All-Decade Team: Reserve

Only one player who has worn the uniform of the Wild Things owns a Frontier League batting title.


The only problem with that is, Chris Carter's batting title in 2003 came when he played for the Kalamazoo Kings and hit .364. Carter didn't join the Wild Things until 2005, after a year-and-a-half stint in the Baltimore Orioles' system, where he advanced to the high-Class A level.

An outfieler, Carter spent two highly productive years in Washington. While it takes consistency to win a batting title, Carter was one of the streakiest hitters the Wild Things ever had, yet one of their best.

In 2005, when the Wild Things won the East Division title by 10 games, Carter was batting a highly respectable .299 at mid-June. Then, for a 44-game stretch, he became the hottest hitter in the league and led the Wild Things' runaway to the division title and league record 13-game winning streak. During the stretch, Carter batted .313 with a nine home runs and a whopping 43 RBI. He had 18 multi-hit games during the hot streak.

Carter finished the year with a .286 batting average.

In 2006, Carter had another season of streaks. He was scuffling along at the end of June, carrying only a .240 batting average. Manager John Massarelli even kept Carter out of the lineup for a few days, hoping the outfielder could clear his mind and kick-start his bat. It worked. Carter batted a blistering .363 over the next two months and led the Wild Things to another East Division title, this time by a half-game over Chillicothe. When Carter started his torrid hitting on July 1, Washington was 8 1/2 games out of first place.

Carter retired after the 2006 season and is currently the Director of Baseball Operations for his alma mater, Coastal Carolina University. He gets one of the reserve spots on the Wild Things' All-Decade team, leaving two roster spots to be filled.

All-Decade Team: Chris Carter (2005-06)

Useless information, V2.0

Some random thoughts and notes about the Wild Things and Frontier League:

* Has any Wild Things player ever had a better road trip than the one Chris Sidick (pictured) is having? In the first five games of the current six-game trip to Traverse City and Rockford, Sidick is 14-for-21 with 11 runs, 5 RBI, 2 home runs and 5 stolen bases. He has raised his batting average from .243 to .286.

A few other guys I recall having good road trips were Josh Loggins, Chris Carter and Mike Arbinger.

Loggins had a trip to Evansville and Chillicothe in 2003 in which he went 7-for-17 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI and was signed by Colorado during the trip.

When Washington ran off a 13-game winning streak in 2005, Arbinger and Carter were the catalysts. During a nine-game road trip to Gateway, River City and Mid-Missouri, Arbinger was 17-for-44 with 2 homers and 16 RBI. On the same trip, Carter went 15-for-38 with 5 homers and 15 RBI.

* According his Twitter account, Chris Smith, a right-handed pitcher who has been playing with the White Sands Pupfish of the independent Pecos League, has signed a contract to play with the Wild Things. Smith, who is from Louisville, was Lake Erie's first-round draft pick in the Frontier League draft in 2010. He played two games for Traverse City this year, including a rough outing out of the bullpen against the Wild Things at Consol Energy Park in May. Smith later signed with White Sands. In the Pecos League, Smith had a 3-0 record and 1.39 ERA in four outings. He struck out 28 in 26 innings.

According to the Twitter post, Smith said he will be a starting pitcher with the Wild Things.

* Former Wild Things relief pitcher Alan Williams, who was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers early in the Frontier League season, has been promoted from rookie ball to Class A. Williams was sent from Helena (Mont.) to Appleton (Wisc.), where he will play for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the Midwest League. Williams pitched in nine games with Helena and had a 1-1 record, 4 saves and 2.57 ERA. He struck out 28 in only 14 innings.

* When Luis Rivera homered in the fifth inning Wednesday at Traverse City, it was the first time all season the Wild Things received a home run from the cleanup spot in the batting order. That one came 52 games into the season.

* Remember Steve MacFarland, who pitched for the Wild Things last year until an injury ended his season? McFarland was the Pittsburgh Pirates' 9th-round draft pick in 2006 but never made it past low-Class A with the Bucs. He was traded by Washington to another independent league last offseason. Since then, MacFarland has been released from three different indy leagues but is back in the Frontier. He was signed this week by the Florence Freedom.