Keep on pitchin'

According to WTRF-TV in Wheeling, W.Va., Wild Things pitcher and Wheeling native Justin Edwards (pictured) will continue to pitch after the Frontier League season ends. It was reported that Edwards will join the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League after the Wild Things' finale Sunday.

York's pitching coach is former Wild Things manager Mark Mason.

The Atlantic League's regular season runs through Sept. 18.

Edwards is unlikely to return to the Wild Things next year because he will exceed the Frontier League's age limit. He is one of three Wild Things pitchers who will age out. The others are Kevin Hammons and Davis Bilardello.

Edwards is currently second in the Frontier League in ERA at 2.04. He will make one more start with the Wild Things during their season-ending road trip that begins tonight at Lake Erie.

Celebrate good times

Here's a photo, from the Daily Republican in Marion, Ill., of the Southern Illinois Miners celebrating in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff berth Tuesday night with a come-from-behind win over Gateway. Do you know the guy in the front row of the photo? You get one guess.

More on Schaumburg

According to reports out of Chicago, Joliet Slammers owner Alan Oremus has sold the lease for Alexian Field in Schaumburg, Ill., to Patrick Salvi, who owns the Gary Southshore Railcats of the American Association.

So what does this mean for the Frontier League? Oremus had originally planned to put a Schaumburg team in the American Assocation in 2012, then changed course and had the franchise ticketed for the Frontier League.

With Salvi, a Chicago attorney, already owning a team in the AA, my first thought was the Schaumburg franchise would join that league. However, several stories on the Oremus-Salvi transaction have mentioned that Schaumburg is still headed for the Frontier League. In the final paragraph of the story linked below, it's mentioned that a Schaumburg franchise was approved Tuesday by the Frontier League.

Read the story here.

A complete mentality

In this age of closely monitored pitch counts and six inning "quality starts," the Wild Things' Justin Hall (pictured) arrives for work every fifth game with a refreshing outlook to his craft as a starting pitcher.

Hall (8-6, 3.44) wants to finish what he starts.

The right-hander has four complete games, and it would not have been surprising if Hall had been allowed to pitch the ninth inning of the Wild Things' 5-2 win Wednesday night over the Joliet Slammers.

But after throwing 115 pitches, Hall's night was over. Washington manager Darin Everson had decided to call upon closer Tyler Wolf to get the final three outs for his 10th save. That, however, doesn't mean Hall couldn't have completed the task.

"We were thinking about maybe letting Justin go out for ninth, but it was a save situation, so you've got to go to your closer," Everson explained.

That was disappointing for Hall, who seems to be a different breed of starting pitcher in the Frontier League. While other starters generally start looking to the bullpen for help after pitching five or six innings, Hall has a nine-inning mentality.

"Most of our starters don't have that six-inning mentality," Everson said. "From day one, we've told our starters that we'll let them go as long as they can. They built up their arm strength to pitch nine innings and are in great shape, which is a credit to (pitching coach) Mark (Dewey).

"Lately, it seems I've been going out to the mound in the sixth and seventh innings just to ask a pitcher how he feels, not to take him out of the game."

While Joliet is enjoying a 6 1/2 game lead in the East Division, Hall has a 2-0 record in as many starts against the Slammers. Back in the second game of the season, Hall threw a four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts at Joliet.

"The key is Hall throws strikes, gets ahead of the hitters and makes them hit his best pitches," Joliet manager Bart Zeller said. "It's a real simple formula, but it's really effective. He's always pitching ahead in the count."

Zeller said he was impressed by Hall in the fifth inning, after Joliet scored twice in the fourth to pull to within 3-2.

"He didn't get flustered after we scored those two runs," Zeller said. "He got six straight outs after that. That's the sign of an outstanding pitcher."

Hall ended up retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced.

Roster move

According to the Frontier League website, the Wild Things released catcher Ryan Morrow and signed pitcher Jake Ramsay. At this moment, I don't know anything about the pitcher, other than there was a Jake Ramsay who pitched for a team that was just eliminated from the independent Pecos League playoffs that had a Jake Ramsay on its roster.

Morrow, a rookie catcher from St. Mary's (Texas) had a .034 batting average. He was 1-for-29.

The Wild Things will host the East Division-leading Joliet Slammers today in a doubleheader at Consol Energy Park. The first game will begin at 5:05 p.m.

Washington has 19 games remaining. The Wild Things must go at least 6-13 in those games to better last year's 38-57 record.

Market value

Here's a short but interetsing story from Pittsburgh Business Times about where Washington ranks among the 241 minor-league baseball markets.

