Rainouts, schedule and trade talk

The last two days of interesting weather have provided some curious decisions for those involved in Wild Things games.

On Thursday, what had been a day-long rain prompted the Wild Things to cancel their game against Normal at Consol Energy Park. The decision was announced at about 5:30 p.m., or 90 minutes before the scheduled start time.

I don't think either team really wanted to play the game. It would have been a terrific pitching matchup as both teams were scheduled to throw their ace, Trevor Foss for Washington and Michael Schweiss for Normal. The weather forecast was for the rain to stop before game time but be back about 9 p.m. The thought of starting a game with your ace on the mound and then having it rained out after a few innings was what concerned both teams.

The CornBelters, I'm sure, were happy with the decision to bang the game. Not playing meant that if Normal and Washington tie for a wild-card playoff berth, then Normal wins the tiebreaker based on winning the season series, 3-2. The CornBelters also were happy to get out of town early because they were looking at a long bus ride back to Illinois and a home game Friday night against Lake Erie.

So what happened with the weather? It stopped raining about 6:30 p.m. and didn't start raining again until ... oh, more than 30 hours later. Not a drop fell Thursday ninth after 6;30 p.m.

The scenario reminded me about what I a professional baseball executive once said to me: "I'm not going to hold up the start of a game because it might rain. You know why? Because if might not rain."

The game should have been played Thursday night. Can a game really be rained out if it never rained during the three-hour window in which the game was scheduled? I guess so.

And wasn't synthetic turf at CEP supposed to eliminate situations like Thursday night?

On to Friday night in Florence and what happens to the Wild Things? They sent Foss to the mound and exactly what they were trying to avoid Thursday happened. They play into the fifth inning and rain causes the game to be suspended. No decision for Foss.

It seemed like a quick decision to suspend the game. I wasn't in Florence, Ky., Friday night but according the weather.com radar, it seemed that the rain stopped sometime around 10:15 p.m.

One thing I've noticed in 15 years of covering the Frontier League is that as soon as rain is spotted within 20 miles of a ballpark, everybody from the umpires to the players to the coaches to the event staff want to immediately go home. Either these people really don't like their jobs, have no patience or don't understand that it rains for an hour or so a lot in this part of the country.

Checking the schedule

With 10 teams either in or within eight games of a wild-card playoff spot, it's apparent the schedule might play a key role in who gains those two coveted wild-card berths come September.

Teams that play the majority of their remaining games at home, or don't have to play the powerful Southern Illinois Miners (43-20), should be thanking the schedulemaker. The following is a breakdown, entering Saturday's play, of remaining games on the road and games left against the Miners for each team except Southern Illinois. I might be off by a game for a team or two because of a doubleheader or suspended contest that I was not aware of when checking the schedules online.

Road Games Remaining:
21 -- Washington
18 -- Normal
17 -- Joliet
17 -- Traverse City
17 -- Windy City
16 -- Evansville
16 -- River City
16 -- Schaumburg
15 -- Lake Erie
12 -- Florence
12 -- Gateway

Games Remaining vs. Southern Illinois
6 -- Evansville
6 -- Gateway
4 -- Joliet
3-- Florence
3 -- Lake Erie
3 -- Normal
3 -- River City
2 -- Schaumburg
0 -- Traverse City
0 -- Washington
0 -- Windy City

Trade talk
With so many teams likely to be in the playoff hunt Aug. 15, which is the Frontier League's transactions deadline, don't expect many trades within the league. There won't be many sellers, like the Wild Things were last year, in 2013 and a bunch of years before that.

During the franchise's early years, when it was a playoff regular, the Wild Things usually were able to acquire a key player at the transaction deadline or earlier. There were good acquisitions like Jason Kane and Ryan Bethel, some OK pickups like Eric Fisher, a few forgettable ones like Gerard Haran and a real steal in Aaron Ledbetter.

This year, teams might have to go outside the league, to the American Association, Can-Am League, Pacific Association or (gulp!) the Pecos League to find an extra arm or bat.

"We've had offers," Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said. "You would think, with so many teams in wild-card contention, that it won't be easy to make a trade. It will take only two weeks of going 9-3 or 10-2 and you're right right back in it. It makes it fun. It's good for the league. Nobody is going to be lying down."

Washington started its nine-game road trip Friday night in Florence.

"This is going to be a big road trip on a number of levels," Langbehn said. "One is for us to see where we are at the (transactions) deadline."

Epic loss

The Wild Things have had plenty of low points/lowlights in their 15-year history.

They have been up 2-0 in the league championship series and then lost three in a row, the last in game in one-sided 10-3 fashion.

They have lost as many as 57 games in a 96-game season.

They have finished a season 20 games out of first place.

They have used a coach-by-committee approach instead of employing a manager.

They have lost games after they were leading and within one strike of a victory.

Like every team that has ever played the game, they have lost games in blowout fashion. Heck, even the 1927 New York Yankees lost a game by 10 runs.

However, the Wild Things have never lost a game like they did Sunday at Southern Illinois.

