All-Decade Team: Third base

Which position is the toughest for a Frontier League team to fill with an above-average player?

Your first two guesses are likely to be shortstop and catcher. Those two positions, at any level of baseball, are difficult to fill with quality defensive players. The Frontier League usually has two or three good defensive catchers with the others being hitters who spend some time behind home plate. In recent years, the play of Frontier League shortstops has improved significantly.

For the Wild Things, and many Frontier League teams, the position that has been the biggest trouble spot is third base. Washington has had only a few guys who played the hot corner and displayed the arm strength to throw from foul line to foul line. Several others, such as Chad Ehrnsberger and Chad Kinyon, could hit but didn't have either the range or the glove to be considered better than average. A few, like Eric Earnhardt and John Delaney, were decent fielders but didn't hit. And there were some guys, such as Kevin Feiner last year and Lance Koenig, who were not natural third basemen but played there because there was nobody else on the team who could play the position regularly.

One guy who did a little of everything as a third baseman was Pat Peavey.

A one-year (2006) player for the Wild Things, Peavey came to Washington after his career in the Houston Astros' system topped out at Class AA. Though he had the reputation of being more hitter than fielder, Peavey showed that he had all the tools to be a top-flight Frontier League third baseman. He had a strong arm, good range and was the best fielding third baseman to play for Washington. He committed only nine errors in his one season, led the league in fielding percentage and was involved in 18 double plays (by far the most for a Washington third baseman).

And did I mention that Peavey could hit?

As the cleanup hitter in the Wild Things' lineup, Peavey had a pedestrian .262 batting average but belted 10 home runs, 21 doubles and won the Frontier League's RBI title by driving in 83 runs -- at the time the second-best total in team history. He was named the all-league third baseman.

Though he was only here one year, Pat Peavey gets the nod as the starter on the all-decade team.

All-Decade team 3rd Baseman: Pat Peavey (2006).