Read the story here.

Broom service?

The Wild Things have a chance to sweep a series tonight -- on the road, no less -- when they play the Evansville Otters at Bosse Field.

Being the Frontier League team with the fewest road wins (12) this year, Washington getting a road sweep would be something that hasn't for this franchise a long time. Just how long? I had to search a while for that one.

The last three-game road sweep for the Wild Things came May 25-27 of last year, at Kalamazoo. Washington completed the sweep by winning the final game of the series 12-8 in 13 innings. If I recall correctly, Jacob Dempsey had home run in the 13th.

Barnes is the 4th

There's not much for the Wild Things to play for these days. The playoffs are only a pipe dream and a winning season seems unlikely.

Personal goals, such as players getting a contract offer from a Major League Baseball organization, are about all that remain. For two pitchers, that goal has been reached during the current six-game road trip.

Washington starting pitcher Casey Barnes (pictured) signed a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies organization Sunday night, 48 hours after reliever Mark Williams was picked up by Milwaukee.

Barnes was second in the Frontier League with a 2.34 ERA. A right-hander out of Kansas Wesleyan University, Barnes had a 5-5 record in his rookie season. Released by Traverse City during spring training, Barnes was signed by the Wild Things prior to the start of the season and quickly became their most reliable starting pitcher.

"We’re thrilled with the success Casey has had with us, and we hope it continues with the Phillies,” Wild Things manager Darin Everson said in a press release.

If you know Barnes, you can't help but feel good for him. In 10 years of covering the Wild Things, I think Barnes is the most excitable and appreciative player I've met. He was genuinely thrilled to have a chance to pitch for the Wild Things and seemed to enjoy every moment of being a professional baseball player.

Barnes is the fourth Wild Things player (all pitchers) to have their contract purchased this season, which speaks volumes about the job pitching coach Mark Dewey has done. The Wild Things also lead the Frontier League with 40 quality starts (at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed).

"It says a lot about Mark Dewey,” Barnes said. “Mark is a great guy, both as a coach and as a role model. ... I just hope I can find someone like him to work with in the Phillies organization.”

Barnes will join the Phillies' rookie-level affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.

Former Wild Things pitcher Vidal Nuno was recently promoted in the New York Yankees' system from the short-season New York-Penn League to low-Class A Charleston (S.C.). With Staten Island, Nuno was 5-0 with one save and an 0.72 ERA in eight games. He struck out 29 and walked only three in 25 innings.

Random notes, thoughts

Cleaning out my cluttered mind and notebook:

* If you didn't hear WJPA Radio's broadcast of the Wild Things' game Saturday night at Florence -- and I can't blame you if you didn't want to listen to a Wild Things game on a Saturday night -- Washington lost right-handed pitcher Mark Williams to the Milwaukee Brewers. According to WJPA's Randy Gore, Williams was signed by Milwaukee after the Wild Things' game Friday in Florence. There was no mention of the signing Saturday on the websites of the Frontier League or Wild Things.

The hard-throwing Williams, who helped Marietta College win the NCAA Division III national championship this spring, didn't have eye-popping numbers with the Wild Things. He was 1-1 with a 7.54 ERA. Early in his stay in Washington, Williams was known as a pitcher who could throw hard but didn't always know where the fastball was going (ala the original Wild Thing). He pitched 14 2/3 innings, allowing 15 hits and 16 walks with 24 strikeouts.

However, Williams seems to have corrected his control problems and has been impressive in his last six outings, each of which was scoreless. In those 5 2/3 innings, Williams allowed only two hits and struck out 13.

Williams is the third Washington pitcher to be signed by an MLB organization this season, following Alan Williams (Milwaukee) and Vidal Nuno (New York Yankees). This is the first time the Wild Things have had three players picked up during a Frontier League season.

* Here's a safe bet: No Wild Things hitter will be signed by an affiliated team before the season ends.

After its second 3-0 loss to Florence in as many nights, Washington's offense, which has been the worst in the league all season, is on a run of 26 consecutive innings without generating a run. The worst part is the streak has come against Evansville and Florence, the bottom two teams in the West Division.

The Wild Things' struggling offense has managed to score more than one run in only three of its last eight games.

* I was wondering if Gateway pitcher Mark Brackman, who is currently on the disabled list, could win the league's ERA title without throwing another pitch this season. It turns out that he can't. Brackman (2.12 ERA), has pitched 72 1/3 innings. He must throw 77 innings to qualify for the ERA title.

