All-Decade Team: Relief Pitcher

Though it might seem like light years ago, the Wild Things led the Frontier League in wins during each of their first five seasons.

So it was no surprise that Washington had a relief pitcher lead the league in saves during four of those first five seasons: Robert Garvin (2002), pictured, Anthony Kozol (2003), B.J. Borsa (2004) and Jim Popp (2005).

Though it was 10 years ago, Garvin's season remains the best ever by a Washington closer. And the interesting part of Garvin's story was that he wasn't assured of a roster spot when spring training began.

Garvin was one of the holdovers from the Canton Crocodiles franchise that was sold and moved to Washington. In one season with Canton, Garvin had mediocre results, posting a 0-4 record with a 4.29 ERA and two saves while playing in the pitchers' haven known as Thurman Munson Stadium.

Garvin did win a roster spot out of spring training in 2002 but it was a middle reliever. But after Garvin earned a three-inning save June 4 against Chillicothe and duplicating the feat four days later against Johnstown, Washington manager Jeff Isom opted to move the hard-throwing right-hander to back of the bullpen to replace Bret Giaudrone (remember him?) as the closer.

It proved to be Isom's second-best move (signing Josh Loggins was the best). Garvin became the league's All-Star reliever by going 2-2 with a 2.30 ERA and 18 saves.

The two most impressive parts of Garvin's season still have not been matched or topped by a Washington reliever:

* At one point, he converted 18 consecutive save opportunities.

* He walked only four batters ALL SEASON. That was in 47 innings (in a game last year, Washington relievers walked five batters in one inning). During a stretch of 15 appearances, Garvin was 1-0 with eight saves, ZERO walks and 24 strikeouts in 17.1 innings. For the year, Garvin struck out 59 and walked four.

It wasn't until his final outing of the regular season that Garvin blew a save. It turned out that the blown save was meaningless because Washington had clinched the East Division title a few minutes earlier when Richmond lost.

Garvin was signed by the San Diego Padres after the 2002 season.

When Garvin was with Washington, one knock against him was that Isom tried not to use him two days in a row. Isom said Garvin's arm seemed to take a longer time to recover from an outing than most relief pitchers.

However, when with the Padres, Garvin led the high-Class A California League in appearances in 2003 with 61. He was used on consecutive days eight times that season.

After the 2003 season, Garvin was selected by the Montreal Expos in the Class AA phase of the Rule 5 draft but didn't make a team. He ended his career back with Isom in 2004, pitching for Joliet of the Northern League and saved 21 games.

All-Decade Team Relief Pitcher: Robert Garvin (2002)