BY LES WINKELERTHE SOUTHERN

AFrontier League rule change allowsJereme Milons to roam Rent OnePark’s spacious center field again

this season.The league adopted a new “Veteran”

classification this year, allowing each teamto have one player over 27 years of age. Thenew rule allows Milons to extend his careerin Southern Illinois.

“You can’t beat it,” Milons said of playingwith the Miners. “I wouldn’t trade it foranything. It’s my job and I love it and I’mgoing to keep doing it.”

There were several Miners eligible to beretained under the new classification.League rules state the designated veteranmust be under 30 years of age and must have beenlisted on a Frontier League active roster or injured listfor a total of 100 regular season games combinedduring the previous two seasons.

Four players from last year’s Miners’ roster qualified,leaving manager Mike Pinto with a tough decision.

“It depended on what some other guys wanted todo,” Pinto said. “Todd Martin could have come back inthat role. Jake McMurran could have come back in thatrole or Joey Metropoulos could have come back.”

McMurran is a rubber-armed reliever. Martin is asolid hitter and good outfielder. Metropoulos is one of

the most productive offensive players inMiners’ history. Yet, it is Milons whoreturned as the veteran player.

“When you look at Jereme, he played 94games last year,” Pinto said. “He’s alwayshealthy. You look at the offensiveproduction, the defensive work, what hedoes on the bases, it seemed to be a prettysmart decision for us.”

It is difficult to argue with the numbers.Milons posted a .283 average last year,

collecting 102 hits in 358 at bats. He hit 11home runs, had 60 RBIs and swiped 41bases in 49 attempts.

“He gets on base,” Pinto said. “He’s apotentially destructive base runner and hitsthe ball out of the park too. He playsexcellent defense in center field. You put allof that together and that’s a pretty goodexemption player.”

As for Milons, he made it abundantly clear he’shappy to be back playing baseball in Southern Illinois.

“It’s baseball to me,” he said. “Mike told me what therule was and asked me if I still wanted to play.”

New Frontier League rule allows Milons to return to Miners

SEE MILONS / PAGE 7C

BY TODD HEFFERMANTHE SOUTHERN

The 20-game winningstreak is in the distancenow. Just as misty as thevisions of JoeyMetropoulos hitting oneof his 70 career home runs,catcher Brendan Akashianbehind the plate and RyanBird on the hill.

The Southern IllinoisMiners hope to try to re-create the magic of 2010with three new startersand a bigger emphasis onspeed this summer. TheMiners won their firstWest Division title lastyear and got a game fromthe Frontier League cham-pionship series beforefalling, 3-2, to River City in10 innings Sept. 14.

“This is a very aggres-sive team,” Miners manag-er Mike Pinto said. “Wewill not be a team that hitshome runs like we have inthe past, and, so, we builtthe team a little bit moreon speed, on-base per-centage guys. We’ll get afew out, but, it won’t be asa power-laden lineup. Itwill be more of a speed andrunning type lineup.”

Gone are traditionalpower hitters likeMetropoulos, a former FLMost Valuable Player, for-mer Triple-A outfielderStephen Head and firstbaseman Brad Miller.Jereme Milons hit 11 outlast year on the way to 60RBIs, and, with third base-man Nate Hall, returns asthe Miners’ biggest homerun threat. Hall hit ninehome runs in 89 gamesand was third in the leaguein hitting with a .318 aver-age.

“I just come in, lead byexample, man,” saidMilons, the Miners’ loneveteran through a new ageexemption in the league.“Show these guys how tobe more disciplined at theplate. I can’t get away withstuff I’ve done the last twoyears here, with guys likeJoey (Metropoulos) behindyou. Every at-bat counts,so, I just take it like that.”

Even without StephenHead, the Miners couldreturn three guys that havestarted at least one gamethis season in the outfield.Milons played in 95 games,tying Head for the most onthe team, and could line upnext to former outfielderEric Suttle and teammateJustin Randall. Suttlesigned with the team thisweek. Randall hit .373 in36 games last year.

Milons led the team with41 stolen bases. TheMiners stole 141 bases lastyear, second only toOakland (Mich.) County’s152 thefts. SouthernIllinois was caught steal-ing 43 times, third-mostin the league.

The infield will have afamiliar tune with thirdbaseman Hall, shortstopMichael Stalter and sec-ond baseman Will Block allback. The Miners releasedfirst baseman MattEdgecombe, who hadstarted most of the pre-season, and traded withJoliet for Matt Fields onWednesday.

