Frontier League goin' north of the border?

We know the Frontier League will be adding a team in Schaumburg, Ill., next season. That team's name will be announced next month.

That brings the league to 13 teams, but you can't have a baseball league with an odd number of franchises. So where will the 14th team be located?

If a Michigan man has his way, it will be in Canada.

David Martin, who bought the Oakland County Cruisers, is trying to put the franchise in London, Ontario. Martin already met opposition for his team in Clawson, Mich. He had hoped to renovate a town park in Clawson but his plan was shot down by locals.

Martin then shifted his target to London, which hosted a Frontier League team from 1999-2001 and won the league championship in '99. If you actually trace the Wild Things' roots, you'll find that the franchise goes back to London. That team moved to Canton, Ohio, and later to Washington.

Martin, whose ownership group has been approved by the league, wants to play in 5,200-seat Labbat Park. The stumbling block at this time is an amateur team plays at the park.

Here are a couple of links:

Read the story here.

Read the story here.

DiMatteo to the Frontier

Former California University of Pennsylvania standout outfielder Sam DiMatteo (picture) has signed a contract with the Traverse City beach Bums of the Frontier League.

DiMatteo played his first season of professional baseball this year. He was in spring training with the Washington Nationals but was released. He eventually found a spot on the roster of the Ruidoso Osos of the independent Pecos League. DiMatteo played in 40 games for Ruidoso, batting .333 with eight home runs, 29 RBI and eight stolen bases.

DiMatteo was one of the best players Cal has ever produced. The Beaver County native was the first player in PSAC history to steal 100 bases in a career, and batted .375 with 31 home runs and 161 RBI. He helped Cal win the PSAC championship in 2010.

This is a good signing by Traverse City. Based on what he did at Cal, I felt DiMatteo was good enough to make a Frontier League roster and contribute.

Another managerial change

After missing the Frontier League playoffs for the first time since 2006, the Windy City ThunderBolts have decided to change managers.

Gone is Mike Kashirsky, who had a 141-100 career record, one league championship and two division titles.

Kashirsky's replacement is Morgan Burkhart, who is widely considered the best player the Frontier League has ever produced. Burkhart was most recently manager of the Calgary Vipers of the North American Baseball League. Burkhart won one league championship with Calgary.

Burkhart played for the Richmond Roosters from 1995 to ’98 and was named the league’s MVP three times. He had a .353 career batting average and his 36 home runs in 1998, when he won the triple crown, still stands as the single-season league record. That same year, Burkhart had a .404 batting average.

After playing in the Frontier League, Burkhart went on to play in 42 major league games with the Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals.

Everson out as manager

The worst-kept secret in the Frontier League became official today as the Wild Things announced that Darin Everson will not return for a third season as the team's manager.

Everson managed the Wild Things to an 80-110 record and a pair of fifth-place finishes in the East Division during his two seasons with Washington. A former manager in the Florida Marlins' minor-league system, Everson guided the Wild Things to a 38-57 record in 2010. This year, Washington improved to 42-53 and were 13 1/2 games behind division winner Joliet.

“After several discussions, we decided it would be better to part ways,” said Stuart Williams, managing partner of the Wild Things. “Darin is a fine man, and we wish him the best as he moves on.”

While Everson was able to put together highly competitive pitching staffs, his teams were never able to generate enough offense to become a playoff contender in a league long known for its high-scoring games. In 2010, Washington finished next-to-last in the 12-team league in runs scored. This season, the Wild Things were last in batting average, runs, hits, walks, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

The lack of offense was why Washington, despite having perhaps the best starting pitching in the league, never topped the .500 mark all season. The Wild Things led the league in ERA and set the league record for most quality starts.

Everson, who acted as his own director of baseball operations this year, seemed to be hamstrung by a lack of connections to pro scouts and affiliated organizations. Far too often during the season, the Wild Things signed players with little or no pro experience instead of players recently released by major league organizations.

Despite this, Washington did have a successful season this year in one area: Everson helped four pitchers -- Vidal Nuno (Yankees), Alan Williams (Brewers), Mark Williams (Brewers) and Casey Barnes (Phillies) -- get signed by major league organizations. Until this year, Washington never had more than two of its players picked up during a season.

Washington already has started its search for a new manager, the sixth in franchise history.

"I want to thank the front office staff, the fans, and especially the players we have had in Washington the past two years," Everson said. "They have made my two seasons there very special. I will be exploring other baseball opportunities in the future and will always wish the Wild Things the best."

Next on 60 Minutes ...

More of the hard-hitting investigative journalism you can only find only television:

That's quality

Solid pitching has been a staple of the Wild Things. During their first six seasons, the Wild Things didn't finish worse than fourth in the Frontier League in team ERA.

There were a couple of lean pitching years since, but the Wild Things seemed to correct most of those problems this season. Washington won the league's ERA title for the first time since 2002, posting a 3.62, which was .14 better than second-place Lake Erie. Frontier League champion Joliet finished fifth at 4.06.

