Quality workmanship
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| 2014 Schaumburg Boomers |
The series is an interesting one to me because of the contrast in the way the pitching staffs of the Boomers and Rascals have been used this year. Schaumburg is an old-school style of team that relies on starting pitchers to work deep into games. The Rascals, much like the Lake Erie Crushers this year, have been bucking the theory that quality outings by your starting pitchers are necessary for success.
No team made more pitching changes this year than River City's 338. Lake Erie, meanwhile, made 322 pitching changes. Rascals manager Steve Brook and the Crushers' Chris Mongiardo wore out paths from the dugout to the mound. All they wanted from their starting pitchers was four or five solid innings and then they'd use a deep bullpen to take advantage of lefty-lefty and righty-right matchups for the remainder of the game. And it worked almost every night.
To show how much more River City and Lake Erie relied on their relief pitchers and the matchup game than their opponents, check out the number of pitching changes made by each of the six playoff teams:
338 - River City
322 - Lake Erie
262 - Southern Illinois
253 - Washington
238 - Schaumburg
192 - Evansville
After a break of about 24 hours, I'm back, trying to finish this blog post. Schaumburg did indeed win its second consecutive league championship last night and the Boomers followed the script. Seth Webster had a quality start (seven innings, one run) and three relievers finished a 6-2 victory. A quality start from your pitcher usually gets you a win in the Frontier League, as you can tell by the following chart:
Quality starts in 2014
49 - Southern Illinois
47 - Evansville
46 - Florence
44 - Washington
42 - Gateway
41 - Schaumburg
41 - Traverse City
40 - Rockford
39 - Windy City
35 - Normal
31 - Joliet
25 - Lake Erie
23 - Greys
23 - River City
Scott Dunn led Washington's pitchers with 11 quality starts. Zac Fuesser was second with nine.
posted by Chris Dugan at
5:12 PM
6 Comments:
Chris,
Thanks again for hosting this blog. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's mean and sometimes it's sad, kind of like a great movie or book. Hopefully, as the WT's move forward or backward as they do, something good will have come from professional baseball in Washington. Maybe they will be sold, or move or fold and a new owner will appear with a new team with a winning attitude, not a just win attitude that drives fans away instead of invites them in!
Agree about the need to sell the team to somebody else. It won't happen, Stu Williams is too butt-headed to sell the team to someone that knows how to treat people right.
Expect nothing good to happen and you won't be disapointed.
The fans don't come out to see the "no good" season ticket holders. They come out to see the players. If you want to be recognized then join a social club in Washington. The people in Washington know nothing about baseball, including Chris, why do you think he writes for the Observer Reporter (laugh inserted)
Anonymous 3:42 is a rectum specialist. The season ticket holders are the finanical backbone of the team!
Natural Grass said...
Anonymous 3:42 is a rectum specialist.
.......
Also, he is a damn jerk! Not enough b**ls to use his name while saying nasty things about other people.
Ron Wilson
BTW: Laugh NOT inserted.
Ron Wilson, I agree with your assessment of Anon 3:42 completely. Chris Dugan does an outstanding job of sports coverage and we, the real sports/Wild Things fans, are quite fortunate to have his talents here and writing for the OR. I'm also confused as to exactly what a "no good" season ticket holder is. "They come out to see the players." Well, isn't that the whole point of attending any sporting event?
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