Where have you gone, Robert Garvin?
It's hard to believe when you look at the results this season, but one constant for the Wild Things during their first six seasons was their bullpen. When playing Washington, teams knew they had to be in the lead entering the seventh inning or the game was lost.
Washington had a long line of top-notch Frontier Legaue relievers. Jim Popp is second on the league's all-time saves list with 38. Travis Risser had a microscopic 1.09 ERA last year. Stephen Spragg, who now plays for Chillicothe, won six games and had four saves out of the bullpen in 2005. Anthony Kozol led the league in saves in 2003. The list goes on and on.
But to find the guy who had the best year out of the Wild Things' bullpen you have to go all the way back to the franchise's first season in 2002. Right-hander Robert Garvin turned in a season that, by this year's standards at least, is mind-boggling.
Garvin was 2-2 with 18 saves and a 2.20 ERA in 33 games. You're probably thinking those numbers are good but not great. There have been Wild Things with lower ERAs and more saves, you say. Those points are true, but let's look deeper into Garvin's season.
The right-hander wasn't expected to make the team that year, even though he was one of six players who were with Canton in 2001 and went to camp with the Wild Things after the team was sold and moved to Washington.
Garvin worked his way into the closer's role and converted 18 of 20 save opportunities, including 18 straight. His two blown saves were in his first appearance of the year (in middle relief) and in his last outing of the regular season which, as it turned out, was meaningless because the Wild Things had clinched the division title only minutes earlier because of Richmond loss.
The most impressive aspect of Garvin's season was that he pitched 47 innings and issued only 4 walks. Think about that for a moment. Four walks in 47 innings. In one game this season, Washington relief pitchers walked five consecutive batters.
At one stretch in 2002, Garvin had 15 consecutive outings and 17 1/3 innings pitched without walking a batter. Over that span, Garvin struck out 24 batters. Twenty-four strikeouts to zero walks. Pretty impressive.
Garvin was signed by the San Diego Padres after that season and assigned to their high-Class A team in 2003. He led the California League in appearances with 61. During the next offseason, Garvin was selected by the Montreal Expos in the Class AA Rule 5 Draft (yes, there is a Class AAA and AA version of the Rule 5) but he never pitched for the Expos' affiliate in Harrisburg.
I don't know whatever happened to Robert Garvin, but after watching Frontier League relievers walk the park this year I often think about his pinpoint control in 2002.
Washington had a long line of top-notch Frontier Legaue relievers. Jim Popp is second on the league's all-time saves list with 38. Travis Risser had a microscopic 1.09 ERA last year. Stephen Spragg, who now plays for Chillicothe, won six games and had four saves out of the bullpen in 2005. Anthony Kozol led the league in saves in 2003. The list goes on and on.
But to find the guy who had the best year out of the Wild Things' bullpen you have to go all the way back to the franchise's first season in 2002. Right-hander Robert Garvin turned in a season that, by this year's standards at least, is mind-boggling.
Garvin was 2-2 with 18 saves and a 2.20 ERA in 33 games. You're probably thinking those numbers are good but not great. There have been Wild Things with lower ERAs and more saves, you say. Those points are true, but let's look deeper into Garvin's season.
The right-hander wasn't expected to make the team that year, even though he was one of six players who were with Canton in 2001 and went to camp with the Wild Things after the team was sold and moved to Washington.
Garvin worked his way into the closer's role and converted 18 of 20 save opportunities, including 18 straight. His two blown saves were in his first appearance of the year (in middle relief) and in his last outing of the regular season which, as it turned out, was meaningless because the Wild Things had clinched the division title only minutes earlier because of Richmond loss.
The most impressive aspect of Garvin's season was that he pitched 47 innings and issued only 4 walks. Think about that for a moment. Four walks in 47 innings. In one game this season, Washington relief pitchers walked five consecutive batters.
At one stretch in 2002, Garvin had 15 consecutive outings and 17 1/3 innings pitched without walking a batter. Over that span, Garvin struck out 24 batters. Twenty-four strikeouts to zero walks. Pretty impressive.
Garvin was signed by the San Diego Padres after that season and assigned to their high-Class A team in 2003. He led the California League in appearances with 61. During the next offseason, Garvin was selected by the Montreal Expos in the Class AA Rule 5 Draft (yes, there is a Class AAA and AA version of the Rule 5) but he never pitched for the Expos' affiliate in Harrisburg.
I don't know whatever happened to Robert Garvin, but after watching Frontier League relievers walk the park this year I often think about his pinpoint control in 2002.
posted by Chris Dugan at
9:55 PM
4 Comments:
Another blown save last night for the Wild Things. How does the Wild Things blown saves compare to other Frontier League teams?
hope ian hiesel and dan horvath are reading this
Blown saves in the Frontier League are up significantly this year. Here are the current blown save totals (keep in mind Washington had five blown saves last year):
Evansville - 1
Gateway - 3
Florence - 4
Southern Illinois - 4
Traverse City - 4
Rockford - 6
Kalamazoo - 7
River City - 8
Midwest - 9
Chillicothe - 10
Washington - 10
Windy City - 11
Horvath pitched well last night again hope this keeps up. We need this series against Traverse there are 39 games left we need to make a run.
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