The good, the bad & the ugly
The Wild Things are 20 games into the season (two games under .500 at 9-11), so it's a good time to play "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" of a season that's 20 percent complete.
Let's start with "The Good."
* Despite the last two games, the best part of this team has to be the pitching. Washington is tied for the Frontier League lead with Windy City for quality starts (12 in 20 games). Casey Barnes (1.42) is third in the league in ERA and Jhonny Montoya (2.05) is seventh. Vidal Nuno has looked like a No. 1 starter and Justin Hall has three wins and an 0.38 ERA on the road. The bullpen has been decent at worst and terrific at best. The only time it has failed to protect a lead was in the 17-inning game at Southern Illinois. Overall, the pitching staff is much improved over last year, with harder throwers and more guys who work ahead in the count. Even with the No. 5 spot in the rotation failing to produce a win, this group gets a good grade.
* A couple of other "goods" are Scott Lawson's play at second base and Chris Sidick in center field. The defense at catcher also has been improved, and Emilio Ontiveros was definitely a good defensive shortstop. I also think that Kevyn Feiner might be the best Wild Things third baseman at going into foul territory and tracking down popups. He has made two sensational over-the-shoulder, back-to-the-infield, sliding catches in the bullpen area that other third baseman haven't made.
"The Bad"
* Patience. The Wild Things' hitters are next-to-last in walks with 61. Only Joliet (59) has drawn fewer. Some guys seem to want to to swing at every pitch, others show patience until they get a two-strike count, then swing no matter where the next pitch is located. To illustrate, right fielder Luis Rivera has zero walks and 52 at-bats, and Ontiveros, who is out with an injury, had two walks and 48 at-bats. Frontier League pitchers are known for their high walk rate, so taking pitches is never a bad idea. The Wild Things need to do more of this.
Now, for "The Ugly."
* The Hitting. The Wild Things are last in almost every offensive category, and in some, they're not even close to the 11th-place team. Washington is hitting .221 (the 11th place team is River City at .239). The Wild Things have scored 65 runs. The next-lowest total is Evansville at 80. Gateway leads the league with 135 runs.
The alarming part of the offense is nobody has given an indication that they have the potential to carry the team for an extended period, such as Josh Loggins did in 2003 or Chris Carter did during the second half of the 2006 season. Chris Sidick has shown throughout his career that he can have big weeks, but he's not a 70-RBI guy. Scott Lawson and Kevyn Feiner have had some good stretches, but when they don't hit the team doesn't score.
Nobody in the East Division has shown that they're the clear-cut team to beat. And you can't rule out anybody as a playoff contender. There are six very even teams in the East, playing in the weaker of the two divisions. So it might come down to which team can make the one key player acquisition that pushes them into one of the two playoff berths. For Washington, that player must be a hitter.
posted by Chris Dugan at
9:49 AM
14 Comments:
THE GOOD
The sprucing up of the stadium. It looks almost as good as when it opened.
THE BAD
Concession stand prices, service, and quality of food.
THE UGLY
The turf on the field which some people call TPT.
THE GOOD:
Chris' decision to finally start policing this ridiculous cast of miserable characters, whose only mission in life is to whine on this blog.
THE BAD:
The lack of people posting baseball related stuff here, no doubt because they were bored away by discussions about the field and taxes.
THE UGLY:
The continuous sight of empty seats at the stadium.....lots of them.
Yoy broke the rules! How did you get that posted. Must be a friend of Chris Dugan or........
Great Post 8:58 PM, I whole-heartedly agree with you and am so glad Chris made the decision he did! Now lets talk Wildthing Baseball!!
Why don’t we have an honest discussion about this blog and why the posters have been blocked from making comments other than those approved?
Here are just some of the facts.
For some time now there has been pressure on the ‘administrator’ by the WT ownership group
to, shall we as call it ‘filter’, or tone down the messages posted here. Mr. Couric(spelling?), Stu Wiliams, Frantic Frani, and the rest of the ownership group were not real happy that their relationship with Tim Solobay was exposed – the “Canonsburg Connection”, as it were.
After that gentle persuasion failed to stem the tide of comments not favorable toward the dirty, immoral, smoke filled room, and good ol’ boys, but always legal, goings on, the ownership group finally played its ‘Ace in the Hole”. Time to play hardball with the ‘administrator’ to ensure he would do their bidding.
