OF Taylor a familiar face for Arkansas Travelers

Chuck Taylor found his swing in Venezuela.

The batting average for the 5-9 outfielder of the Arkansas Travelers soared to as high as .386 on May 31 last season.

By the end of the year, it had fallen to .274.

During the decline, Taylor said he got a phone call from Jose Moreno, the manager of the Seattle Mariners' Class A short season Everett Aquasox, who also served as the manager of Cardenales de Lara in the winter-scheduled Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.

Moreno asked Taylor whether he was interested in joining the league for the offseason.

Taylor agreed.

"We talked before he went over there," Travs hitting coach Roy Howell said. "The bottom line with Chuck is, as you saw, he's an aggressive guy. What he had to learn to do better is to get better pitches to hit.

"When you're going good, you think you can hit everything. And what happens, we start getting out of our zone, and all of a sudden, balls aren't going as hard or where they were going before because we are out of our zones."

Taylor hit .333 in 59 games in Venezuela, where he hit 10 doubles, a triple, 2 home runs and had 31 RBI.

Tonight, Taylor returns to North Little Rock on opening day to face the San Antonio Missions.

"I was really just trying to stay consistent," said Taylor, who is Seattle's No. 28-ranked prospect according to MLB.com. "It's just knowing yourself. Not trying too hard, and it will come to you."

Taylor, who was named to the Texas League All-Star team last year, is the only All-Star returning for the Travs, which went 65-75 in 2017 and finished last in the North Division standings, seventh overall.

That season began with a pitching transaction frenzy, when eight injured Seattle Mariners pitchers caused more than 10 pitchers across the minor-league system to move by May 13.

Today, the Mariners' starting rotation is intact -- save for Erasmo Ramirez, who is on the 10-day disabled list due to a strained right lat muscle -- and Travs right-hander Andrew Moore (1-2, 2.08 ERA for the Travs in 2017) will start on opening day at Dickey-Stephens Park for the second consecutive season.

"You don't expect to have happen what happened last year," Travs Manager Daren Brown said. "You learn from it and you move on. Some of the stuff last year is just things that happen sometimes."

Moore is one of the 11 players on the roster who played for the Travs last season, which includes right-handed reliever Darin Gillies, who is Seattle's No. 26-ranked prospect according to MLB.com.

Gillies (3-3, 3.32 ERA) said he added a changeup to his pitching arsenal, which includes a fastball and slider, over the offseason to help him fool opposing hitters in order to pitch multiple innings in relief.

"For me, it's big to bring that pitch out of the bullpen, because even though I'm a guy coming out of the bullpen, I might have to face the lineup more than once," said Gillies, who said he threw the changeup as a starter in college, but lost it once he got to the bullpen.

"It was just something I worked on, came into camp," he said. "Talked to the pitching coaches and bounced the idea off of them, 'Hey, what do you guys think?' Threw it in a couple of bullpen sessions, and they said, 'Yeah, let's roll with it.' Hopefully it'll help my fastball and slider play up from there."

The Travs had the second-lowest team ERA (4.24) in the Texas League last season.

"Last year, our pitching staff, obviously in this ballpark, probably didn't do what we thought they could do," Brown said. "I expect us to be a little better this year."

Sports on 04/05/2018