Adjustment period?
There was talk Thursday night from several Wild Things players and team officials about the adjustment period players coming from affiliated ball have when facing Frontier League pitching. In affiliated ball, pitchers throw a little harder and major league organizations want their young guys to develop their fastballs and not mess around with -- or risky injury from -- throwing an excessive amount of breaking balls. The Frontier League is a breaking ball league and the thinking was some of the Wild Things' newcomers are having trouble adjusting to first-pitch changeups or 3-2 curveballs.
That, they say, was why Washington managed only 12 hits and three earned runs in two games against expansion Slippery Rock.
With this in mind, I decided to play Bill James and check statistics from past seasons. I took one player from each Wild Things season who was making the drop from full-season Class A or higher to the Frontier League, then broke down his first 10 games in the FL. Here goes:
2006-Pat Peavey: .275 BA, 0 extra-base hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts
2005-Chris Carter: .333, 4XBH, 5BB, 8K
2004-L.J. Biernbaum: .250, 2 XBH, 9BB, 5K
2003-Doug Garcia: .300, 3XBH, 3 BB, 4K
2002-Josh Loggins: .357, 6XBH, 1BB, 7K
The only trends here are that the players' batting averages after 10 games were generally what they were at the end of the season. The surprise was the strikeouts outnumbered the walks.
Washington managed only 12 hits in two games against expansion Slippery Rock in the season-opening series. Maybe it wasn't all poor hitting. Give some credit to Slippery Rock pitching. Zac Cline, Thursday's starter, was 14-5 in two seasons in the Phillies' system and has a chance to win a lot of games for the Sliders.
This is probably the best pitching staff Washington has ever had, but is the offense good enough to make it a playoff team? That's something that will take time to answer.
That, they say, was why Washington managed only 12 hits and three earned runs in two games against expansion Slippery Rock.
With this in mind, I decided to play Bill James and check statistics from past seasons. I took one player from each Wild Things season who was making the drop from full-season Class A or higher to the Frontier League, then broke down his first 10 games in the FL. Here goes:
2006-Pat Peavey: .275 BA, 0 extra-base hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts
2005-Chris Carter: .333, 4XBH, 5BB, 8K
2004-L.J. Biernbaum: .250, 2 XBH, 9BB, 5K
2003-Doug Garcia: .300, 3XBH, 3 BB, 4K
2002-Josh Loggins: .357, 6XBH, 1BB, 7K
The only trends here are that the players' batting averages after 10 games were generally what they were at the end of the season. The surprise was the strikeouts outnumbered the walks.
Washington managed only 12 hits in two games against expansion Slippery Rock in the season-opening series. Maybe it wasn't all poor hitting. Give some credit to Slippery Rock pitching. Zac Cline, Thursday's starter, was 14-5 in two seasons in the Phillies' system and has a chance to win a lot of games for the Sliders.
This is probably the best pitching staff Washington has ever had, but is the offense good enough to make it a playoff team? That's something that will take time to answer.
posted by Chris Dugan at
9:03 AM
2 Comments:
Speaking of adjustment period.
What a shock: Ticket prices are up!
Parking is now $4.00 per car (more than Washington Hospital).
It seems prices at the ball park are rising faster than gasoline!!!!
How do prices for tickets and parking compare to other ball parks in the Frontier League?
Did some checking on season-ticket prices and single-game ticket prices around the FL. Keep in mind that Slippery Rock is playing only 36 home games instead of the normal 48. The other 12 games have been picked up as home games by other teams. In other words, some teams have more than 48 home games. These prices, before discounts, are according to each team's website with the range of cheapest ticket to most expensive:
Team Season Game
Chillicothe $216-252 $4-7
Florence $408-484* $8-9.50*
Slippery Rock $50-160 $4-6
Washington $298-538 $6-11
Kalamazoo $200-350 $5-8
Traverse City $250-459 $6-10
Rockford $484-689 $5-15
Windy City $325 $6-8
Evansville $95-250 $5-8
So. Illinois $360 $4-8
Gateway $384 $5(lawn)-9
River City $384-528 $5-11
* Includes the all-star game.
The $95 season ticket at Evansville is for seniors only. The most expensive single-game ticket in the FL is at Rockford, but these $15 seats are located between the dugouts and feature waitress service. There are only 71 such seats in the ballpark.
As for parking, most teams don't mention these prices on the website. Evansville does mention free parking and River City provides directions to a free lot. At Windy City and Southern Illinois, parking is $2.
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