The strength of the pitching was the group of starters, even after losing opening day starter Vidal Nuno and FL Rookie of the Year Casey Barnes to affiliated ball. The Wild Things set the league record for quality starts (at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed) with 59.

Justin Hall had 14 quality starts among his 20 outings, and they weren't the cheap 6-inning, 3-run variety. Hall led the league in innings pitched and complete games. The 14 quality starts equals the team record set by Aaron Ledbetter in 2007, when he went 14-2. Every start Hall made after the all-star break was rated a quality start, including his 11-inning, 14-strikeout outing on the final day of the season at Windy City.

All of this, combined with the Wild Things finishing in fifth place in the East Division, tells you just how dreadful the Washington offense was. The Wild Things' offense finished last in the league in batting average, hits, runs, walks, doubles, total bases, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. As one visiting manager at Consol Energy Park said this season, "It's not hard to crack the Wild Things' lineup these days."

With the pitching staff it had, if Washington produced only an average hitting team, there's a good chance it would have made the playoffs.

Quality Starts by Team in 2011
*59 - Washington
49 - Windy City
48 - Normal
47 - River City
42 - Florence
41 - Joliet
39 - Lake Erie
36 - Gateway
36 - Southern Illinois
35 - Rockford
34 - Traverse City
31 - Evansville

* League record.

First opening

The first official managerial opening in the Frontier League for 2012 is in Normal, Ill., where the CornBelters have announced that Hal Lanier will not return for a third season.

The 69-year-old Lanier, a former National League Manager of the Year with the Houston Astros, guided Normal to a 90-102 record in his two seasons in the Frontier League. The Cornbelters were 46-50 this year and finished in third place in the West Division, but missed the playoffs by 12 games.

"This decision was based on a second season in which expectations were much higher than what was achieved," CornBelters general manager Steve Malliet said. "There's no doubt our talent pool of players grew significantly this season, but that didn't translate into enough wins on the field.

"We felt Hal worked hard to bring a winning team to Normal, and we wish him all the best. We expect to compete for a playoff spot each and every season."

Malliet plans to have a new manager hired by Nov. 1.

Up in smoke, 2011 version

The championship series is set for the Frontier League. It will be the Joliet Slammers, champions of the East Division, against the West Division champion River Ciy Rascals.

River City will be trying to become the third franchise to win back-to-back Frontier League championships. The others were Richmond (2001-02) and Windy City (2007-08). River City is in the finals for the third year in a row, having lost to Lake Erie in 2009.

Joliet swept Lake Erie in the East Division finals, and River City would have swept Southern Illinois had it not been for a ninth-inning meltdown by its bullpen in Game 1. The Rascals squandered a four-run lead in the top of the ninth, giving up six runs and losing 9-7.

Which begs the question, how good is River City's bullpen? The Rascals certainly have some impressive arms at the back of the pen, with three relievers having ERAs under 2.22. The Rascals tied with Joliet for most saves in the league with 34. However, River City had several more blown saves, and many of those came in the second half of the season.

Is that simply a byproduct of River City playing more games with late leads than Joliet, or do the Slammers have a more reliable bullpen? It's probably a little of both.

Here's a look at the blown saves for each team (note that Washington's blown saves totals were 14 in 2010, 15 in 2009, 15 in 2008 and 5 in 2007):

2011 Blown Saves
15 - Florence
12 - River City
12 - Rockford
12 - Southern Illinois
11 - Gateway
11 - Washington
11 - Windy City
9 - Joliet
9 - Lake Erie
9 - Normal
9 - Traverse City
8 - Evansville

Last word on attendance

Change has always been slow to come in baseball. Heck, it took almost 100 years until somebody decided it was OK to wear jerseys colored something other than white or gray.

When the nation's financial meltdown hit several years ago, minor-league baseball -- especially the independent level -- didn't feel the pinch in all markets the following season. Some teams were hit hard, others saw attendance rise slightly, others saw no significant change. Last year, half the teams in the Frontier League logged an increase in attendance over their 2009 figures.

It took some time, but the meltdown has finally trickled down to the Frontier League and all of independent baseball.

This year, every team in the Frontier League saw its average per-game attendance drop from 2010's numbers. And the dwindling turnstile counts were not limited to the Frontier. Only seven independent teams showed an attendance increase this summer, and that number should have an asterisk. The San Angelo (Texas) franchise in the North American Baseball League reported a per-game average increase of one fan. I'd be willing to bet that somebody in the Colts' front office figured out ahead of time just how much attendance he had to report in the season's final home game to get that one-person increase.

Another team that saw an increase was the Yuma Scorpions of the NABL. Yuma brought in Jose Caneseco as its manager this year and probably got a bump from having a household name in the dugout. That bump was an average of 81 fans per game.

Here is a look at how far attendance dropped per game in 2011 for each Frontier League team:

* Figures used from 2010 for Joliet and Rockford were when each of those franchises were in the Northern League.

