Montrell Marshall missed nearly all of his senior season while in high school with a back injury. That also kept him out of the 2014 season after he was drafted. When he returned to action in 2015 with the Arizona League Reds he had some struggles, particularly with his plate discipline. He hit just .159/.218/.214 while walking just nine times to go along with 52 strikeouts.
While out in spring training in March, Montrell Marshall stood out on the backfields among the guys that were working with the extended spring training group. It wasn’t just that he physically stood out, he’s 6′ 5″ and 215 lbs as a 20-year-old, but he stood out in batting practice as well where he was hitting moonshots. Despite that, what stood out the most was the attention that he was getting from Hall of Famer Barry Larkin.
Larkin was working with a small group of players when I first got to the field with the extended spring training players going through their practice. After a few minutes with the group Larkin and Marshall spent the next 20-30 minutes working together and talking about hitting and approach.
With five games under his belt for the Billings Mustangs in 2016 the numbers on the surface don’t suggest progress, he’s just 1-15. Of course, that’s a small sample size that doesn’t tell us too much. But, what is worth noting from the state line is that Montrell Marshall has already walked four times and has just one strikeout. That’s an enormous improvement compared to how things were playing out last season for the first baseman.
As noted, he’s just 1-15 this season, but manager Ray Martinez noted in the pre-game interview with Billings radio broadcaster Dustin Daniel that he’s just had no luck so far, but “has been hitting the ball really well” and that they “are looking for big things from him”.
Billings Gazette writer Mike Scherting has an article up today on Marshall and some of his back story on how things have played out for him over the last few seasons.
Other Billings notes
Nick Senzel didn’t play in the game on Wednesday night after leaving the game on Tuesday night early with an injury. Manager Ray Martinez said on the pre-game interview last night that Senzel didn’t want to leave the game on Tuesday and wanted to play on Wednesday, and seems to be fine, but he (Martinez) wanted to give him that extra day. He’s expected to play tonight.
Tony Santillan is out to a strong start for Billings. Through two starts he’s walked three batters and struck out 15 in just 8.2 innings pitched. The right hander has struck out 42% of the batters he’s faced in two games.
Outfielder Jose Siri has more walks in five games with the Mustangs, three, than he had in 27 games earlier this year with the Dayton Dragons, two. He’s also got more extra-base hits than he had in Dayton. With Billings he’s smacked two doubles and two triples, but only had three doubles with the Dragons. The 20-year-old is currently hitting an impressive .556/.619/.889 through the first five games.