All-Decade Team: Relief Pitcher

One of the biggest challenges every Frontier League manager faces each spring is finding a consistent closer.

In the Frontier League, no lead is safe and most bullpens blow up like cheap cigars.

A consistent, reliable closer is gold. And the Wild Things were lucky and fortunate to find one in each of their first four seasons. Washington closers led the league in saves every season from 2002 through 2005.

No Washington relief pitcher was consistently reliable longer than Jim Popp, a Pittsburgh native who came out of the baseball wasteland that is the City League and Duquesne University, which no longer has a baseball program. The right-hander spent three excellent years (2004-06) in Washington and is the franchise's all-time leader in saves (38) and games pitched (102). He tied for the league lead in saves with 17 in 2005.

While there have been Washington relievers who threw harder or had better breaking pitches, Popp was the best at giving Washington a chance a win. For much of three seasons, Popp was durable, dependable and unflappable. For example:

* Early in his career, Popp had a stretch of 31 consecutive appearances without a loss.

* He ended his stay in Washington riding a streak of 51 consecutive outings without a loss. During that stretch, Popp was 5-0 with 24 saves.

Think about those numbers for a moment. Most Frontier League relief pitchers – it doesn't matter if they've spent years in affiliated ball, pitched in the ACC or Big Ten etc. or are products of small colleges – have trouble going a half dozen outings in a row without blowing up and losing a lead and game.

After his three productive seasons in Washington, Popp ended his career by playing four years for the Schaumburg Flyers of the now-defunct Northern League. Popp was slowed by injuries in two of those seasons, and he posted a 6-7 record with eight saves in 75 games for the Flyers.

All-Decade Relief Pitcher: Jim Popp (2004-06)