Evansville trades finalized

The Wild Things and Evansville have completed their two trades from back in August, when Washington sent pitchers Orlando Santos and Anthony Collazo to the Otters in exchange for players to be named.

Washington has acquired left-handed hitting shortstop Ryan Kresky and left-handed pitcher Ryan Zamorsky to complete those trades.

Kresky was the Otters' starting shortstop and a rookie out of Fairleigh Dickinson University. He batted .268 with seven home runs and 43 RBI in his first season of professional baseball. He also had nine stolen bases.

"Kresky had six game-winning hits for the Otters. His manager, Andy McCauley, told me that he is a real gamer and is the type of player we are looking for to fill our 2014 roster," Washington manager Bart Zeller said. "He is able to play the three infield positions with confidence and that is such a benefit to us."

Zamorsky is a soft-tossing starting pitcher who had a 5-7 record and 4.30 ERA. He was a member of the East Division all-star team last year after winning four of his first five starts (28 innings pitched, one run allowed in those wins). Zamorsky, however, won only one game after June 20, that a game in August at River City when he tossed six shutout innings.

"Ryan brings a solid year of experience in the Frontier League to us, and his style of pitching fits in with our strong defense," Zeller said. "He’s not a strikeout pitcher but does like to put the ball in play. We are looking forward to having him as a member of the Wild Things."

Like Kresky, Zamorsky is a New Jersey native. Zamorsky played at Kean University, an NCAA Division III school.

Schaumburg trade finalized

Chris Phelan

The Wild Things have acquired starting pitcher Chris Phelan to complete an earlier trade with the Schaumburg Boomers.

Washington traded pitcher Shawn Sanford to the Boomers in August in exchange for a player to be named.

Phelan had an excellent rookie season for the Frontier League champion Boomers, posting a 7-2 record and 2.20 ERA in 15 starts, including one shutout.

Phelan started Game 1 of the championship series against Lake Erie. Phelan played at Farmingdale State in New York before signing with the Boomers. He had a 27-9 career record in college.

“We are excited to add Chris Phelan to our pitching rotation,” Washington manager Bart Zeller said. “We are getting a quality starting pitcher.”

Washington also signed outfielder Jordan Keur out of Michigan State.

In 2012, Keur was named first team All-Big Ten when he led Michigan State with a .353 batting average, which ranked eighth in the conference. This past spring, Keur’s senior campaign ended early when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon during a game.

“Jordan has been on our radar for the past three months,” Zeller admitted. “he brings a solid defensive game to the Wild Things and will be competing for a regular job in his rookie year.”

2014 schedule released

The Wild Things released their 2014 schedule this afternoon, and it includes a season opener Thursday, May 15 at Florence and the home opener Tuesday, May 20 against the Frontier League Greys.

Washington is off Memorial Day and Labor Day, and at Florence July 4.

The regular season ends Thursday, Sept. 4 at home against Evansville.

The big change in the schedule is there are six scheduled home doubleheaders and one DH on the road. The home twinbills are Wednesday, June 11 against Schaumburg; Wednesday, July 2 against Southern Illinois; Wednesday, July 9 against Lake Erie; Sunday, Aug. 3 against the Frontier League Greys; Sunday, Aug. 10 against Traverse City and Wednesday, Aug. 20 against River City.

The road DH is Monday, July 28 at Evansville.

The Tuesday, June 24 home game against Traverse City will start at 10:35 a.m.

There are 45 home dates.

Will update this post later.

Formed Wild Things 3B signed

Former Washington third baseman Chris Costantino has been signed by the Atlanta Braves.

Costantino played briefly for the Wild Things this summer. A former pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals system, Costantino was converted to third base this year and hit .378 with 11 home runs and 55 RBI in 55 games for two teams in the Pecos League. The Wild Things acquired Costantino in mid-July, but he did little with Washington. Playing in six games, going 2-for-16 with six strikeouts. He also made three errors in five games at third base.

Costantino was released Aug. 5 after sitting out some games with a shoulder injury.

Closing note

Jonathan Kountis

The Wild Things acquired a former Frontier League all-star pitcher Wednesday when they signed right-hander Jonathan Kountis.

In 2012, Kountis was the top closer in the Frontier League while pitching for the Lake Erie Crushers. He had a 6-2 record, 18 saves, a 1.06 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings.