So, the arm twisting and hard pressure began on Mr. Dugan, and it worked like a charm. He caved like an Army tank rolling over an empty beer can. Probably under some sort of threat, like denying him access to the Wild Things locker room. So, he began looking for a way to stop the flow of criticism against Wild Things policies.
Low and behold he finally found one, a lame one for sure, but still an excuse to stop the comments. So, when it came time to make a stand Mr. Dugan did not have the moral courage to tell the attorneys in the ownership group to stuff it. Like the puppet he has now proven himself to be, Mr. Dugan is now one of them. Shame on this man that has such a weak set of values that he would sell out his readers. I’m sure Mr. Dugan would be upset if his editors ordered him to print only what they wanted him to say. However, he doesn’t mind one bit doing the same thing to others.
Is this the kind of moral courage and strength of character that we should expect from a so-called journalist? If so, then journalism is truly dead and Mr. Dugan is one of the contributors to its demise.
Courage, integrity, fidelity – these words are apparently not in Mr. Dugan’s vocabulary. Or, are they? Perhaps some day when he, or one of his family is denied the privilege free speech on a blog, Mr. Dugan just might then have the felling of exclusion he is now imposing on us because of ownership group pressure.
TIG – The Investigators
The Good
The way this blog once was.
The Bad
The arbitrary way it is now
The Ugly
Watching baseball played on TPT and see Eric Stevens hit a ball to left that veered
sharply to the left upon contact with those stupid little marbles.
I was thinking about deleting the Anonymous comment at 4:30 from TIG because it doesn't fit the stay-on-topic idea, but I was so impressed by TIG's vivid imagination that I had to let it go. I must say, if TIG ever decides to quit his/her day job, then there is a promising future awaiting as a fiction writer.
Good, Bad, and Ugly
My two cents worth about the way blog is now. I’d prefer it was just shut the blog down altogether.
It is near worthless as it now stands. I, and others, would like an open forum format.
A few others, and I suspect it’s very few, want a stats based forum/discussion.
Still others want something different. It is very obvious where the blog owner stands. It certainly does not reflect what most bloggers want.
It just does not seem to be worth anybody’s efforts to come to any sort of consensus.
I find stats to be boring and not at all meaningful in an almost amateur league such as the Frontier
League. This may be fine for “students” of the game but it’s not my cup of tea. IMHO, studying stats and trying to make sense of them with any Indy league team, is near insanity. But – to each his own!
Ima Fraid
The good – no one is posting much
The Bad – Todd Marlin is MIA with the season in full swing. Why is everyone so quite about it?
The Ugly – The Wild Things have a short little guy running around CEP
sizing things up. Oh Oh! There is trouble in River City AKA: Washington Wild Things
The other ugly thing - TPT
Back on topic - the good. An update on where Alan Williams is now. He has been assigned to the Helena Brewers of the Rookie Pioneer League. Here is a link to his MiLB profile page for anyone interested in keeping tabs on him: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=543926
-SK
The Good:
Vidal Nuno. Best starting pitcher the Wild Things have had since Aaron Ledbetter. I was really surprised when Zach Groh was let go in camp, but now I see why. This rotation is solid for the most part. We're not having the typical games where WT pitchers walk 8 batters anymore. Who would ever think they would lead the league in quality starts?
The Bad:
The Wild Things didn't sign ex-Cal U of PA left-handed standout Randy Sturgill, who is from western PA. He's signing with the Lake Erie Crushers instead. Go get 'em, Randy! Can't wait to see him pitch against the Things.
The Ugly:
Banks and Banda...wow. Ernie is constantly hitting the first pitch into an easy out, have some patience, guy! 5 RBIs in 21 games from the cleanup hitter just doesn't cut it. Banda isn't exactly the second coming of Jacob Dempsey (pre-2010 version). Also, the new uniforms are kind of ugly as well.
The Good:
All Wild Things Staff & mascot are friendly.
The Bad:
People who caused the blog to to lose it's intent, as they have nothing better to do than pitch their 2 cents. Although I agree with them, corruption in public service at all levels is bad & needs to be eradicated.
The Ugly:
Shocked as a die-hard local sports fan that the Wild Things & Bucs are both doing well but getting minimal attention by local media while the nfl lock-out continues.
The Good:
Swisscheda is back posting. I (heart) him
The Bad:
We have not made it to many games as our rec/travel baseball schedule has not made it possible and the start time is too early
The Ugly:
Sorry, not loving the uniforms!
The Good
This blog is dying
The Bad
The blogger that thinks we can't think for ourselves is back.
The Ugly
WT Uniforms and poor service at the concession stands.
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