The strategy of just letting players come to them certainly is working for the Salt Lake Bees, off to their best start ever (9-1). RSL management's efforts are being rewarded at a much different rate, although the goals did come in spurts in Saturday's 4-0 win over D.C. United at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"We've been trying to send a message all season that we're a new Real Salt Lake," said midfielder Kyle Beckerman, who scored twice.
New was never in question with these guys. Improved was another issue, which was why this performance was encouraging.
Obviously, personnel acquisition varies significantly from Major League Soccer to minor-league baseball. In the Bees' case, general manager Marc Amicone can only hope the parent Angels keep supplying him good players, while he worries about how to make sure the fancy new scoreboard accurately tracks runs, hits and errors.
The Angels care about providing a high-quality team to their Triple-A partners, because "they really believe that winning breeds winning," Amicone said, while watching his team edge Portland 11-10.
Losing produces lots of changes, judging by RSL's four-year history.
Since the start of last season, the new management and coaching staff have replaced 20 of 28 players. Saturday, goalkeeper Nick Rimando was the only starter still in place from last spring.
And while RSL (1-1-1) is a long way from matching the Bees' start, there's something to be said for winning before June 23, which is when its 2007 breakthrough came - in the 12th game.
Coach Jason Kreis contended his team actually played better soccer in its first two games, while acknowledging, "Scoring the goals obviously makes things look brighter."
RSL scored twice in the game's first 19 minutes and twice in the last 13 minutes. After playing too defensively, Real attacked in the second half, at Kreis' insistence. The Bees already knew they had to keep scoring.
Banging out 17 hits, they raised their team batting average to .339 with an imposing lineup of players coming from different directions in the Angels' organization.
"This team's pretty unbelievable, to tell you the truth," said shortstop Brandon Wood, whose two homers against Portland gave him six in 10 games. "It proves that the Angels know what they're doing, as far as getting players."
The biggest beneficiary is first-year manager Bobby Mitchell, himself promoted from Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. "It's almost like those guys can play in the big leagues now," he said, "for somebody else."
Instead, the Angels are so loaded that some players are stuck here, to the Bees front office's pleasure. Portland threatened to tie the game, but Nick Hundley's one-hop shot caromed off the shin of pitcher Jose Arredondo and right to second baseman Gary Patchett. Call it a kick-save for the Bees reliever - and thanks for the transition to soccer, Jose.
Hours later, Rimando needed to make only three saves in RSL's shutout, while his teammates scored a bunch. "We all felt like we were bound to erupt eventually," Beckerman said.
Add it up: four goals for RSL, 11 runs for the Bees and 124 points for the Jazz. That's a very offensive Saturday in SLC.
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* KURT KRAGTHORPE can be reached at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.
