Have you ever seen the rain?
Some notes and thoughts during another rainy evening at Consol Energy Park:
Manager Greg Jelks said after the 11-0 loss Thursday night to Traverse City that roster moves were possible. That didn't come as a surprise because the Wild Things had three players – pitchers Brooks Dunn and Jon Haldis and catcher Phil St. Amant – in uniform Thursday who were not on the active roster or injured reserve. None has been signed to a contract.
The only move announced Friday was that infielder Rene Quintana was put on the retired list.
Haldis, it would appear, is a potential replacement if Chris Rivera (elbow) is placed on injured reserve. The 21-year-old Haldis is classified as a rookie, though he spent three years in the Los Angeles Dodgers' organization. St. Amant recently finished his senior season at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.
Dunn is a left-handed pitcher from Mississippi State who spent parts of three seasons in the San Diego Padres' system. One potential problem in signing Dunn, who traveled with the Wild Things during their recent three-game trip to Florence, Ky., is he's classified as an L2 by the Frontier League. Washington is already at its limit of two L2 players. To sign Dunn, the Wild Things must release, disable or trade one of their L2s or Veterans: Chris Sidick, Aaron Ledbetter, Brett Grandstrand, Mike Eisenberg or Pat O'Brien.
* The thundertstorm that swept through Washington around 5:45 p.m. has left Consol Energy Park's outfield with small ponds of standing water in left and right fields. And the tarp hasn't been removed yet. It's only going to get worse when the water on the tarp is dumped in the outfield.
Playing baseball in these conditions is, well, asinine.
* River City defeated Southern Illinois, 7-6, Thursday night on a walkoff home run by A.J. Van Slyke. Yes, he's the son of former Pirates center fielder Andy Van Slyke.
A.J. Van Slyke was signed Monday by River City after being released from the St. Louis Cardinals' system. The younger Van Slyke had advanced as far as Class AA with the Cardinals.
* The tarp is now off. Prior to its removal, Eisenberg amused the fans and his teammates by doing two head-first dives into the right-field pond.
* How's this for bad timing: Quintana was placed on the retired list the night he's the player on the posters given out at the gate by the Observer-Reporter.
* I can't imagine Jelks or Travese City manager Jon Cahill – or any outfielder – is very happy about the decision to play this game.
Manager Greg Jelks said after the 11-0 loss Thursday night to Traverse City that roster moves were possible. That didn't come as a surprise because the Wild Things had three players – pitchers Brooks Dunn and Jon Haldis and catcher Phil St. Amant – in uniform Thursday who were not on the active roster or injured reserve. None has been signed to a contract.
The only move announced Friday was that infielder Rene Quintana was put on the retired list.
Haldis, it would appear, is a potential replacement if Chris Rivera (elbow) is placed on injured reserve. The 21-year-old Haldis is classified as a rookie, though he spent three years in the Los Angeles Dodgers' organization. St. Amant recently finished his senior season at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.
Dunn is a left-handed pitcher from Mississippi State who spent parts of three seasons in the San Diego Padres' system. One potential problem in signing Dunn, who traveled with the Wild Things during their recent three-game trip to Florence, Ky., is he's classified as an L2 by the Frontier League. Washington is already at its limit of two L2 players. To sign Dunn, the Wild Things must release, disable or trade one of their L2s or Veterans: Chris Sidick, Aaron Ledbetter, Brett Grandstrand, Mike Eisenberg or Pat O'Brien.
* The thundertstorm that swept through Washington around 5:45 p.m. has left Consol Energy Park's outfield with small ponds of standing water in left and right fields. And the tarp hasn't been removed yet. It's only going to get worse when the water on the tarp is dumped in the outfield.
Playing baseball in these conditions is, well, asinine.
* River City defeated Southern Illinois, 7-6, Thursday night on a walkoff home run by A.J. Van Slyke. Yes, he's the son of former Pirates center fielder Andy Van Slyke.
A.J. Van Slyke was signed Monday by River City after being released from the St. Louis Cardinals' system. The younger Van Slyke had advanced as far as Class AA with the Cardinals.
* The tarp is now off. Prior to its removal, Eisenberg amused the fans and his teammates by doing two head-first dives into the right-field pond.
* How's this for bad timing: Quintana was placed on the retired list the night he's the player on the posters given out at the gate by the Observer-Reporter.
* I can't imagine Jelks or Travese City manager Jon Cahill – or any outfielder – is very happy about the decision to play this game.
posted by Chris Dugan at
3:34 PM
12 Comments:
With an attendance of 2327 Thursday night, they might have been better off not to play.