Former Triple-A catcherSean Coughlin takes overfor Akashian, who took ajob in the professionalworld but hasn’t absolute-ly ruled out a return thisyear, according to Pinto.Coughlin was one of theMiners’ best hitters in thespring, and will be expect-ed to solidify a new-lookbattery.

“I think I’ve been arounda little bit, and just try tohelp these guys out,because they’ve got greatstuff,” Coughlin said.“Throughout our bullpen,just outstanding stuff, so,I’m just trying to help ‘emout a little bit and just playmy game.”

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com618-351-5087

BY TODD HEFFERMANTHE SOUTHERN

Even by Frontier League stan-dards, the Southern IllinoisMiners’ rotation will be nothingshort of a mild overhaul this year.

Last year, Miners managerMike Pinto knew who his fourOpening Day starters were goingto be before spring training wasover. Today, Pinto has the reign-ing pitcher of the year in JoeAugustine, and a slew of ques-tions all over the bullpen.

“What’s funny is, we have a lotof names that people don’t know,but, two years ago, nobody knewwho Joe Augustine was,” Pintosaid. “A couple years before,nobody knew who Ryan Bird was,so, we might have those guys sit-ting in our rotation. We just don’tknow it yet.”

Augustine will miss the team’sopening road trip to Gatewayafter hurting his knee inSaturday’s exhibition, but isscheduled to start the homeopener May 24 againstEvansville. The 6-foot-3,215-pound right-hander led theFrontier League in ERA at 1.97,tied for the league lead in strike-outs with Normal’s RyanSheldon, and tied for third inwins with a 10-3 mark last year.In 114.1 innings, the third-yearMiner allowed 29 runs, 25 ofthem earned and walked 30.

In his first exhibition start of

the season, Augustine didn’tallow a run, but had to escape atwo-on, one-out situation in theopening inning. He struck out thenext two batters, one looking, tododge the bullet.

“Just stay confident and calm,”Augustine said. “They’re outthere. They’re not in yet, so, youjust got to keep them out there.”

The Miners, who had the topERA in the league last year at3.50, are expected to turn to25-year-old Sean Teague in theirseason opener at Gateway Fridaynight. Teague, a 6-foot,190-pound righty, was traded for

the second time in the last twoyears for a player to be namedlater in April, but impressedPinto enough to earn the bid.

Teague split time with Joliet ofthe Northern League and theWichita (Kan.) Wingnuts of theAmerican Association last year.He was 3-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 14appearances with the Wingnutsand had no record in sevenappearances with Joliet.

Former Southern IllinoisUniversity starter Shawn Joy androokie David Harden are alsoexpected to challenge for startingspots.

Righty Erik Draxton is expectedto take over the closer role fromMike Damchuk as Damchukrecovers from arm trouble.Damchuk was placed on the 14-day disabled list last week, and isexpected to miss the openingweekend, at least.

Draxton went 1-0 in 10 1/3

innings last year as a reliever anddidn’t allow a single run.

In addition to the starting rota-tion, Pinto and new pitchingcoach Justin Lord will also have towork out a new set-up manschedule.

Rubber-armed Jake McMurranthrew more than 187 innings inhis three years out of the bullpen,mostly as the eighth inning set-up man, before aging out of theleague at 27.

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5087

Five years ago the SouthernIllinois Miners were anovelty.

Now, they are a part of thefabric of Southern Illinois.

A decade ago, the notion of aminor league baseball team inMarion seemed implausible.Some might even haveconsidered it impossible.

Why not?Although conveniently located

at the intersection of Illinois 13and Interstate 57, Marion ishardly a teeming metropolis.The region hadn’t seen minorleague baseball for a generation.

There were plenty of naysayerswhen it was announced theFrontier League was coming totown. And, even those whothought it could fly wereskeptical.

Skeptics thought fanswouldn’t come to the ballpark tosee an unaffiliated team. Frankly,none of the concerns seemedunreasonable.

I was among those who hadsome reservations.

Surveying the landscape, Ithought a minor league teamcould survive in the region.First, there is little competitionfor the summer timeentertainment dollar inSouthern Illinois. There are noSaluki sports, American Legionbaseball doesn’t enjoy thesupport it once did and there arefewer movie theaters every year.

The affiliation issue didn’tbother me. For whatever reason,that seemed irrelevant.

