The Chattanooga Lookouts were back at AT&T Field on Tuesday for the first time since polishing off Biloxi last September in game five of the Southern League championship series.
Of course, those were the 2015 Lookouts, and these are the 2016 Lookouts.
“It was a great memory, and it’s good to be back,” Lookouts pitcher Jason Wheeler said during the team’s annual preseason media day. “No one is really going to care what we did last year. We have a new team, but we have a lot of guys who are back.”
The Lookouts open their title defense Thursday night in Biloxi. They defeated Chattanooga State, 6-1, Tuesday night at AT&T Field in their annual exhibition matchup.
Wheeler was the MVP of the Southern League title series, winning game two on the road and then pitching four scoreless innings to close out the Shuckers in the deciding game.
After recording the 12th out against the 12th batter he faced, Wheeler was mobbed by teammates as Chattanooga had its first league title since 1988. Levi Michael raced in from second base to join the celebration.
“It seems like yesterday we finished up, but it’s exciting to be back and start another season,” Michael said. “Hopefully we can do what we did last year. We lost a lot of key guys like (Byron) Buxton and (Miguel) Sano and (Max) Kepler, and we’re going to miss them greatly, but we have a lot of great talent here again this year.
“I think we’re going to be just as good, if not better.”
Lookouts second-year manager Doug Mientkiewicz isn’t downplaying expectations for the season ahead, and why should he? Mientkiewicz guided the Fort Myers Miracle to their first high Single-A Florida State League championship the year before ending Chattanooga’s nearly three-decade title drought.
Employees with Coca-Cola, Jeremy Culbert, left, and Mat Shelby affix new cupholder stickers on the bleachers at AT&T field on April 5, 2016. “Every year is different, and this club will be different from last year,” Mientkiewicz said. “Even when the faces are the same, things change. We have some new faces in the organization, and some of the guys aren’t happy that they’re here, and some of the guys are really happy that they’re here.
“It’s the same thing we went through last year in that regard, and you just try to bring them all together for one common goal. The guys who were here last year understand that, and they’ve set a precedent in this organization that hasn’t been done before.”
The Lookouts could open their season with as many as 10 pitchers and six position players who spent time in Chattanooga a year ago. There is also the promise of new shortstop Engelb Vielma, whom Minnesota Twins farm director Brad Steil considers one of the organization’s best defensive players, and outfielder Daniel Palka, who racked up 29 home runs and 90 RBIs in high-A last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Mientkiewicz believes the best thing going for this year’s team will be its togetherness.
“They get it,” he said. “They pull for each other, and I’m fortunate enough to be with a lot of the same core guys I’ve had from day one. When you bring new people in over time, they see the way we expect things to be done, and it makes my job easier. The toughest thing right now is actually the depth of our organization in general. We have a lot of guys here who deserve to be in Triple-A, and we have a lot of guys below us in A-ball who deserve to be in Double-A.
“That is going to create more competition than ever before, and when you bring all that together, the winning thing becomes huge. To me, winning is the biggest part of development. It teaches them how to play together and be a good teammate, and this group has done that better than any group I’ve seen.”
Winning is all a lot of the 2016 Lookouts have known, so it’s little wonder they embrace a start of the season with the same excitement as a playoff push.
“We know we have to start over every year, and it’s always fun, especially with this group of guys,” first baseman Dalton Hicks said. “We’re still together, even though we’re missing guys like Sano and Buxton. The core group is still together, and that makes it fun.
“We’ll hit some home runs and run around a little bit, and we’ve got some great pitching. When you have Doug managing, you’re going to have a style that’s fun.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.