Raber retired

Though no official annoucement has been made by the Wild Things, the Frontier League's transactions page lists the retirement of Chris Raber. This leaves the Wild Things with four L2 players - RHP Jon Lewis, RHP Mike Schellinger, 1B Nathan Messner
and OF Jacob Dempsey - which is two over the league limit. Only Lewis has signed for 2009. With the recent trade of 2B Ismael Castro, Washington is one under the limit of 3 Veterans.

Ketron back in FL

Former Wild Things catcher Brandon Ketron is back in the Frontier League. Ketron will play for former Wild Things manager John Massarelli with the Lake Erie Crushers.

Ketron played 52 games for Washington in 2006, hitting .330 with five home runs, before having his contract purchased by the Yankees. He spent parts of two years in the Yankees' system and got only eight at-bats. Last season, Ketron was a backup catcher and third baseman for Southern Maryland of the independent Atlantic League.

Kids eat free

While reading the Associated Press wire Tuesday afternoon, I found the following and thought it might be of interest:

NJ’s top 2 minor league teams let kids eat free
LAKEWOOD, N.J. (AP) — Kids aged 12 and under will be able to eat for free at every home game this year by New Jersey’s top two minor league baseball teams.
The Lakewood BlueClaws and the Trenton Thunder say they’re doing it to help cash-strapped families during the recession.
It expands a program the BlueClaws had for the past three years that let kids eat free on Mondays only.
Upon entering the stadium, each child will receive a voucher good for a free hot dog, a bag of potato chips and a 12 oz. soda.
The Thunder is the Class AA affiliate of the New York Yankees in the Eastern League. The Blue Claws are the Philadelphia Phillies’ Class A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.

From the majors to the Frontier League

In case you didn't see this on the other league sites, the Windy City ThunderBolts signed former major elague pitcher Billy Petrick to a contract for the 2009 season.

Petrick was a third-round draft pick of the Chicago Cubs and pitched in eight games (0-0, 7.45 ERA) out of the bullpen for the Cubs in 2008. He was bothered by shoulder injuries and spent almost all of last year on the minor-league disabled list, pitching in only eight games in Class A.

Petrick will be the fifth former major leaguer to play in a Frontier League game. Corey Thurman pitched in 49 games for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2002 and 2003 before going 2-3 in six starts for Florence in 2005. One of Thurman's wins was an eight-shutout-innings performance against Washington. He made it back to Triple-A but pitched last year in the independent Atlantic League.

Scott Sobkowiak was a former top-10 prospect of the Atlanta Braves and pitched the final inning of the final game of the 2001 season for the Braves. He pitched for Rockford in 2003 and 2004. Ben Diggins was a top pitching prospect for Milwaukee and made five starts for the Brewers in 2003. He tried to make it as a hitter with Windy City and lasted 17 games.

There also was former Wild Things hitting coach Joe Charboneau, who took one at-bat for Canton in 2000.

I recall that Kalamazoo, at its tryout camp a couple of years ago, found a guy who had briefly played in the majors with Florida but was never able to get him to sign and onto the field in the regular season.

Two more signed

The Wild Things announced Tuesday the signings of catcher Steve Pickerell and infielder Michael Parker.

Pickerell will be counted on to do a significant amount of the catching while Kris Rochelle recovers from elbow surgery. Pickerell spent three seasons in the Tampa Bay Rays' system and played last year in the Frontier League with Rockford, hitting .273 in 33 at-bats before breaking a bone in his arm in June. The injury ended his season. Pickerell is classified as a Rookie by FL standards because he has only 134 career at-bats.

Parker comes out of the New York Mets' system. He played multiple positions during his two seasons with the Mets. In 2007, Parker batted .298 in the rookie-level Appalachian league but struggled last year, hitting only .190 between the Class A South Atlantic League and short-season New York-Penn League.

Pickerell is from Cincinnati and played at the University of Cincinnati. Parker is from Newton, Mass., and played at George Washington.

I suspect these will be the last of the newcomers to sign with the Wild Things until after the cuts at minor-league spring training. The next round of signings will be players from the 2008 team.

One of my favorite FL stories

One of the charms and appeals of minor-league baseball is the characters associated with the games. The players, the coaches, the umpires, the broadcasters, the fans. There's an interesting person and good/funny story around ever corner. From Max McLeary, the one-eyed umpire, to Matt Buckmiller, the Ivy League graduate who canceled a job interview with the CIA to sign with the Wild Things in 2003, the Frontier League has had more than its fair share of interesting people and stories.

