Baby steps and a power outage
We have some good news and some bad news about the Wild Things' offense. First, the good news:
Today is a red-letter day for the Washington offense. If you're looking for one little sign of improvement, one little sliver of hope that something is starting to work, this might be it:
Today is the first since the second day of the season that the Wild Things are not in last place in team batting average. Washington (.223) has moved ahead of Normal (.222) and into 13th in team batting. This is the first time since May 19 that Washington hasn't been buried in the basement.
Of course, that previous out-of-basement experience lasted only one day and was based on only one day of statistics. Washington was batting .138 after one game, while Lake Erie (.133) and London (.103) were worse for 24 hours.
An even more unthinkable statistic: This also is only the second day since May 27, 2011, that Washington isn't last in team batting average. Last year, the Wild Things were .02 ahead of, you guessed it, Normal, heading into a May 27 game, then fell into last place that night and resided there for the remainder of the season.
That's a lot of bad hitting.
But Washington's offense has shown some signs of life over the past month, steadily pulling closer to Normal and finally passing the CornBelters. The additions of Andrew Heck, Rick Devereaux and A.J. Nunziato have paid some dividends and appear to be good signings.
While the batting average has climbed, one area of the offense that is still lacking is power hitting.
Last night, Traverse City's Jose Vargas hit his Frontier League-leading 19th home run, which is quite impressive for several reasons. The league record for home runs is 36, and halfway through the season Vargas is on pace to challenge the mark. Plus, Traverse City's home ballpark is widely considered a pitcher's park -- one that does not yield many homers.
Vargas' 19 home runs also is three more than Washington's TEAM has hit. The Wild Things have hit only 16 home runs and could be the first team since Florence and Rockford in 2003 (which was a shorter schedule) to hit fewer than 30 home runs in a season. The one thing the Wild Things have going for them is they have games remaining at Gateway and River City, two parks with short right-field walls and are known as hitter's parks.
Baseball fans like to see the home team hit home runs. The home run is the baseball equivalent of the 70-yard TD pass, the slam dunk, the breakaway goal and the knockout punch. For many people, the home run is what puts the excitement in the game. But at Consol Energy Park, there was been very little excitement this year. Washington has not hit a home run at home in more than a month. The last one was hit by Devereaux in the series finale against Normal June 10.
And it's not only home runs that are lacking, it all extra-base hits. Washington's slugging percentage is a league-low .308, which is equal to its on-base percentage. Before Saturday night's game, the Wild Things' slugging percentage was actually .001 lower than its on-base percentage, a statistic that is almost unheard of 48 games into a professional baseball season.
Today is a red-letter day for the Washington offense. If you're looking for one little sign of improvement, one little sliver of hope that something is starting to work, this might be it:
Today is the first since the second day of the season that the Wild Things are not in last place in team batting average. Washington (.223) has moved ahead of Normal (.222) and into 13th in team batting. This is the first time since May 19 that Washington hasn't been buried in the basement.
Of course, that previous out-of-basement experience lasted only one day and was based on only one day of statistics. Washington was batting .138 after one game, while Lake Erie (.133) and London (.103) were worse for 24 hours.
An even more unthinkable statistic: This also is only the second day since May 27, 2011, that Washington isn't last in team batting average. Last year, the Wild Things were .02 ahead of, you guessed it, Normal, heading into a May 27 game, then fell into last place that night and resided there for the remainder of the season.
That's a lot of bad hitting.
But Washington's offense has shown some signs of life over the past month, steadily pulling closer to Normal and finally passing the CornBelters. The additions of Andrew Heck, Rick Devereaux and A.J. Nunziato have paid some dividends and appear to be good signings.
While the batting average has climbed, one area of the offense that is still lacking is power hitting.
Last night, Traverse City's Jose Vargas hit his Frontier League-leading 19th home run, which is quite impressive for several reasons. The league record for home runs is 36, and halfway through the season Vargas is on pace to challenge the mark. Plus, Traverse City's home ballpark is widely considered a pitcher's park -- one that does not yield many homers.
