker. Last season, during the first 13 games, the average Mustang game lasted three hours and three minutes. So far this year, games are averaging two hours, 34 minutes.

That's quite a difference. Of course, it's impossible whether to tell if it's all because Cincinnati ditched its take-a-strike philosophy or if it's because of the talent level of this year's group of hitters. It's probably a little of both, but I'm guessing the former has as much or more to do with it as the latter.

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