Better get a line up when you arrive at the Guelph Royals season opener this Saturday.
Guelph will open its Intercounty Baseball League campaign with a 1 p.m. start against the Hamilton Cardinals at Hastings Stadium. The first 100 fans get a free Royals ball cap courtesy of sponsor Alliance Roofing.
"Forget last year," said new field manager Steve Scagnetti when asked what the first order of business was for the coming season.
"This is a new team, a new attitude, new players, but it's the same old name on the jersey and we're playing for that: we're playing to redeem the name of the Guelph Royals," said Scagnetti, a former Royals pitcher in the 1990s.
Guelph finished in last place a year ago for the second time in three years, ending up with a 4-32 record. It hasn't had a season above .500 since 2012.
To achieve their goal the Royals have completely overhauled its lineup, bringing in roughly 15 new players to wear the blue and white.
"We've got guys from Toronto, Burlington, Kitchener, Waterloo, the States .... it's more like a college atmosphere around this team now," said Brad Earle, the team's new director of player personnel.
That wasn't by mistake. Earle said the team wanted to upgrade talent but also eliminate any sense of entitlement players might have because they had been in the league a while.
The Royals did retain its top hitter from last season. Outfielder Chandler McLaren led the team with a .312 average, 18 RBIs and tied for the team lead with three home runs.
Also returning are outfielders Tino Silvestri and Jeff McLeod along with catcher Pat Coughlin once his NCAA season wraps up. Reliever Zack Pearson is also back.
"There's a lot of new guys, a lot of young guys and a lot of energy," said McLeod.
McLeod said last season wasn't necessarily a tough one, because the team was in many of the games it lost, often faltering late due to a lack of depth.
"We were never really out of any games. We just got worn down and didn't have a lot of bench," McLeod said. "We just didn't have the resources, but I think we do this year."
After that, it's virtually a completely new squad, led by three American imports: former NCAA pitchers A.J. Mackey, Richard Gill and first baseman Matt Schmidt.
Schmidt should anchor the middle of the line up after an outstanding career at Chicago State University, where he was a teammate of Guelph's Mattingly Romanin.
Fielding was a major issue last season for Guelph, who made almost 30 errors more than any other team in the league, due in part to players playing out of position.
Addressing that issue sees four of the five infielders being newcomers, with shortstop looking to be solidified by Kingsley Alarcon, a Toronto native who played at Oakland University in Michigan.
Guelph junior grads Ben Reid and Aaron Loder will also be full-time Royals this season and another local, Turner Spears, is here.
"I told the guys at a team meeting that the teams that win in this league are the teams that have chemistry,'" Scagnetti said. "It's not always the best talent. I've seen a lot of teams with great talent go nowhere.
Will new players mean new results?
"I hope so, but we haven't even seen a live pitch yet," Scagnetti said.
"But we're not trying to prove we're just better, we're trying to prove we're one of the better teams in this league."
