Have some Wine with that?

The Wild Things don't have a manager but they do have their third player signed for 2010. The team announced Monday the signing of first baseman/outfielder Cory Wine.

If pedigree means anything, the Wild Things made a good signing. Wine is a third-generation professional player. He's the son of Robbie Wine, who was an All-American at Oklahoma State, the No. 8 pick in the 1983 Major League draft and is the current head coach at Penn State. He's also the grandson of former major league shortstop Bobby Wine.

“Cory comes from a baseball background and has been around the game his entire life,” said Wild Things general manager Ross Vecchio. “Scouts have raved about his power potential and we feel he’ll be able to realize that potential with the Wild Things.”

As a senior at Penn State in 2009, Wine batted .307 with five home runs and 41 RBI.

The Philadelphia Phillies drafted Wine in the 38th round last June. He appeared in 34 games for the Phillies' affiliate in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League but batted only .189.

Washington made one other move, trading right-handed relief pitcher Aaron Guinn (0-0, 4.91) to the Las Cruces Vaqueros of the Continental League in exchange for future considerations.

By the way, there are only 79 shopping days left before the start of Frontier League spring training. Time to pick a manager, wouldn't you say?

Cleaning out the notebook

Received an email notice today that the Wild Things are holding a snowman contest. Build a snowman wearing Wild Things gear, take a picture, send it to the team. Winner gets something.

Maybe the winning snowman will be named manager.

* An interesting trade from earlier this month had the Kalamazoo Kings sending shortstop Kyle Higgins, outfielders Jeff Grose, OF Brandon Anderson and OF Josh Short, third baseman Amos Ramon, second baseman Joe Ramos and right-handed pitcher John Brownell to the Lake County Fielders in exchange for three pitchers, an infielder and future considerations.

Basically, Kalamazoo sent six starting position players from last year and their best pitcher to Lake County to be reunited with former Kings manager Fran Riordan. Kalamazoo is starting from scratch under new manager Jamie Keefe.

* The Rockford Riverhawks, formerly of the Frontier League and now of the no-age-limit Northern League, have signed Randall Simon.

That's the same Randall Simon who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and is best known for using a bat to plunk Guido the Italian Sausage during a between-innings sausage race at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

* There are 81 days remaining before Frontier League spring training and the Wild Things still don't have a manager.

* Former Wild Things outfielder Matt Sutton has signed a contract with the Lake Erie Crushers.

* Yancy Yeater, who worked for the Wild Things for four years and coordinated the audio and video at Consol Energy Park before being let go during the offseason purge, has started a Frontier Legaue blog. You can view it at http://frontierleague.blogspot.com/

* Former Wild Things manager Jeff Isom (2002-03) is returning as manager of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Milwaukee Brewers' affiliate in the Class A Midwest League.

* Former Wild Things second baseman Ryan Ellis will be the hitting coach of the Savannah Sand Gnats, the New York Mets' affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic League.

84 days and counting

In case you're not counting, there are 84 days remaining until the start of Frontier League spring training ... and still no manager for the Wild Things.

It will likely take 84 days to remove the snow from Consol Energy Park.

90-day notice

As I write this, there are 90 days remaining before the start of Frontier League spring training.

And the Wild Things still don't have a manager.

I've been told by the Wild Things that they'll have a decision on their manager by the end of this week. You can take that with as many grains of salt as you wish. I was told in early December that a manager could be hired before the end of 2009. Then, in early January, the Wild Things were saying a manager would likely be named by mid-January.

The question is, does anyone want to be the manager?

Some have jokingly suggested that the team's lack of a manager be tied into a promotion. For example, one fan is named manager for the night, and if the Wild Things win he/she returns to manage the next home game. I thought that was both funny and interesting.

Others have said that not having a manager this late into the offseason is a bad thing and has put the Wild Things behind schedule in putting their team together. I don't agree with that assessment. The players you sign during the fall and winter are almost always the holdovers from your previous season or guys who have little chance to make the club in May. There have been a few exceptions (Grant Psomas comes to mind) to this with the Wild Things, but the impact newcomers are the players released in late March from minor-league spring training. Whether you have a manager or not in early February doesn't impact your ability to sign minor-league releases in April.

As for potential managers, you likely can rule out former Wild Things shortstop and hitting coach John Cahill. If Cahill is going to be the manager, then why didn't they hire him in December? Two other names have surfaced on this blog: Pete Rose Jr., and Darin Everson. Rose spent the last five years as a player in the independent Atlantic League – the league new Wild Things managing director Todd Marlin came from. Everson was a manager in the Florida Marlins' system for the last three seasons and has crossed paths with some former Wild Things. He managed Ernie Banks and Kedrick Martin in 2008 at Jamestown of the New York-Penn League.