One of my favorite stories happened long before the Wild Things entered the league. It involves Kevin Rouch, the Frontier League's deputy commissioner/general counsel and an ambidextrous pitcher named Jamie Irving, who was a Harvard graduate. The old-time Frontier League people who visit this site probably already know this story, but it's likely news to many of the Wild Things' fans.

Rouch, who has a terrific sense of humor, is an attorney who teaches sports law in Ohio. But Rouch was Chillicothe's radio play-by-play broadcaster during the Paints' early days in the Frontier League. One night, Chillicothe was playing a game against the Johnstown Steal, which featured Irving.

Irving hurt his right arm during high school and taught himself how to throw and pitch left-handed. The right arm finally healed during Irving's days at Harvard and he started pitching with both arms. One weekend, Irving beat Yale on consecutive days, one game pitching left-handed and the next tossing right-handed.

Against Chillicothe, Irving was pitching left-handed until late in the game, when he decided to start an inning throwing right-handed.

When Rouch realized what was happening, he told his radio audience, "Jamie Irving is relieving himself on the mound with his right hand." Not once, but twice.

The other people in the pressbox heard what Rouch said and immediately burst into laughter.

Rouch has never been able to let that flub fade into history.

He's still Super Joe

Here's a story from the Toledo Blade about former Wild Things hitting coach Joe Charboneau. The Frontier League is mentioned only briefly and there is no mention of the Wild Things, yet it's still a good read.

Read the story here.

Updated roster

Here is the Wild Things' updated roster, which includes the signings Wednesday of former Peters Township High School and Duquesne University first baseman Aaron Janusey (pictured) and outfielder Blake Butler, who played last year in the independent United League.

Keep in mind that each Frontier League team must follow these roster guidelines:

1. A team can have no more than 3 Veterans.
2. A team can have no more than 2 players classified as L2.
3. A team can have no more than 7 players classified as L1.
4. A team that goes with the maximum 24-man roster must have at least 12 players who are Rookies.

If a team does not have the maximum number of players in a particular classification, it can fill with players from a lower classification. For example, if you have only 2 Veterans, then you can carry 3 L2 players on your roster.

The * after a player's name means the club has announced he has signed a contract for 2009.

As you can see, Washington has plenty of room for L1 players, which will likely be used to sign starting pitchers released from minor-league camps.

Veterans (3):
2B - Ismael Castro
SS - Brett Grandstrand
OF - Chris Sidick

L2 (2):
RHP - Jon Lewis*
RHP - Mike Schellinger
1B - Nathan Messner
OF - Jacob Dempsey
OF - Chris Raber

L1 (7):
C - Kris Rochelle (IR)
3B/OF - Brad Arnett
INF - Chris Carrara

Rookies (Minimum of 12):
RHP - Rick Austin
RHP - Joe D'Allesandro
RHP - Justin Edwards*
RHP - Sean Heimpel
LHP - Dan Horvath
RHP - Matt Maradeo
RHP - Jace Smith*
P/C - Josh Eachues
1B - Aaron Janusey*
INF - Joe Spires*
OF - Jason Appel*
OF - Tim Alberts
OF - Blake Butler*

Mason's connection to majors

Major league spring training begins in less than two weeks, and while there are no former Wild Things in the big-league camps there is one connection to Washington manager Mark Mason.

Right-hander Chris Jakubauskas, who was a pitcher for the Mason-managed Ohio Valley Redcoats in 2005, is a non-roster invitee in the Seattle Mariners' camp.

Jakubauskas spent three seasons (2003-05) in the Frontier League with Florence and Ohio Valley. He had a 9-15 record. Against the Wild Things, Jakubauskas was 2-3 with a 4.55 ERA. Jakubauskas, who played in college at Oklahoma, was selected by an awful Florence team with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 Frontier League draft.

In his one season with Mason, Jakubauskas had a 5-4 record that included one win over the Wild Things.

After leaving the FL, Jakubauskas spent time in two other independent leagues before being signed by Seattle in 2007. He made it to Class AAA last year, going 5-1 in 12 games (nine starts).

Also among the Mariners' 17 non-roster invitees is first baseman Chris Shelton. You might remember him as one of the players the Pirates lost in the Rule 5 draft purge of 2004. That was the year when five of the first six players chosen in the Rule 5 were players left unprotected by the Pirates. There was a big stink in Pittsburgh about losing Shelton because he was the Pirates' minor league player of the year the previous season.