He's beaten the Pirates and the Wild Things

By now, you probably know that Andrew Werner (pictured), the San Diego Padres pitcher who threw four-hit ball into the seventh inning Wednesday in his major league debut to beat the Pirates, began his professional career in the Frontier League, where he was playing as little as two years ago.

Werner actually made his professional debut at Consol Energy Park on July 17, 2009, tossing a scoreless inning of relief for Evansville against the Wild Things. Two days later, he pitched another scoreless inning of relief against Washington with exactly the same statistics: one walk and two strikeouts. Werner finished the year with a 3-2 record and 5.64 ERA in 10 games.

In 2010, Windy City traded an outfielder named Vinnie Scarduzio to Evansville in exchange for Werner. With the ThunderBolts, the lefty had a 10-4 record and 3.51 ERA. Werner made two starts against the Darin Everson-managed Wild Things that year (each game was in Crestwood, Ill.), posting a 2-0 record. In a June 28 game, he pitched six innings to beat Tim Smith, 5-2.

On Aug. 29, 2010, Werner beat the Wild Things again, going 6.1 innings and giving up four hits, four walks and three earned runs (a pitching line that was very similar to his outing against the Pirates) in Windy City's 8-7 victory. Justin Edwards started that game on the mound for Washington but Kevin Hammons was the losing pitcher.

One article I read late last night mentioned that Werner had tryouts with three Frontier League teams and was rejected before Evansville signed him. The article didn't name the three teams.