Back to work
The family vacation is over and I'm back in ole southwestern Pennsylvania, just in time to listen to another late-innings collapse, this one a five-run bottom of the ninth at Windy City.
While I was gone, the Wild Things did manage to win a season-high five in a row, climb to a season-best six games above .500, have a benches-clearing incident with Windy City and play the longest game in franchise history, a 5-hour, 11-minute marathon at Rockford.
They also racked up two more blown saves (in the same game) and simply refused to go to the bullpen Saturday night, which brought back shades of a game last month at Kalamazoo.
I'll touch on the longest game in another post, but this one has to center around the continuing and well-documented bullpen woes.
Washington leads the league in blown saves and has 13 last at-bat losses. Still, the Wild Things would make the playoffs - by a mere half-game - if they started today.
But, do you think they can stay in that position if the status quo is kept in the bullpen? If I were manager Greg Jelks or GM Ross Vecchio, I wouldn't take that chance. It seems the current plan for late-innings situations, depending on the day, is either leave the starting pitcher in until his arm falls off or simply pick a name out of a hat and give that guy a chance for a save. Neither has been working.
As I see it, there are three options available for the Wild Things and the latter two aren't appealing:
1. Make a move to bring in a proven closer. By this, I mean make a trade. Don't bring in a guy who has recently been released by some other independent team or couldn't get an out in the New York-Penn League.
The Frontier League's transactions deadline is Aug. 12. Jelks and Vecchio must make a strong pitch now for a proven guy. Doing nothing will be the wrong thing.
One player who might be available is Evansville's Justin Smith. He's hardly a proven stopper because he didn't become the Otters' closer until a week before the all-star break, but Smith does have seven saves. Opponents are batting less than .200 against Smith and he has struck out 21 in 18 innings.
Evansville is in last place in the West Division and in danger of falling out of the playoff race. The Otters might be willing to shake things up at the deadline.
Earl Oakes of Midwest also could be worth making a run at acquiring.
Another option along this line of thinking is to trade with another league. Some are harder to deal with than others because of waiver rules and split-season formats, but there are capable closers out there playing on teams that have no chance of making the postseason.
The Wild Things have an open L2 roster spot, so there is room for some maneuvering.
2. Pick someone in the bullpen, tell him he's the closer, use him in every late-game save situation and hope for the best. The most likely candidates are Rick Austin and Dan Horvath. Jelks, however, has shown no willingness to make either the go-to guy, so this probably won't happen.
3. Try to find another starting pitcher - again, this will likely require a trade - and move J.J. Hollenbeck into the closer's role. Hollenbeck has proven he won't buckle under pressure and was a reliever in past seasons. Moving one of your four capable starting pitchers to the bullpen is never desirable, but these are desperate times for the Wild Things.
posted by Chris Dugan at
8:51 PM
17 Comments:
Midwest has said, unquestionably, that Oakes is not available, under any circumstances.
These are indeed “desperate times for the Wild Things”. Jelks has shown his propensity for just picking his nose and displaying his arrogant attitude all season. He’s got his head so far up his butt that there is NO WAY he can see what is going on. I have yet to talk to even one fan at CEP that wants to see him return next year. If he does return, look for the attendance figures to drop even more. In fact, Jelks IS the reason for the indifferent attitude of most of the fans this year.
BTW: The first fight last night was Sidick’s fault. He just has to be the most dirty and disliked player in the Frontier League.
Unless you were at Windy City, how would you know who's fault the fight was? if you didn't see it first-hand you have no basis for fact. It might have been Sidick's fault, it might not have been but you don't know. And what does your ramblings about Jelks have to do with the topic of this original post? You sound like a player who was cut by Jelks.
Lets see.
Jelks is a bad manager.
If the playoffs started today, Washington would be one of 4 teams in the playoffs. 8 teams would be out. A couple of weeks ago, Washington would have been in the 8 out of the picture.
If picking your nose is what it takes to win a championship, then pick twice as often.
Yes, Jelks is a bad manager Mister Anonymous at 8:39 am.
So, what will be the repercussions of the Sidick fight? Will he be suspended for a few games or just for the game that he was fighting in?
I was indded at the game - Sidicks fault!!!!
Bring back Tom cochran
if you were at the game and can comment about Jelks' attitude and talked to people at CEP, then you can only be either a wild things player, the parent of a wild things player, the radio guy, the bus driver or somebody who is lying about being at the game.
I doubt if it were a former WT player. Sidick is a great teammate.
Just thinking here... now that Chillicothe has lost eight in a row, would the Paints consider giving up Stephen Spragg or Edwin Walker in a trade?
Mason might do it considering he could be the WT manager in '09.
Why help Jelks out though? He wouldn't do the same for Mason, last year he had several Sliders that the Paints wanted and he wouldn't do it.
Mason might want to help Ross because he's the guy who can hire him next year. Still wouldn't expect a trade to be made.
I think most people who comment here don't understand what Jelks is doing. He's a fine manager, and the Wild Things are lucky to have him. I hope he'll return to Washington next season. He makes decisions based on the staff he has,their health, and their ability. He works diligently and developing young men who are prepared not only for baseball but also life. Look at the big picture, and realize that as fans or non-participants, we don't know the inner-workings of this orgnanization.
Welcome back to our planet.
As an insider and not a player of Jelks I can tell you he doesn't work diligently to develop his young men. Quite the contrary, he treats them like crap all the time. These guys are professional and have not told everything they could about what they see or hear but Jelks is not worthy of any praise.
I agree!!!
"As an insider...I can tell you...
These guys are professional... ...not told everything they could about what they see or hear...."
I'm particularly impressed with your recognition of the players' professionalism of keeping their mouths shut while at the same time showing your lack of the same attribute.
You're not an insider of anything that doesn't have sawdust on the floor and cases of empty bottles in the storage room.
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