A whiff of the record

The momentum from the Wild Things' come-from-behind, 10-inning win Saturday night at Southern Illinois -- probably the highlight of the season -- lasted all of about 17 hours and ended when Normal starting pitcher Luis Noel and two relievers began carving through the Washington batting order Sunday evening. The Wild Things were held to two hits -- solo home runs by Stewart Ijames and Shain Stoner -- and struck out 10 times, the latter continuing an alarming trend.

In all but two games since the all-star break, Washington hitters have struck out at least seven times. One of the exceptions was the second game of a doubleheader against Rockford, a game the Wild Things won and batted in only six innings. Washington has had two 10-strikeout and one 11-strikeout game in the last week.

The Wild Things lead the Frontier League with 498 strikeouts in 61 games, an average of 8.16 whiffs per game. The only independent teams that average more strikeouts than Washington are two clubs in the Pecos League (not all the players in that league are being paid, so should we even count those teams?).

Washington is not on record pace for the most strikeouts in Frontier League history, but it's not far behind. The league record is 840 by Florence in 2010. The Wild Things are on pace for 784 strikeouts. No team since 2010, when both Florence and Evansville did it, has struck out 800 times in a season.

The Wild Things team record for strikeouts in a season is 750, set in 2009. That was a team built on power hitting. It had a player with 31 home runs, another with 24 and another with 19. The current edition of the Wild Things doesn't have anywhere near the power potential of the 20009 team. The current group has to win by hitting doubles and playing small ball. That's why the high strikeout total is alarming.

Manager Bart Zeller and his coaching staff track what they call "quality at-bats." You might make an out, but it can still be considered a quality at-bat if you advance a runner. Strikeouts are not productive at-bats because they don't advance runners.