At 3 games under .500, is this worst record the Wild Things have had this far into the season?
Gregg Jelks is probably the best manager of the three managers in their history, so this may be the worst "batch" of players in the 7 years of this organization.
I disagree with the statement that Greg Jelks is the best manager in the history of the Wild Things franchise. On what grounds to you justify that statement? While I respect Jelks as a manager, I will argue that Mazz was the best manager the Wild Things have had. He was the most consistent winner and his teams played hard every single night. I had the opportunity to play for Mazz, and he was the best manager I have ever played for in my career.
Players are a reflection of their manager.
It seems that Mr. Jelks is just another hype job by the Wild Things. His team that won the so-called championship, the 2006 Otters, were under .500 for the regular season but managed to get VERY lucky in the flawed play-off set-up that year. The 2007 Sliders---- let's not mention that.
Mazz was made the scapegoat for the Wild Things 2007 season. If he gave up the job on his own, as wes suggested, I'd like to see the proof of that!
I agree that the team is indeed a reflection of their manager. Has anyone noticed how slow Jelks walks? He is a vitural human delay of the game. The team seems to be reacting in the same way.
Jelks is a joke! Why do think this guy has spent 20+ years bouncing from city to city, country to country? It's not because he's good at what he does. He wears out his welcome quickly, all talk and no substance... jumps at the chance to put the blame on others.
MAZZ is by far a better manager. His teams play hard, play smart and are ridiculously prepared to play. He gets the most out of his players and they love playing for him. You could say the same for Isom.
Please don't compare our current manager to the previous two. The only thing that will come from the Jelks era in Washington is a record low winning percentage, the same thing that happened in Evansville and Slippery Rock!
Perhaps Host Mom, you know, the one from the "Where are the Crowds" thread below, could take him in into her house, teach him all her baseball knowledge, tuck him in every night, treat him to a nice car, maybe put some money into his wallet,teach him how to throw a hissy fit when he doesn't win, and then, just perhaps, he would learn how to manage. But, I really doubt it.
Maybe the next time there is a 'sell out' crowd at the ball field they should say another 'SOLD out' crown at your House of Thrills' Between giving free tickets, and parking, to host families,(plus all the free promotional items they want, and letting the best manager in the Frontier League leave town,that is exactly what they have done - sold us out!! BTW: Whatever happened to the Thrills?
Playing the game under the field conditions last night was far beyond asinine – it was downright ridicules, far beyond even dumb, or stupid.
These folks are getting so desperate now that they would start a game at midnight in a snowstorm. As long as they can delay the start of the game long enough to sell as much beer, hot dogs, etc., as they can before the game starts. What the heck to they care about the players? The outfield COULD be reworked to drain properly with just a minimum of expense. You just need people that know how to do it. As far as that goes we had to walk in 1 ½ “ deep water just getting from the parking lot to our seats. This only shows that they also don’t give a crap about the fans either. It was good to see that very few people stayed beyond the fourth inning.
If the WT can’t make better decisions than they did last night, we are going to have to revoke both their ‘Stupid” AND “Dumb” licenses.
to the person above,
you still showed up last night though, didn't you? so why complain?
To the uninformed poster above. The reason we showed up last night is because season ticket holders MUST show up or they will be counted as ‘absent’. Why does this matter? Because the Wild Things have a reward program for those season ticket holders that show up for every game. Every ticket is scanned as your enter the park. So we showed up, sat in our seats for an inning, and then left. Is that all right with you? The person that told me this morning that most people left after the fourth inning was an employee at CEF
Look at the schedule. This is Traverse City's last trip to Washington this year. To post pone would make a double header on Saturday. And after Saturday's wonderful storm that I sat through, they would have had to make up the game in Traverse City. They can't lose a home game to the division leader. Also to note, the umpires control the game once the first pitch is thrown. None of them called it.
mazz was a good coach well respected in the game and by the players -- and with the current record is it the coach or the team?? if you need a spot for vet. player why don't you do sidick a favor and cut him loose so that he can sign with a better team he deserves a break -- or does ross want to hold him -- on that thought: i thought the job of ind ball was to get players to the big leagues - has anyone relayed that message to wash brass ?? could that be another reason why wash is having trouble attracting players?? for years the word was that ross would not let players go if mlb was interested- so after all this time i ask the question is it true or has there been no interest in wash players?? let me know what you think i would think that it would be good for the team/league if more were picked up - a better way to attract quality players - if they thought they had a chance to make the big leagues with a trip through wash.
Wash has already had two players picked up by affiliated teams this year. I doubt if there is a team in the league that has had more.
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