Bangin' Bombs Like Barry Bonds
Indy Indians trio proving heavy home run hitters live in the International League also.

Jonathan Roybal
MinorLeagueNews.com

04.18.02-  The Indianapolis Indians have been on the warpath against the entire International League to start 2002. As of 4/18, they boast an 11-3 record, tied with Richmond for tops in the league, but their offensive prowess is yet unmatched in the early season.

The team is hitting a combined .288, but more impressively they lead all of minor league baseball with 29 roundtrippers in 14 games. That's ten more than any other team in the IL [international league]. They have gone yard in 11 straight games; ten of those were multi-homer games.

Leading the tribe's power charge is their outfielding trio of Izzy Alcantara, Ryan Thompson, and Ryan Christensen.  Alcantara and Thompson are tied for the IL lead in home runs with seven. Christensen is right behind his teammates, in second place with four bombs.

Ryan Thompson may be the hottest hitter in all of baseball...majors or minors. He owns a 12-game hitting streak, during which he raised his average to .385, 8^th in the IL.

The 6'3", 215-pounder, doesn't only hit for average; he's been hammering the ball as well, hitting his seven dingers over five straight games, with two in each of his last two games.

MLN had a chance to speak with Skeeter Barnes, hitting coach for the Indianapolis Indians. I asked him what has allowed Ryan to get on such a tear.

"Ryan's a good hitter...a real professional hitter. He's hitting the ball all over the place. When you're hitting the ball to every part of the field, it's really hard to defend against you," Barnes stated. " If they make a mistake, middle in, on the plate...he's crushing it."

Thompson's .846 slugging pct. leads the IL. He also leads the league in extra-base hits and is tied for second with 13 RBI.

" I don't know if he'll hit .380 all year," Barnes mused, " But, you can pencil him in for .280 with a ton of homers and a ton of RBIs."

Israel Alcantara was an IL all-star with Pawtucket last season. He led the league in home runs with 36, while hitting .297 with 90 RBI in the process.

This season he has a league high 17 ribbies to goes with his seven home runs, two of which were game winners.

'What makes Izzy such an effective home run hitter?' I had to ask Barnes.

"Fast hands," was the immediate reply. "His hands get through the strike zone really quick."

It's seems though, that is not always a good thing.

"His hands are so fast, he tends to come around the ball too much and pulls it," Barnes confided. " He gets pull-happy sometimes."

Next, I asked Barnes to tell me something about Ryan Christensen.

"Smooth in the field," was the first thing to come to Skeeter's mind. "If the ball stays in the stadium he's gonna have a beat on it. He gets great jumps in centerfield, that's what makes him great on defense, his first step is really quick."

Then I asked about Christensen's bat.

"Likewise, you can't miss in on him or he'll hammer it," Barnes beamed.

"He plays really hard, has a great work ethic, and he's great guy to be around. I have a hard time understanding why he's not a 4^th or 5^th outfielder on a big league team."

One thing I neglected to mention is, this is the first year the tribe's trio have played together. They all came to Indianapolis this season from different organizations.

I questioned Barnes how this has affected the outfield on defense.

"One thing I stress to these guys is that 'some of you guys are swinging the bat, but there's more to the game than swinging the bat. You have to play D, you can't be a liability out there so work at it."

"You can't embarrass yourself," Barnes continued. "If you get called up and play like crap in the outfield...you're not gonna last long."

Although the outfield in particular, is smacking the hide off the ball, the Indians as a team, are hitting very well.

The team's .288 average puts them right behind Louisville's .292, for the league's lead.

I wanted to know what Barnes attributes his team's hot sticks to.

"Well, there's a lot of friendly competition going on, guys trying to out do one another," Barnes said. " But I think there's a lot of vets on this team that want to get back to the big leagues and the way to get to Milwaukee [Indianapolis' major league affiliate], is to beat on the ball here."

"Everybody's playing hard because they know there's going to be some influx of players back and forth," Barnes continued. " They [Brewers] just fired their manager [Davy Lopes], so there's gonna be a lot of traffic between here and Milwaukee. I think these guys want to be a part of it."