What will it take?
The Frontier League’s four-day all-star break is a time for recovery, for starting over, wiping the slate clean – except for the won-lost record – healing injuries and laying the groundwork for a push for the playoffs over the season’s final two months.
For the Wild Things, the break might have come at the wrong time. After a dreadful start to the season, the Wild Things spent much of the first half trying to extract themselves from last place in the East Division. They would show promise one week only to return to their last-place look the next. When the Wild Things finally climbed out of the basement by putting together a five-game winning streak in the first half’s final week – it would have been a six-game streak had it not been for a ninth-inning meltdown in their last game – they get four days off.
Will it kill what momentum the Wild Things had going? Did the break come at a bad time?
“I don’t think so,” manager Mark Mason said. “We’ve been running the same position players out there every night. They’ve been looking for a breather. We are taking momentum into the break and the second half. I don’t think, in the middle of the year, breaks like this can be a bad thing.”
The Wild Things can use all the rest they can get because it’s going to be a long and hard climb to make the playoffs. At 21-27, they are in fifth place in the East. Though they’ve earned the reputation of being a good second-half team, the Wild Things have never been lower than fourth place or more than one game below .500 at the break.
So what’s it going to take for the Wild Things to go from also-ran to playoff team? How many wins will they need in the second half?
The saying around the Frontier League is a playoff contender plays .500 ball on the road and wins two of every three at home. Let’s say the Wild Things follow that script and go 12-12 on the road and 16-8 at home in the second half. That gives Washington a 49-47 record. History tells us that won’t be enough. They will need several series sweeps.
In the Frontier League, the two division winners and two remaining teams with the best records qualify for the playoffs. Since the league went to a 96-game schedule in 2004, the fourth-best team has averaged 53.4 wins. It’s probably going to take at least a 33-15 record the rest of the way for Washington to jump five teams in the standings and make the postseason as a wild-card. With that in mind, it’s not a stretch to say the six-game road trip to Evansville and Southern Illinois to start the second half is very important. Washington is the second-worst road team (7-17) in the league and has won only one series away from Consol Energy Park. That trend must change starting with this road trip.
Before the Wild Things and the playoff race can be mentioned together, Washington’s pitching must improve significantly. When Aaron Ledbetter aged out of the league and three other pitchers were traded during the offseason, it left Washington without its top four starters from last year. You knew the pitching wouldn’t be as good as past Wild Things teams, but nobody expected the new staff to be next-to-last in ERA (6.00) and leading the league in walks.
Washington has only two starting pitchers – Jason Neitz and Brian McCullough – with more than one win. It’s a pitching staff without an ace and the bullpen that has more blown saves (9) than saves (8).
“We have to get wins from all our starters. If not, we have to get quality starts to give our offense a chance to come back and win,” Mason said. “That’s what we weren’t getting in the first half. Early in the season, too often we’d fall behind big early, then come back and lose by a run.
“You have to be able to win with pitching and defense on most nights. The hitting will have peaks and valleys, but pitching and defense has to be a constant.”
Hitting has not been the Wild Things’ problem, even with outfielders Chris Sidick and Matt Sutton batting .187 and .238 respectively. Playing in a pitcher’s ballpark, Washington is second in the league in home runs (69). Ernie Banks, Jacob Dempsey and Grant Psomas give Washington a formidable middle of the lineup, left fielder Phil Laurent was an outstanding early season pickup and second baseman Michael Parker has been among the league leaders in on-base percentage. If the latter five continue to produce, you have to think Washington has enough offense to make a run at the playoffs. After all, Sidick and Sutton can’t possibly struggle as much at the plate in the second half, right?
Second-half turnarounds are nothing unusual in the Frontier League. In 2005, the Wild Things went from second place at the break to division winner – by 10 games – after winning 13 in a row. Last year, Windy City struggled in the first half, fired its manager at midseason and went on to win the championship.
“One thing I’ve learned about this league is the team that gets hot last wins,” Sidick said early this season.
In other words, nobody is eliminated by the all-star break, so it’s the team that puts together an extended winning streak in August that will still be playing in mid-September.
For the Wild Things, the break might have come at the wrong time. After a dreadful start to the season, the Wild Things spent much of the first half trying to extract themselves from last place in the East Division. They would show promise one week only to return to their last-place look the next. When the Wild Things finally climbed out of the basement by putting together a five-game winning streak in the first half’s final week – it would have been a six-game streak had it not been for a ninth-inning meltdown in their last game – they get four days off.
Will it kill what momentum the Wild Things had going? Did the break come at a bad time?
“I don’t think so,” manager Mark Mason said. “We’ve been running the same position players out there every night. They’ve been looking for a breather. We are taking momentum into the break and the second half. I don’t think, in the middle of the year, breaks like this can be a bad thing.”
The Wild Things can use all the rest they can get because it’s going to be a long and hard climb to make the playoffs. At 21-27, they are in fifth place in the East. Though they’ve earned the reputation of being a good second-half team, the Wild Things have never been lower than fourth place or more than one game below .500 at the break.
So what’s it going to take for the Wild Things to go from also-ran to playoff team? How many wins will they need in the second half?
The saying around the Frontier League is a playoff contender plays .500 ball on the road and wins two of every three at home. Let’s say the Wild Things follow that script and go 12-12 on the road and 16-8 at home in the second half. That gives Washington a 49-47 record. History tells us that won’t be enough. They will need several series sweeps.