Traverse City's Scott Dunn (a South Side Beaver graduate) is second in ERA at 2.22 followed by Washington's Casey Barnes at 2.34.

In 2003, Rockford's Jason Shelley won the ERA title without throwing a pitch in the league after the all-star break. Shelley was 7-1, 0.85 at the break, then signed by the Milwaukee Brewers and assigned to Class AA. At the time he was signed, Shelley was seven innings over the minimum to qualify for the ERA title.

* I thought Gateway and River City were supposed to be bitter rivals. Apparently, that's not the case. It seems the front offices of the teams are fairly chummy. When Gateway traded all-star first baseman Logan Parker to River City earlier this week for a pitcher and three players to be named later, it was the fourth trade between the teams this season.

The latest trade has been reported as one that was done as a favor for Parker, who is said to be retiring after the season. Gateway sent Parker to River City so that he would have a chance to end his career with a FL championship.

I hate those kind of trades.

Maybe I missed something, but I always thought the idea was to field as competitive a team as possible. Heck, I even cringed when Washington acquired Aaron Ledbetter from River City in 2006 for two forgettable and inexperienced pitchers (can you name them?).

* With Windy City losing games as quickly as the schedule allows, I have the feeling Lake Erie will end up with the second playoff spot in the East.

* That final playoff berth might come down to the final series of the regular season: Lake Erie at Traverse City. If Windy City is still in the playoff hunt come September, the ThunderBolts get to play a three-game series at home against Washington to close the season.

* The two pitchers the Wild Things traded for Aaron Ledbetter were Greg Lasinski and Shawn Phillips.

A number to forget

The Wild Things' game Thursday night against the Evansville Otters had a little more meaning to it than just a game Washington needed to win. It also had a dubious attachment to it.

The game was the 150th in a row the Wild Things have played without entering with a winning record. Washington has not played a game while sporting a .500-plus record since June 3, 2010. The Wild Things lost that day at Gateway, 15-2, and since have been at .500 or worse for every game. No winning records.

This is obviously in stark contrast to the franchise's early days. Washington played only 25 games while sporting a losing record, including just one game in 2005, over its first four seasons. In 2007, the Wild Things won their season opener and went wire-to-wire with a .500 record or better.

But starting with the final 32 games of the 2009 season, Washington has been above .500 for only eight days -- all early in the 2010 season.

Schaumburg to Frontier League?

According to ballparkdigest.com, the Frontier League will be adding Schaumburg, Ill., to the lineup next year.

You might recall that Schaumburg, which had a Northern League team that ran up approximately $9000,000 in debt before ceasing operations after the 2010 season, was rumored to be headed for the Frontier League this season. What prevented that from happening was the lease at Alexian Field (pictured) being granted to Alan Oremus, who just happens to be the owner of the Joliet Slammers. After acquiring the lease, Oremus said he planned to put a Schaumburg team in the independent American Association in 2012.

However, according to the website, there was never a legal agreement tying Oremus to the American Association, and after having some success in Joliet the decision was made to go to the Frontier League.

Nothing has been announced by either Oremus, the Frontier League or American Association, so we'll just have to wait. If this report is true, it leaves the Frontier League with 13 teams and opens the door for the potential return of the Kalamazoo Kings. It Kalamazoo doesn't return, the a traveling team would be the most likely option for the 14th club.

Not the same old Otters

Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of an important stretch for the Wild Things. For weeks, Washington had talked about the advantage of having six games remaining against the Evansville Otters, the last-place team in the West Division. While the other teams in the East -- except Lake Erie -- would be playing more challenging games against West rivals, the Wild Things would face Evansville and Florence, the latter having fallen into fifth place in the West.

This looked like a good thing for the Wild Things, especially in late June when Evansville was off to a 6-25 start.

Well, timing is everything in baseball, and playing the Otters in August might not be the advantage it was thought to be a few weeks ago. These aren't the same old Otters.

Evansville seems to have gotten its act together. The Otters have won seven straight road games entering tonight's series opener at Consol Energy Park.

Evansville also is 8-6 in its last 14 games.

If Washington is going to make a move toward reaching the .500 mark, then it must take advantage of the games against Evansville and Florence. But it's the games against Evansville that might prove to be more difficult for Washington. While Evansville has improved, Florence has been in a tailspin. The Freedom are 5-20 since July 4, with two of the five wins coming by one run. Florence has lost 12 of its last 13 road games.

While there might be some advantage to playing Evansville and Florence late in the year instead of say, River City and Gateway, the break might be in playing the Freedom, not the Otters.