On the other, I’m not going topretend I knew the Minerswould take Southern Illinois bystorm. I thought the team coulddraw between 1,500 and 2,000fans, which would be anunqualified success.

There were several things Ididn’t bank on.

I didn’t expect a facility likeRent One Park. It’s big,spacious, clean, fan-friendlyand fun. You can have a goodtime at Rent One Park even ifyou’re only a casual baseball fan.

I didn’t expect the Miners tobe such good corporate citizens.The Miners are involved inthings throughout thecommunity.

Part of that is because thefront office trio of Erik Haag,Tim Arseneau and Mike Pintohas remained intact.

Last, but certainly not least,the Miners have put acompetitive product on the fieldevery year.

Players like Ralph Santana,Tim Dorn, Joey Metropoulos andRyan Bird have become icons inthe community.

This franchise came to townwith a solid plan in place. Thesuccess of the team is noaccident.

The Miners and SouthernIllinois … they were made foreach other.

LES WINKELER is the sportseditor for The SouthernIllinoisan. Contact him atles.winkeler@thesouthern.com,or call 618-351-5088.

2C THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011 2011 MINERS PREVIEW www.thesouthern.com

The Minerswere made for the region

LES WINKELER

OffTarget

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTOJoe Augustine pitches for the Miners last season at Rent One Park in Marion.

Augustine anchors new-look rotationBY THE NUMBERSJoe Augustine leads a new-

look rotation for theSouthern Illinois Miners.Here’s a quick look at lastyear’s numbers from theMiners’ staff:

690 Strikeouts, fourth-best in the league

327 Walks, second-fewest in the league

64 Wins, the most inMiners’ team history

3.50 Team ERA, thebest in the

Frontier League last season

Miners tryto re-createmagic withthree newstarters

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTOSouthern Illinois’ Michael Stalter leaps over Florence’s Brandon Cohen while turning a 4-6-3 double play last season.

BY LES WINKELERTHE SOUTHERN

MARION — Five yearsafter the fact, Erik Haag,executive vice-presidentof the Southern IllinoisMiners, admits somedoubts shrouded his moveto Marion.

“I was in South Bend inthe Midwest League,” hesaid. “I had always been inaffiliated ball. Indepe-ndent ball always had astigma to it from us affili-ated guys.

“So, yeah, when I look atindependent baseball andMarion, Ill., 16,000 peo-ple, its like, ‘Holy cow,what am I doing?’”

Haag didn’t come toSouthern Illinois to fail.However, he also didn’texpect the kind of successthe Miners have enjoyed intheir first four seasons.

“It definitely hasexceeded our expecta-tions,” he said. “Wethought we’d do well here,but to average 4,200-4,500 a game for four con-secutive years … It’s beenpretty amazing, especiallywhen you look at where weare compared to otherteams that are in theChicago-land area andoutside of Cleveland in thesuburbs.”

Baseball fans in theregion, from MountVernon to Paducah andHarrisburg to CapeGirardeau, have embracedthe Miners.

The smaller market is a

contributing factor.“I think there are defi-

nitely advantages,” Haagsaid. “The media being oneof them. When you’re inthe Chicago-land marketor the Cleveland market,you kind of get lost in theshuffle of major leaguesports. Here, especially inthe summertime when SIUis out of season, we’re it asfar as professional sportsgoes. I think that helps us,no doubt.”

Now, entering their fifthseason, the Miners havebecome an integral part ofSouthern Illinois. Miners’T-shirts and caps are seenthroughout the region.

“In all the communitiesI’ve worked in, this is by farthe best in terms of peopleembracing the athletes,”Haag said. “You go to aWal-Mart, a restaurant oreven if you go down toPaducah, you see people inMiners’ T-shirts and hats.I’m still amazed.

“That first year, I wentinto a restaurant and I wasamazed, they were playingour game over their soundsystem. I’ve never seenthat. It was amazing.”

On the other hand, theMiners success didn’tcome about by accident.

Owners John and JayneSimmons put a solid planin place. Haag, generalmanager Tim Arseneauand field manager MikePinto are still on the job.

“There is no doubt that

minor league baseball canbe a transient industrysimply because there are somany entry level kids com-ing in and they’re not mak-ing a million dollars,” Haagsaid. “So, they’re alwayslooking for that next step.Offices are small, if you geta guy like myself or Tim,there isn’t a lot of upwardmobility. But, I think thekey is to keep stability inthe top part of the organi-zation, you have a commontheme going throughoutthe organization.”