An Akron, Ohio, native, Kountis was then signed by the Toronto Blue Jays and spent one uneventful month with Class A Vancouver this spring, pitching in 10 games and posting a 5.79 ERA before being released.

Kountis appeared in four games with Laredo of the American Association before returning to the Frontier League with the Greys. He was used as a starting pitcher and had a 1-5 record and 7.08 ERA in nine games (seven starts). He did strike out 36 batters in 34 1/3 innings.

The 25-year-old Kountis has been drafted twice, including in the 19th round by the New York Mets in 2010. He spent two seasons in the Mets' minor-league system.

The Wild Things plan to return Kountis to the bullpen.

"We are very fortunate to have signed closer Jonathan Kountis, especially after we traded our 2013 closer, Amalio Diaz, to Laredo," Washington manager Bart Zeller said in a press release. "Jon fills a very large void left by Diaz, but with his record in the Frontier League in 2012, we have no doubt that he'll assume the closing role for the Wild Things."

First managerial opening

We know at least one Frontier League team will have a new manager in the 2014 season.

The Joliet Slammers have announced that Mike Breyman will not return for a second season.

Breyman, who played five seasons for the Gateway Grizzlies and was a coach for Gateway and River City, replaced Bart Zeller as Joliet's manager this year. The Slammers had a 38-57 record and finished in sixth place in the West Division, 20 1/2 games behind first-place Schaumburg.

We also have been told that Lake Erie manager Jeff Isom was working on a one-year contract with the Crushers. There is still a chance that Isom could return to Lake Erie in 2014. Last month, Gateway announced that Phil Warren will be back for his eighth season as manager of the Grizzlies, and River City signed Steve Brook for his fifth season with the Rascals.

Here is the link to the Breyman story from the Herald-Times http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/sports/22941687-419/joliet-slammers-manager-out-team-searching-for-replacement.html

Another pitcher traded

The Wild Things completed their second trade in as many days when it was announced Tuesday that they sent left-handed pitcher Dayne Quist to the San Angelo Colts to complete an earlier trade.

Washington acquired Quist from the Southern Illinois on Aug. 5 and the lefty pitched well with the Wild Things, compiling a 2-2 record and 3.26 ERA in six starts. For the season, Quist had an 8-4 record and 3.16 ERA in 27 games (11 starts).

Washington traded relief pitcher Amalio Diaz and Matt Phillips to Laredo of the American Association on Monday in exchange for outfielder Danny Poma.

Roster moves begin

Matt Phillips

The Wild Things already have started to shape their roster for 2014.

Last week, during his column on the Wild Things' website, manager Bart Zeller announced that the player to be named who was acquired from Joliet in the Darian Sanford trade is pitcher Mike Barsotti (6-5, 230). A native of Philadelphia, Barsotti has played two years in the Frontier League and was with Zeller on the Slammers' 2011 championship team.

Barsotti was 2-1 with a 7.33 ERA as a rookie in 2011. This past season, Barsotti pitched in 24 games (5 starts) and had a 2-3 record and 3.16 ERA in 25 games. He gave up only 49 hits in 62 2/3 innings. Barsotti played college baseball ta Wesleyan University, an NCAA Division III school in Middletown, Conn.



Danny Poma

Washington also traded two key members of their bullpen, sending right-hander Amalio Diaz (0-2, 6 saves, 2.00 ERA) and lefty Matt Phillips (3-3, 1 save, 2.95) to Laredo of the American Association in exchange for outfielder Danny Poma.

Poma had a tremendous college career at Hofstra, where he stole 49 bases and hit 48 doubles over two seasons. He batted .430 as a senior. He was a highly regarded player coming out of college and was drafted in the 10th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012.

He never did live up to expectations during a brief stay in the Diamondbacks' system. Poma hit only .228 in a short-season Class A league in 2012 and was released this year after playing only four games for rookie-level Missoula.

After thinking about this trade for a few minutes, one thing struck me as being unclear. The Wild Things traded Diaz, who is a player who ages out of the Frontier League because he's 27 years old. I thought that a 27-year-old who is not classified as a team's Veteran becomes a free agent at the end of the Frontier League season. I must be wrong on this because Washington traded Diaz, who I thought was a free agent.