Vargas' 19 home runs also is three more than Washington's TEAM has hit. The Wild Things have hit only 16 home runs and could be the first team since Florence and Rockford in 2003 (which was a shorter schedule) to hit fewer than 30 home runs in a season. The one thing the Wild Things have going for them is they have games remaining at Gateway and River City, two parks with short right-field walls and are known as hitter's parks.
Baseball fans like to see the home team hit home runs. The home run is the baseball equivalent of the 70-yard TD pass, the slam dunk, the breakaway goal and the knockout punch. For many people, the home run is what puts the excitement in the game. But at Consol Energy Park, there was been very little excitement this year. Washington has not hit a home run at home in more than a month. The last one was hit by Devereaux in the series finale against Normal June 10.
And it's not only home runs that are lacking, it all extra-base hits. Washington's slugging percentage is a league-low .308, which is equal to its on-base percentage. Before Saturday night's game, the Wild Things' slugging percentage was actually .001 lower than its on-base percentage, a statistic that is almost unheard of 48 games into a professional baseball season.
posted by Chris Dugan at
9:54 AM
29 Comments:
Stay the course!
Too much small ball for my liking.
It's also amazing to me how much Chris Bando can avoid the fans. Even Mr. Smiley was more accessible then this man. What's his problem? Can't take the heat?
Perhaps they are out of last place batting average wise because "Buttons" Bando is playing less!
Cicio and the Wild Cubs choked again.
Buttons Bando BA drops to .198.
Stay the course
two pinch hitters Sunday night: strike out and bunt pop out. the power is still out.
this lineup is a joke, night after night. stoner .232, leighton .212, mr bojangles, jr 24-124 (.193). an absolute joke.
Tonight's attendence was 902. I really wonder how many were actually at Stu's park?
Buttons Bando was zero for three including one strike out and has his season average down to .194.
On the positive side, the Wild Cubs winning percentage is higher than Buttons.
I see players that know what they are doing. I like what I see. Your doing everything right Stu and Steve.
All the pieces are starting to fall into place. I think you should stay the course. Who cares what anybody else thinks. This is great baseball and so much fun to watch. We’re only 15.5 games back in the standings.
Buttons Bando is now hitting .194. Chris Bando still has nor clue. All is well.
Good story in another newspaper today. The prices are ludicrous for the baseball quality. I have been to 20 affiliated minor league ballparks. The WT concession prices are higher than all of them and the parking, well, that's just plain ignorant to charge $5. I've never paid for parking at the other 20 parks, AAA games included. If Gerrit Cole were pitching at CEP, I bet more than 902 would show up to watch. Bring affiliated ball here!
Gerrit Cole would never pitch at CEP. No minor leaguer will ever pitch at CEP. The park doesnot meet affiliated ball standards. It's not big enough for a Penn League team. Comparing it to the park in State College or Altoona or what they're going to build in Morgantown is like comparing a trailer to a home in Southpointe.
I enjoyed the aforementioned story in the Post-Gazette. It told me that Stu Williams (and Washington fans... at least the ones interviewed) are not concerned with winning.
What kind of people have that mentality? Losers.
If you bring affiliated ball here, you would have to tear out the TP turf. Most affiliated teams want their players to play on natural grass.
If you keep TP turf, they you need to stay with an independent ball team.
STAY THE COURSE, DANG IT!!!
WHAT'S THE MATTA WIF YOUSE GUYS?
THE SUCK UP'S HAVE SPOKEN - THEY WIN, YOU LOSE! GET IT?
I don’t think that Williams and Steve have the baseball knowledge to make player evaluations. If they do, it sure doesn’t show. I think that Tim Furguson was allowed to make a lot of the decisions involving transactions and he is now the scapegoat. No matter what was the story given to Chris Dugan, Tim WAS fired, not resigned.
What is Chris Bando’s role with this team? Is he the manager, second ‘yes’ man, right behind Steve Z., or
just a figurehead person? He sure doesn’t appear to have much of a role with this team. I’ve never seen anybody else that is supposed in charge of a team be so aloof and disconnected! What’s with Buttons Bando? Is he part of the ‘deal’ that brought the Bando Bunch to Washington? Is there some guaranteed amount of playing time? There have been a lot of better players than Buttons be released from the team this season. Something doesn’t smell right here.