Drop in Att. = Team
-39 = Traverse City
-77 = Windy City
-111 = Gateway
-201 = Normal
-205 = Washington
-290 = Evansville
-390 = Southern Illinois
-442 = Florence
-449 = Lake Erie
-750 = Rockford*
-799 = River City
-1,135 = Joliet*

Joliet's numbers are staggering, but you have to remember that the Slammers replaced a team called the Jackhammers, who played in the Northern League and left behind a trail of debt, which probably turned off plenty of people.

Those who say on-field success has little or no impact on attendance in minor-league baseball might be correct. In the FL this year, four of the six markets that showed the largest drop in attendance made the playoffs. And what's up in River City? At one time, this was the best-drawing market in the FL. Now, it's the worst despite the Rascals having an opportunity to be back-to-back champions.

In Washington, where attendance hit an all-time low of 2,226 per game, there are many factors that have caused the decline: the economy, three consecutive losing seasons, the 6:35 p.m. start time, the novelty of pro baseball has worn off, many people have been-there, done-that when it comes the Wild Things and Consol Energy Park. Stu Williams, one of the Wild Things' owners, even pointed to Washington having 27 home dates in the first of the season this year and only 21 in the second half as a contributing factor. Games in the first half of the season have more competition from youth baseball leagues.

The reasons for the dwindling attendance is probably all of the above. With baseball slow to change, reversing the trend will be difficult in 2012.

Winning debut

Here is the link to a story about former Wild Things pitcher Justin Edwards, who tossed six shutout innings for a win in his debut with the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League.

Read the story here.

Tweet!

If anyone reading this is a user of Twitter, you can follow me @ CDuganOR.

With the offseason rapidly approaching, I won't be tweeting much about Wild Things but will have plenty of local sports and random throughts and observations.

Then again, it could be a very busy offseason for the Wild Things. The Twitter account might be working overtime.

Frontier League awards

The Frontier League announced their annual end-of-season awards Thursday and one went to a former Wild Things player.

Right-handed pitcher Casey Barnes was named the Jason Simontacchi Award winner as Rookie of the Year. Barnes (pictured), who signed with the Philadelphia Phillies last month, had a 5-5 record and 2.34 ERA (third in the Frontier League). At the time he was signed by the Phillies, Barnes was second in the Frontier League in ERA. He was the starting pitcher for the East Division in the 2011 All-Star Game.

It was quite a memorable stay in the Frontier League for Barnes. He began the season by being released in spring training by Traverse City and then was picked up by Washington before the regular season even began. He went from being the Wild Things' No. 5 starter to their ace.

Barnes is now pitching for Williamsport in the Class A New York-Penn League.

River City swept the top player and pitcher honors. Stephen Holdren (.333, 20 HR, 78 RBI) was voted the Morgan Burkhart Award winner as Most Valuable Player. Right-hander Josh Lowey (10-2, 2.53) won the Brian Tollberg Award as Pitcher of the Year. Joliet's Bart Zeller is the Manager of the Year.

WJPA Radio's Randy Gore won the Broadcaster of the Year Award. There's probably not another person in the league who goes to work each day more prepared to do his job than Randy Gore.

The Observer-Reporter also picked up some awards.

The All-Frontier League team and award winners:

1B – Logan Parker, River City Rascals
2B – Will Block, Southern Illinois Miners
3B – Chris Curley, Florence Freedom
SS – Andrew Davis, Lake Erie Crushers
OF – Stephen Holdren, River City Rascals
OF – J.T. Hall, Traverse City Beach Bums
OF – Alvaro Ramirez, Normal CornBelters
C – Landon Hernandez, Gateway Grizzlies
DH – Charlie Lisk, Gateway Grizzlies
SP – Josh Lowey, River City Rascals
RP – Ryan Quigley, Joliet Slammers

Morgan Burkhart Award (MVP) – Stephen Holdren, River City Rascals
Brian Tollberg Award (Pitcher of the Year) – Josh Lowey, River City Rascals
Jason Simontacchi Award (Rookie of the Year) – Casey Barnes, Washington Wild Things
Roger Hanners Award (Manager of the Year) – Bart Zeller, Joliet Slammers
Fran Riordan Award (Citizenship) – Danny Sawyer, River City Rascals

Coach of the Year – Mike Breyman, River City Rascals
Trainer of the Year – Matt Yonkof, Lake Erie Crushers
Groundskeeper of the Year – Lance Adler, Evansville Otters
Newspaper of the Year - The Observer-Reporter (Washington, Pennsylvania)
Writer of the Year – Chris Dugan, Observer-Reporter (Washington, Pennsylvania)
Broadcaster of the Year – Randy Gore, Washington Wild Things
Clubbie of the Year – Nate Six, Lake Erie Crushers
Executive of the Year – John Dittrich/Bill Waliewski, Joliet Slammers
Organization of the Year – Lake Erie Crushers
Umpire of the Year - Tony Maners

Voting for awards was done by general managers, coaching staffs, and local media in all 12 Frontier League markets.