There is nothing surprising about losing to the Miners. Southern Illinois is the best team in the league and is going to cruise to the West Division title. The Miners are 6-0 against the Wild Things and have beaten Washington in 10 of the last 11 meetings.

So a 12-10 loss for Washington to Southern Illinois is nothing new. What is different is the manner in which the Wild Things lost Sunday night.

They led 10-1 in the fifth inning.

Then they gave up 10 runs over two innings.

I cannot remember another game in which the Wild Things blew a nine-run lead and the game.

The only thing I can compare this game to was back in 2005, in a game at Rockford, Washington led 20-2 before settling for a 20-16 win.

That game, however, was a win. This was a punch-to-the-gut loss.

We keep being told that this is a good Wild Things team. It's in second place in the East and currently holding what would be a playoff spot.

Good teams don't blow nine-run leads.

And the Wild Things did so in what was actually less than two innings. The Miners scored 10 runs during a stretch in which they made only four outs.

There is plenty of room left for second-guessing. The Wild Things made only one pitching change during Southern Illinois' 10-run outburst.

The bullpen was depleted, you say, because long reliever Brian O'Keefe was making a spot start and Luke Wilkins, a starter, threw two innings of relief Saturday night. Only late-innings relievers were left in the bullpen.

Well, that's what happens when you play for weeks with only 22 active players, which is two under the Frontier League limit. Another pitcher or two might have come in handy Sunday.

After scoring 10 runs in a little more than three innings off Southern Illinois ace Rick Teasley, the Washington hitters were shut out for the final six innings by five Miners relievers. Just one run off the Miners' bullpen might have changed the way the game played out over the final two innings.

Maybe Southern Illinois doesn't have a five-run fifth if the inning didn't start with a walk. And maybe the Miners wouldn't have a five-run sixth if the inning didn't start with a booted routine grounder.

That's all a lot of ifs and buts. You can second-guess, replay games and replay scenarios all you want. It changes nothing.

The fact is, the Wild Things lost a game they should have won with ease.

It was a loss like no other in the franchise's history. It was the lowest of lows.

And it will be interesting to see how this team reacts to such a landmark loss. Do the ill-effects linger? Does the roof fall in on this team, which is only 2-7 since the all-star break? Does the team use the loss as inspiration because making the playoffs might mean a first-round series against and another shot at Southern Illinois?

We'll find out over the next few weeks.

West is best

Anybody who has followed the Frontier League doesn't need me to tell them this, but if you haven't been paying attention, then you should know that the West Division is much better than the East this season.

Much, much, much better.

The difference, at this point in the season, is significant.

Think varsity to junior varsity different.

Think Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cleveland Browns different.

Think prime rib and cereal different.

If the result of the all-star game -- a 11-4 win by the West -- didn't tell you that the West (shouldn't it really be the South, if you're going to base the divisions on geography?) is vastly superior, then I have some other numbers:

* As I write this, no East team has a winning record against West opponents. Lake Erie has the best record at 11-11, but the Crushers are 5-11 in their last 16 against the West.

* Traverse City is 11 games under .500 against the West at 6-17.

* The league has been playing East vs. West since returning from the all-star break. No East team has a winning record in this period. Joliet, the first-place team in the East, is 2-7 against the West since the break. The record of the East against the West since the break is 15-34.

* Each of the last two nights, the Wild Things had a chance to move into first place with a win over West leader Southern Illinois. Both times Washington lost. The Wild Things are 0-5 against the Miners, and 2-6 since the all-star break with all of those games against the West. They are 10-14 on the year against the West.

* Florence, the last-place team in the West at 26-33, has a winng record (12-11) against the East.

How I spent my Thursday night ... and enjoyed it

The week of Major league Baseball's all-star break probably is the worst for a "staycation."

Outside of the all-star game, I usually find nothing interesting at night on the 200 or so channels on my cable television package from Monday through Thursday of this week. Last night, while my wife and youngest son were binge watching "Practical Jokers," I decided to boot the old desktop computer and watch some baseball, the independent variety.

The American Association and Can-Am League both do a great job of live streaming games, unlike the Wild Things' web streams that look like they are produced by a second grader. I went to the American Association site thinking maybe former Wild Things pitcher Shawn Blackwell might be on the mound for Sioux Falls at St. Paul. No such luck. Blackwell wasn't pitching.

For some reason I still can't explain, I visited the Can-Am homepage and clicked on a game between the New Jersey Jackals and Rockland Boulders. Rockland was up 3-0 in the sixth inning and who is on the mound for the Boulders? Former Wild Things relief pitcher Pat Butler. I decided to watch half an inning and saw New Jersey score six runs, five charged to Butler.

That was all I could take from that game, so I went into the family room and began watching "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" for about the 10th time in my life. By the way, doesn't an aging Mick Jagger now look like Don Knotts circa 1966?