Tim Ferguson couldn't Find a good baseball player if he was dropped into the locker room at the major league all-star game.
Something sure has happened to Steve Z.
Now that he has a part of the action, and a fancy title, he is a different person. The change in him is unpleasenty different. It's almost as though he has sold his soul to gain a few bucks.
Chris Bando seems more focused on showing us his son Buttons than producing a winning team, Something is drastically wrong in the Wild Cubs front office.
Consider the Wild Cubs out of here within the next three years.
They forgot their base fans group and now it's coming back to bite them in the fanny. 900 fans is not to hack it, and neither is the P. T. Barnam TSE group.
Stay the course and watch how fast this organization collapes. How can Mr. Williams be so smart and dumb at the same time. It is entertainment or is it baseball?
I don't know anything about Tim Ferguson but I agree about Steve Z. Just a jerk
Typical front runners, who as usual, know nothing and yet think they do. Get a life
Chris:
What a title "power outage".
Wow what a prediction.
With TP turf, who would have guessed there would be a suspended game at Stu's park.
It looks like Steve Z. failed once again!
Wow, Chris predicted what would happen at CEP on Tuesday night with the power. haha
Chris, please keep up the good work reporting about the team. If people were not interested, they would not be on this blog.
Sincerely,
Condor Ca$h
I've browsed Chris Dugan's blog at various times and I think its now time to comment on what I've seen...
You can say what you want about Steve Zavacky, but he's loyal to the organization. He has been around since the beginning and has remained to try and keep the WWT going. They guys puts in 150x more hours into his job than you people do knocking the product. He was there long before any ownership changes were involved and has picked up the slack many times for the revolving door of employees who left on a whim. The same with Chris Blaine, a lady who puts her heart and soul into making WWT the best she can. These are people who actually care about the organization and the image they put out there, but you would not know that if you read the comments on this site. You guys need to stop being so negative and realize people try to make the best experience possible.
Everyone just wants to be negative on here, if you can't find the good in what SOME of these people try to do, go apply and get a job there yourself and see what you can do. I'm sure you have enough time because you have plenty of time to hide behind a keyboard and be a critic. This blog is a reflection of the way society is today, everyone wants to sit back and complain about the problem, but no one has a solution or wants to contribute to change it.
The team is in the 11th year and has been extremely successful on and off of the field for 8 or 9 of those years? I think that is a pretty good track record, and I don't know many organizations who have done that and/or can keep that pace over that long of a time. No one knows what the future holds, that is the fun part. We all have the ability to change our direction and the outcome. If the WWT would give out free ice cream, the posters here would complain it was too cold or there was only vanilla.
You know what I don't like to do? Attend professional soccer games and get pedicures. You know what I don't do? Attend professional soccer games and get pedicures and get on websites and knock them. It's pretty simple.
Sorry if this is a soapbox rant but most posters on this site do nothing more than make Washington look bad and try to crush the spirit of the people who enjoy the team and experience.
Chris Dugan, keep up the good work! Another guy who puts much effort into providing a service to all of us, year after year.
Have a great Wednesday,
Ricci Rich
Buttons was one for two today and has his average up to .198.
Go Buttons!
Stu loves ya!
Don't you think you're a little off base saying the power outage was Steve's fault?
If the guy wasn't such of a, (I won't use any namecalling) so lets say, not the guy he used to be, there might be less ranker towards him.
Hardly know the man anymore.
well said Ricci Rich - I agree 110%.
We looked good in the pseudo-doubleheader yesterday. That's all the Things need is a semblance of offense to support the solid pitching. Say what you will, this team has looked much better out of the all-star break. It's not represented well in the W-L column, but It's been better. Still need to stop making DUMB mistakes on the base paths.
Shocked nobody here mentioned "Buttons" coaching first base after Lenny got tossed the other night.
Buttons as the DH? Brilliant.
Oh, I almost forgot his last name is Bando.
Little Ricci just had to chime in. Probably about to lose his job and starting to sniff around.
this team has looked much better out of the all-star break.
Sure, if you think .500 is good ball on your home field. Then, think about who they were playing.
The Wild Cubs have a looong way to go to show me anything.
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