Another pitching change

The Wild Things apparently have made the decision to use the remainder of the season to audition rookie pitchers in hope that one or more will prove worthy of re-signing for the 2014 season.

Washington added its third rookie pitcher in two days when it added lefty Steve Messner and placed reliever Matt Phillips on the disabled list.

Messner played this spring at Cal State-San Marcos, an NAIA school in California (again, where have we seen this before?) and had a 7-3 record in 15 games (13 starts) and a 2.91 ERA. He gave up only 56 hits in 80 1/3 innings and struck out 74, through he did walk 54 batters, which is an alarmingly high walk-to-inning pitched rate.

Messner played his junior season at Oklahoma Baptist, another NAIA school, and was very good. He had an 8-4 record, 2.82 ERA and struck out 109 batters in only 83 innings. He gave up just 63 hits.

Prior to Oklahoma Baptist, Messner played for the College of the Canyons and Cal State-Northridge.

Phillips had been given a heavy workload for the Wild Things. He has pitched in 34 games with a 3-3 record, one save and a 3.34 ERA. Phillips pitched better than those numbers suggest.