The Miners made a con-scious effort to appeal tothe entire region, althoughRent One Park is located inMarion.

“I think the fact thatwe’re the Southern IllinoisMiners and not the MarionMiners, I think that wasbig,” Haag said. “Whatreally embraced us is whenwe went with the nameMiners. We tried to findsomething that wasindigenous to the region.With the history of miningand reaching to many peo-ple, I think right off the batthat endeared us to a lot ofpeople.”

And, it doesn’t hurt thatthe Miners have been com-petitive on the field as well.The Miners have never hada losing season. They’vequalified for the FrontierLeague playoffs in two oftheir four seasons.

“The plan Mike has puttogether for four years,that’s not by accident,”Haag said. “That’s one ofthe things that attracted usto Mike when we inter-viewed him. A lot of guyswere talking about, ‘Thisfirst year this is what Iwant to do.’ Mike was talk-ing about this is what Iwant to build over thecourse of time.”

It all adds up to success.The Miners begin their

fifth season Friday atGateway. Ironically, thefirst game in Miners’ his-tory was at Gateway. The2011 home season getsunder way Tuesday.

FROM PAGE 1C

“I had a couple of deci-sions to make. You can’tbeat this, so I chose toplay again.”

Milons said he won’tfeel any additional pres-sure as the result of hisstatus. However, he viewshis role a bit differently.

“You could say I have tobe more vocal this year,”he said. “I’ve been kind ofquiet the last two years.We have a lot of youngguys. It’s pretty muchconstantly being on themevery other inning, don’tget all up in the standsand everything like that.Take every at-bat seri-ously.”

“You really need thatguy,” Pinto said. “If you’regoing to have a super-vet,he has to be not only a guy

who leads by example,but vocally as well. Hebecomes an extra coachon the field.”

In addition to his obvi-ous baseball ability, Mil-ons’ personality madehim attractive as theMiners’ veteran player.

“He’s very easy to bearound,” Pinto said. “He’svery easy with the fans.He’s always got a smile.He doesn’t get too high ortoo low. He’s pretty evenkeeled. You want that inan experienced player.

“If I have to spend fourmonths of my life doingthis, I want to be withguys I like being with.”

“I’m just going to do myjob,” Milons said. “That’spretty much how I am.”

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com618-351-5088

THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011 7C2011 MINERS PREVIEWwww.thesouthern.com

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MILONS: Returns to lead Miners’ re-tooled outfield

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTOSouthern Illinois’ Jereme Milons is greeted by histeammates after being introduced at the 2010 FrontierLeague All-Star Game last season at Rent One Park.

Miners’ front office refuses failure

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTOThe Miners’ Brad Netzel advances to third last season.

Southern IllinoisMiners Firsts

First hitter: Ralph SantanaFirst at bat: Single by

Ralph Santana.First out: Eric VegaHit into first double play:

Eric VegaFirst pitcher: Chris TierneyFirst at bat against: Jesse

Acosta walkedFirst single: Ralph SantanaFirst double: Casey SmithFirst home run: Tim DornFirst run: Tim DornFirst two-hit game: Ralph

SantanaFirst grand slam: Willie

KeeneFirst RBI: Tim DornFirst walk by a Miner: Rob

WirthFirst strikeout by a Miner:

Mike VictorFirst hit by a pitch: Casey

SmithFirst stolen base: Ralph

SantanaFirst caught stealing: Ray

NavarroFirst error: Tim DornFirst loss: Wilfredo RomeroFirst strikeout by Miners’

pitcher: Chris TierneyFirst walk issued: Chris

TierneyFirst relief appearance:

Jason AdamsFirst run allowed: Jason

AdamsFirst home run allowed:

Jason AdamsFirst save: Roy IrleFirst pitch made by a

Miner: Ball to Jesse AcostaFirst pitch a Miner faced:

Strike taken by RalphSantana.

TicketsThe Southern Illinois

Miners remain affordablefamily entertainment duringthe summer.

Box seats for all Minersgames are just $8. Reservedseats are just $6.

And, if you prefer a morerelaxed atmosphere lawnseats are available for just$4.

And, it’s even a better dealif you are part of a group.

Box seats are $7, reservedseats $5 and lawn tickets arejust $3.

For more information,call the Miners at 618-998-8499.

8C THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011 2011 MINERS PREVIEW www.thesouthern.com