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.
* 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.
Labels: Mark Williams
posted by Chris Dugan at
5:42 PM
10 Comments:
I wish the other WT Mr. Williams, Stu, would “man up” and fire Everson as soon as the bus arrives back here after the series with Evansville, or even sooner than that. Ima Fraid said he expects you to make big changes so, why not start now. Show us what you’ve got, do it now. I won’t believe a thing until I see you make a gutsy move. Fire Everson. How much more of this stuff do you expect us to take?
Who else would want to take over this team at this point in time?
Wait until the final game and get rid of Mr. Smiley.
Besides, they might set the Wild Things record for lowest winning percentage.
A good boost for selling season tickets.
Don't call me.
There is nothing left to say.
It's you move Mr. Wiliams.
Could we see a little leadership from somebody, PLEASE?
This team has finally laid down and quit. Everson sure isn’t going to wake them up.
Ima Fraid
Are you serious with the "two forgetable and inexperienced" pitchers included in the Ledbetter trade? Shawn Phillips pitched a higher level in affiliated baseball than Ledbetter and his season in 2007 in the Frontier League was statistically better than ANY season Aaron had in the League!
I'm guessing you didn't like getting Jason Kane (All-Decade Team) as a gift in 2002 either?
Sure, I'm serious. Phillips and Lasinski had pitched in all of six games with the Wild Things when they were traded for Ledbetter. Neither was around Washington long enough to make an impact or be memorable. Phillips had an excellent season for Windy City in '07 (8-4, 2.45) but he pitched only one week in affiliated ball in 2008 and his career was over. Ledbetter, meanwhile, went 27-9 in regular-season games with Washington. River City should have been able to get more than those two guys for Ledbetter, who had won 24 games for the Rascals. As for Kane, that deal doesn't fall into the Parker or Ledbetter category. Kane wasn't an all-star-caliber guy at the time of the trade. He was a rookie who was hitting only .265 for Evansville with no home runs and 13 RBI.
By the way, I'll take Ledbetter's 14-2, 2.71 season in 2007 over Phillips' best season. The most impressive part of Ledbetter's '07 season was he was 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA when pitching on only three days rest. Hard to beat that ERA. He didn't give up a run, either the earned or unearned variety.
Judging from the last two remarks, there seems to be little to no interest in the Wild Things now other than trades made in the past that have no bearing of what is going on right now. As for me, I could not care less about old trades.
No one wants to talk about the here and now.
Will somebody at the Wild Things at least give of a clue about what they intend to do about this miserable team? Mark Mason was not the answer, and Everson is just tons worse than Mason. Why the damn silence?
I guess they don’t have a clue even after all this time. Is this franchise even going to survive?
Since Ross Vecchio was hanging around CEP Thursday night, you don’t think that just maybe…….
no, probably not. Anyway. Ross is too crabby.
You're right. Nobody cares about the Wild Things. Did you notice the Losing Things are in last place? Hahahahahahaha.
Casey Barnes was signed by the Phillies organization last night.
@Anonymous 8/8/2011 11am said, "...Since Ross Vecchio was hanging around CEP Thursday night…"
He was at the field because they were honoring Chris Sidick and his son plays for the Pittsburgh Outlaws.
I miss Ross!
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