In the Frontier League, the two division winners and two remaining teams with the best records qualify for the playoffs. Since the league went to a 96-game schedule in 2004, the fourth-best team has averaged 53.4 wins. It’s probably going to take at least a 33-15 record the rest of the way for Washington to jump five teams in the standings and make the postseason as a wild-card. With that in mind, it’s not a stretch to say the six-game road trip to Evansville and Southern Illinois to start the second half is very important. Washington is the second-worst road team (7-17) in the league and has won only one series away from Consol Energy Park. That trend must change starting with this road trip.
Before the Wild Things and the playoff race can be mentioned together, Washington’s pitching must improve significantly. When Aaron Ledbetter aged out of the league and three other pitchers were traded during the offseason, it left Washington without its top four starters from last year. You knew the pitching wouldn’t be as good as past Wild Things teams, but nobody expected the new staff to be next-to-last in ERA (6.00) and leading the league in walks.
Washington has only two starting pitchers – Jason Neitz and Brian McCullough – with more than one win. It’s a pitching staff without an ace and the bullpen that has more blown saves (9) than saves (8).
“We have to get wins from all our starters. If not, we have to get quality starts to give our offense a chance to come back and win,” Mason said. “That’s what we weren’t getting in the first half. Early in the season, too often we’d fall behind big early, then come back and lose by a run.
“You have to be able to win with pitching and defense on most nights. The hitting will have peaks and valleys, but pitching and defense has to be a constant.”
Hitting has not been the Wild Things’ problem, even with outfielders Chris Sidick and Matt Sutton batting .187 and .238 respectively. Playing in a pitcher’s ballpark, Washington is second in the league in home runs (69). Ernie Banks, Jacob Dempsey and Grant Psomas give Washington a formidable middle of the lineup, left fielder Phil Laurent was an outstanding early season pickup and second baseman Michael Parker has been among the league leaders in on-base percentage. If the latter five continue to produce, you have to think Washington has enough offense to make a run at the playoffs. After all, Sidick and Sutton can’t possibly struggle as much at the plate in the second half, right?
Second-half turnarounds are nothing unusual in the Frontier League. In 2005, the Wild Things went from second place at the break to division winner – by 10 games – after winning 13 in a row. Last year, Windy City struggled in the first half, fired its manager at midseason and went on to win the championship.
“One thing I’ve learned about this league is the team that gets hot last wins,” Sidick said early this season.
In other words, nobody is eliminated by the all-star break, so it’s the team that puts together an extended winning streak in August that will still be playing in mid-September.
posted by Chris Dugan at
5:36 PM
16 Comments:
The team that gets hot lasts wins. Is that strictly a Frontier League mantra or would that not be a good example of every league in every sport in the history of the world. Can someone give me an example of a team getting cold yet still winning a title?
I get the feeling that Grant Phomas will be gone before too much longer. He deserves a move to somewhere he can play with another them that actually knows how to play baseball.
do you mean Grant Psomas, the guy who leads the team in homeruns, rbis and ERRORS?
your posting would lead me to believe that his being around a team that actually knows how to play baseball would help him with the wild throws and the ground balls off his chest/arm/glove/feet etc. is that what you meant?
"He deserves a move to somewhere he can play with another them that actually knows how to play baseball."
and we all deserve somebody posting about baseball that actually knows something about the game.
Grant Psomas is a first baseman by trade. He was stuck on third because of Ernie Banks. If Ernie played third, he would lead the team in errors.
Think before you open your anonymous mouth.
lliB,
That's not right.
Entering this year, Psomas had played 229 games at third, 137 games at first (114 of those in 2007--the only year he played more than 15 games at first).
Psomas has been a first baseman more recently, but his been a third baseman much more often.
I hope Grant "Gungie" moves on soon. My cousin deserves to be back in the mix. I feel he got the shaft last year after his lasik surgery.
psomas isn't going anywhere, mostly because of his age, being 27already i believe. i cant see an affiliated team giving him another shot at this point, and there are a ton of holes in his swing.
nice player though, if he were 2 years younger, he may get out of here. after hitting the AAA level, he wound up playing at jupiter last season, which would leave you to believe he was on his way out anyway
he wound up playing at jupiter last season, which would leave you to believe he was on his way out anyway
Playing for the W@ild Things means your already out.
"Playing for the W@ild Things means your already out."
and writing stupid things on the wild things blog means you're already stupid. those 8 years you spent in second grade don't seem to have helped much. but i'll bet you killed those other kids in dodgeball, eh?
^^^^^^^Another contender for funniest comment of the year, especially the dodgeball thing.
"he wound up playing at jupiter last season, which would leave you to believe he was on his way out anyway"
Injury rehab.
Playing in the Frontier League means your out. Tell that to Zavada and Sherill. Stay Hot with those comments you seem pretty intelligent.
playing in the frontier league means your out.
then why are you following it and posting on the blog? to the rplayers and real fans it doesn't mean your out
Frontier League alum Brendan Donnelly made a pretty good living being K-Rod's setup man on a WORLD SERIES WINNING TEAM.
And yes I'm piling on.
not to mention george sherrill closing games in baltimore. and wasn't that sherill getting big outs in the all-star game last year.
not the frontier league all-star game but the mlb all-star game. yankee stadium. sound familiar?
figured i'd pile on as well
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