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River Bandits roster has youthful look

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By Steve Batterson | Sunday, March 30, 2008 12:05 AM CDT | () comments

One word describes the baseball team new manager Steve Dillard expects to bring to the Quad-Cities on Monday: Young.

“That will be the given. We’re going to be young, and how quickly everybody adjusts to the level of competition will determine how successful we can be,” said Dillard, who has been working for three weeks with the prospects the St. Louis Cardinals will send from their south Florida training base to their Midwest League affiliate.

Dillard expects six position players 20 years old or younger to fill key roles on the 25-man roster that is scheduled to play the first of its 140 games Thursday, when Wisconsin visits Modern Woodmen Park at 7 p.m.

“In this league, that’s young,” Dillard said. “They’ve got some talent, though. It’s a long season, and for young guys, the big thing is to not get discouraged if you struggle in the first half.”

Shortstop Pete Kozma, the Cardinals’ first-round selection and the 18th pick overall in last June’s draft, is among the players on the River Bandits’ roster.

Kozma, who celebrates his 20th birthday April 11, hit .233 in 146 at-bats last season as he worked his way through St. Louis’ Gulf Coast, Appalachian and New York-Penn League affiliates. The Owasso, Okla., native spent the bulk of that time at Johnson City, hitting .264 in 30 games.

“I’ve been impressed with how he plays,” Dillard said. “He has a good arm, good hands. He’s going to be a good one.”

Kozma is expected to be joined in the middle of the infield by Jose Garcia, who hit .202 in 33 games with Quad-Cities after a late-season promotion last year.

Garcia is one of a handful of players on the roster who played in the Quad-Cities last season. Pitchers Shaun Garceau (8-11, 4.86 ERA in 30 games) and Blake King (2-3, 5.21 ERA before being reassigned to Batavia in the New York-Penn League) also are on the current roster.

For the second straight year, Quad-Cities will begin the season using a piggyback pitching rotation that pairs four sets of two pitchers who rotate between starting and relieving roles every fifth day.

A pair of right-handers who were selected in the top five rounds of the 2007 draft — second-round choice Jesse Todd and fifth-round pick Thomas Eager — are expected to fill two of those spots.

Both were drafted out of college, Todd from Arkansas and Eager from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Todd posted a 2.79 ERA while going 4-1 in 16 games at Batavia last season while Eager went 1-6 with a 4.30 ERA in 18 appearances for the New York-Penn League club.

“There could still be a move or two before we leave, but I feel like we’re pretty much set,’’ Dillard said.

Dillard is beginning his second stint as the manager of the River Bandits. He managed the club when it was an Astros affiliate in 1993-94 and returned in 2006 as a hitting coach for the Cardinals-affiliated Swing of the Quad-Cities.

He was scheduled to return to that position a year ago, but a late change led Dillard to a spot as a hitting coach at high-A Palm Beach.

“I’m excited with the guys I have,’’ Dillard said. “We’re young, but they’ve been working hard and we’re anxious to get going.’’

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2285 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.