Who's the ace?
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Washington has a 39-24 record. Teams 15 games above .500 at this point in the season typically have that dominant pitcher, a true No. 1 starter. The Wild Things teams that were playoff clubs usually had that well-defined top-of-the-rotation pitcher with double-digit wins. Think Aaron Ledbetter, Ryan Douglass, Dave Bradley and Ben Ally (both in 2003) and Jared Howton.
So who is the ace of this year's team? That's a question that had different answers at different points in the season.
Scott Dunn, who was the Frontier League's Pitcher of the Year last season with Traverse City, was expected to be the ace and got the start on opening night. For his first half dozen starts, Dunn wasn't as sharp as he was last season, which made you think somebody else was the ace. Then, Dunn put together a string of six consecutive starts during which he gave up only seven earned runs (1.89 ERA) and you might have thought he was the ace again. But Dunn had a rocky start last week at Southern Illinois was put on the 7-day disabled list.
Shawn Blackwell, however, won his first five decisions and had an ERA was as low as 2.58 after a complete-game win over Southern Illinois early in July. He was the only Washington starting pitcher to make the all-star team, which had to make him the ace, right? Since the all-star break, Blackwell has made two starts and didn't make it to the fifth inning in either outing. Is he still the ace?
Tim Flight looked like he had ace potential before taking a line drive off his arm and suffering a season-ending injury. Chris Phelan was 5-2 and had a chance to make the all-star game when he suddenly retired. Neither are around to be the ace.
That leaves Zac Fuesser, who started the season in the bullpen. The lefty made his first start June 12 and is 4-0 in that role (6-1 overall). He also leads the league with a 1.72 ERA. That should make him the ace, right?
Well, along comes Troy Marks, a guy who has never played at Consol Energy Park. He was acquired by Washington from the Vallejo Admirals of the four-team independent Pacific Association. Marks, who was in camp last year with Schaumburg but was released before the regular season started, was 3-1 with a 2.57 for Vallejo. He was added to Washington's roster during the recent road trip and gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings to beat Normal last Wednesday.
Against Evansville Monday night, marks threw a gem. He allowed only two hits and struck out 11 as the Wild Things won, 2-0.
So is Marks the ace? Or Fuesser? Though neither was in the rotation in early June, Marks and Fuesser were the only pitchers to win at Southern Illinois and Evansville. Or is Blackwell still the ace? Or will Dunn come off the DL and return to his Pitcher of the Year form?
Maybe this year's Wild Things club is simply built more like the 2004 edition, a team that won 62 games but didn't have any pitcher win more than nine games. Ryan Ewin had nine wins that year, Matt Powell won eight games, Matt McDonell won seven and B.J. Borsa won seven times out of the bullpen.
posted by Chris Dugan at
11:07 PM
8 Comments:
We know for sure it's not Kevin Bryboski.
The only ace I know around here comes in a deck of cards and the pitching coach is one of the jokers....no wild cards in this deck either
Instead of being fired as he should have been, the ACE, or is it the A##, was treated to a seat in the bosses suite. Tells you all one needs to know about Williams and Z.
Bryboski is, very obviously, the corporate Hit Man in more ways than one.
I think we should all just boycott the WT until they are sold to a person that knows baseball, doesn't have a total lackey as an Asst. General Manager, doesn't intimidate his employees. knows about and obeys child labor laws, doesn't dismiss fan concerns out of hand, puts editable food in the concession stands, and isn't such an unfriendly person.
Also a person that doesn't tolerate the sort of thing that caused Mr. Zeller to resign and would allow a super jerk to remain on the coaching staff. Everybody knows that baseball etiquette and tradition does not allow for a coach to have a physical confrontation with the team manager without serious consequences. But who ever said Williams knows anything about that?
If you haven't been to a WT game, don't go until the team has an owner that actually gives a damn.
I agree a boycott is what needs to be done. We're almost there. Last night the attendance figure was 1,200 something. Knowing it's always been the practice to lie about the number and taking a look around, there was much less than that. The boycott is on and has been going on since the William's reign of terror and mismanagement started. The team is or has been if first place most of the season and the attendance is woeful. If it wasn't for the pathetic fireworks (as always done on the cheap) no one would attend.
Your team is headed to the playoffs for the first time since Bill Lee was in diapers and you're calling for a boycott.
Brilliant.
They don't call Washington's fans the dumbest in the league for nothing.
This is crazy, the team is tied for first and people want to boycott them, and you all call your self's fans of this team. People are jumping all over this pitching coach has anyone thought that maybe there is more to the story then you know? All we as fans saw was him grab him...we don't know what was said or if this was a on going problem that started from another game or practice....If all you fans think you can run the team better put your money together and buy the team...There are a lot of great people up there that care a lot and are working real hard to make things better...I am going to go to the games get my food that I like and cheer these guys on to a championship this season....whats on the field is what matters...
Yes the team is tied for first and people want to boycott them. Nobody said the fans in Washington were smart.
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