During a commercial break about 40 minutes later, I returned to my computer and realized that I had left the live streaming of that Jackals-Boulders game running on the screen. The next pitch I see, Marcus Nidiffer, a catcher for Rockland who once played for Wild Things manager Gregg Langbehn at Traverse City, gets plunked by a pitch. That's when all the fun started. Benches emptied. Rockland comes back from down 8-3 in the ninth to force extra innings, having the potential winning run thrown out at the plate. Then some ejections. Then in the top of the 10th, a person in a red jersey (at the time I thought it was a bat boy) goes running behind home plate just as the inning is about to start. It's the New Jersey pitcher who plunked Nidiffer charging the Rockland dugout.

Though football season doesn't start for a few weeks, our old friend Pat Butler makes the first tackle of the 2016 season as benches empty again. There are more ejections, though no punches are thrown.

The crazy thing about the ejections is, the booted players from New Jersey must walk through the seating area to get to the visitor's clubhouse. That, obviously, is not a good situation but it made for some great entertainment.

In short, it was a fun Thursday night watching the shenanigans going on in another independent league. Below is an entertaining 10-minute video of the highlights/lowlights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da5Jr28tT0Y&feature=youtu.be

Back in action

The Wild Things (27-22) begin the second half of the season tonight by opening a three-game series against West Division-leading Southern Illinois at Consol Energy Park.

It seemed that after a win Sunday over Schaumburg the staff (not the coaching staff) was ordered to make a big deal out of moving into a tie for first place in the East Division with Joliet. As far as I know, nobody has ever won a Frontier League division title at the halfway point in a 96-game schedule, but maybe we can learn a little from history.

This is the fourth time in 15 seasons that Washington has been in first place at the all-star break. The last time was two years ago when the Wild Things were 32-19 at the break. That 2014 team finished 57-39 and in third place in the East. It went on to win a wild-card game at Evansville but lost a semifinal series to River City. The current team, though four games off the pace of the 2014 squad, seems to be in better shape. Remember, that 2014 team had manager Bart Zeller resign the day before the all-star break after a dustup in the dugout with the pitching coach, then right fielder Stewart Ijames had his contract purchased by Arizona minutes before the first game after the all-star break.

The 2007 team was sitting in first place with a 28-17 record at the all-star break and cruised to the East title by 8 1/2 games with a 55-40 record. That team beat Gateway in the first round of the playoffs before losing to Windy City in the finals.

The first time Washington was in first place at the all-star break was in 2004. That team went on to win the East at 62-34, eight games better than second-place Evansville. The Otters then swept the Wild Things in three games in the first round of the playoffs.

So history tells us that the three Wild Things teams that were in first place at the all-star break all made the playoffs, with two winning division titles. That doesn't guarantee this year's team anything but, hey, so far the season has been more fun than in 2012, when Washington was buried in seventh place in the East with an 18-29 record and 13 1/2 games out of first place at the break.

Halfway home

The Wild Things reached the halfway point in in their season Saturday night with one of their best games, a 5-0 shutout of the Schaumburg Boomers (the second 5-0 win over the Boomers this season). Washington matched its season-high with 14 hits and allowed only five, three of which didn't leave the infield.

The win came one night after one of Washington's most disappointing losses, a 5-4 setback to the Boomers in a game the Wild Things led 4-1 in the seventh inning. A hit batsman, a walk, an infield dribbler that went for a single and two wild pitches (on consecutive pitches) contributed to a three-run most seventh. Schaumburg won the game with two doubles in the eighth.

Washington has a 26-22 record at the midway point. The Wild Things trail first-place Joliet by only one game in the East Division. They have made up 2 1/2 games in the last week.

The Frontier League has changed its playoff format this year by eliminating the wild-card games, which trims the number of postseason qualifiers from six to four. The two division winners will qualify along with the two remaining teams with the best records. Entering today's series finale against Schaumburg, which is the final game before the all-star break, Washington currently holds the final playoff position.

This begs the question: Do you consider the Wild Things contenders or pretenders?

And plenty of other questions, such as:

Can this team stay in playoff contention if they continue to be last in the league in team batting average (currently ,235 -- it has gone up .007 in the last week)?

Will the hitting improve?

Are center fielder Chris Grayson and second baseman Jamodrick McGruder the impact players the Wild Things' offense needs?

Only two teams have more quality starts than the Wild Things' 25. Can the starting pitching hold up over the final 48 games?

The bullpen was the most dependable part of this team for the first 39 games but it has two blown saves since June 29. Is it just a bad stretch or is the bullpen beginning to leak oil?

These questions will be answered over the 48 games. Stay tuned.

Austin retires; more roster moves expected

Jamal Austin (5)

The first of what could be a flurry of roster moves for the Wild Things happened Sunday when starting center fielder Jamal Austin was placed on the retired list.

Austin was Washington's third-leading hitter with a .273 batting average out of the leadoff spot. He had seven doubles, two triples and a team-leading 13 stolen bases.

Washington's active roster was at 22 -- the league minimum -- for Sunday's game against the Florence Freedom.

The scuttlebutt is that more roster moves -- and they are likely to be significant -- will happen before the Wild Things begin a series Tuesday at East Division leader Joliet.