Call for help
The Wild Things needed to win Wednesday night against Kalamazoo for, oh, about 100 reasons. They needed a win to right a sinking ship. They needed a win to pull to within 2 1/2 games of the final wild card spot. They needed a win to prove to Kalamazoo that they can indeed beat the Kings...
So, trailing by one run in the seventh inning, Washington manager Greg Jelks turned to his bullpen and summoned a relief pitcher with an ERA of 37.80.
Is that the best the Wild Things can do?
OK, so that was after only one appearance in the Frontier League for Burke Baldwin, but that shows the difference between the Wild Things and Kings. Washington's relief pitchers (5.55 ERA) have been lit up on must nights. Kalamazoo's bullpen, meanwhile, has been lights out.
After Washington tied the game 5-5 in the seventh inning and had the bases loaded with one out, Kalamazoo manager Fran Riordan went to his bullpen and called upon reliever Joe Catanese, who entered the game with a 2-3 record, one save and 2.54 ERA.
Cantanese got out of the full-blown jam without surrendering another run, and the Kings scored twice against Baldwin in the eighth to win the game 7-5. Kalamazoo closer Brandon Parillo pitched a scoreless ninth for his 19th save. Parillo has 11 more saves than the entire Washington team.
"No doubt (the Kings') bullpen is something that separates them for other teams," Jelks said. "They have three guys down there (Cantanese, Parillo and Dan Baerlocher) are pretty effective."
Entering Wednesday, the league was batting only .153 against Baerlocher, .222 against Cantanese and .230 against Parillo. Those are numbers Washington relief pitchers used to put up, but not this year. Washington relievers pitchers have produced only one save since June 30.
There's little doubt that rebuilding the bullpen will be the No. 1 offseason priority for the Wild Things.
posted by Chris Dugan at
11:03 PM
2 Comments:
There was a quote on the Olympics the other night as the USA men's swimming team was dominating the field en route to shattering a world record in the 4 x 200 Relay that went something like this, "The US is so far in front I think my grandmother would be able to anchor this race and they'd still win."
Well, I'm pretty sure that his grandmother could pitch better out of the bullpen then what is there now.
If I was a starting pitcher, I would refuse to come out of a close game, period. No wonder JJ Hollenbeck was so angry when he got taken out tonight.
The best chance this team has at winning close games are having the starters go as long as they can and then bring in D'Allesandro to finish it off.
What is a manager to do?
The starting pitchers arms are getting tired.
He has no cofidence in the bull pen.
I believe on the radio, I heard their catcher was a better pitcher than hitter. Perhaps they should give him a chance.
With several off dates, perhaps a three man rotation and put one of the starter into the bull pen. That would be better than what is happening now.
The other teams theme now is get to the starters, knock them out, and we have the game won.
Well at least the Slider are comming to town for 4 games. After playing a team with even less talent, Washington fans will be thinking the Wild Things are once again a class act.
However, including tonight, 4 more games with Kalazamoo alone should knock the Things out of the playoffs!
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