Wild Things shine at All-Star Game

The Wild Things had a big impact on the 2009 Frontier League All-Star game Wednesday night at Road Ranger Stadium in Loves Park, Ill.

Washington's Grant Psomas and Jacob Dempsey each hit a home run and Wild Things reliever Nick Peterson was the winning pitcher as the East All-Stars defeated the West, 5-2.

Florence's Ryan Basham, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player, broke a scoreless tie with a two-run homer in the top of the sixth inning. Psomas, who won the Home Run Derby on Tuesday night, then made it back-to-back homers for the East. Psomas' blast gave came on the first pitch he saw from Rockford's Tanner Watson, the winningest active pitcher in the Frontier League.

After a hit by Lake Erie's Luke Hetherington in the top of the seventh, Dempsey worked the count to 3-2 before hitting a two-run homer to give the East a 5-0 lead.

The West scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Peterson pitched a perfect fifth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced.

Psomas wins HR derby

Here is the story from the Rockford Register-Star about Washington third baseman Grant Psomas (pictured) winning the Frontier League's Home Run Derby Tuesday night in a tiebreaker against Southern Illinois first baseman Brad Miller:

Read the story here.

Two headed to all-star game

Two Wild Things have been voted to the Frontier League's 17th annual all-star game, which will be played July 15 at Road Ranger Stadium in Loves Park, Ill., with the Rockford RiverHawks as hosts.

Corner infielder Grant Psomas was chosen as a backup infielder and closer Nick Peterson also was selected to the East Division team. Psomas entered the Wild Things' game Sunday at Kalamazoo with a .275 batting average and teams highs of 11 home runs and 37 RBI. Peterson has an 0-2 record with six saves and a 5.94 ERA. He has 29 strikeouts in 16.2 innings.

The two managers for the all-star game will add three players of their choosing to their respective teams. This will likely happen Thursday.

Shining some light on the subject

During the sixth inning Saturday night, Washington's Grant Psomas hit a routine two-out fly ball to right field that River City's Matt Houin couldn't locate. The ball dropped for a double and led to the go-ahead run for the Wild Things.

It was the second time in three series at Consol Energy Park this year that a visiting right fielder couldn't locate a routine fly ball. Both times the ball dropped for an extra-base hit. It will happen again this season. You can bank on it. At least three times every year visiting right fielders lose track of fly balls. Most drop for doubles or triples. A few have been caught by hustling center fielders or second basemen.

So why all the trouble locating the fly balls? Washington right fielder Matt Sutton gave this explanation Saturday night:

"They're not losing balls in the lights or the setting sun. They're losing the balls in the sky. When it's still twilight here, it's very difficult to locate the ball in right field because of the background. Left fielders don't have as much of a problem because there are some tree tops over by the Interstate that give you a background for finding the ball. In right field, all you have is sky. There's no park in the league that's tougher to pick up a fly ball in."

Part of the problem is CEP's location. CEP offers no background for locating fly balls hit to right field. Sutton said you have to find the ball coming off the bat against the background of the third-base stands or pick it up in the lights. If you don't, then what happened Saturday night will be the result.

"That's a tough sky in right field," Washington manager Mark Mason said. "When the ball gets above the lights, it's like it evaporates. Our guys are used to it."

If CEP has one home-field advantage for the Wild Things, then this is it.

The good, the bad & the ugly

The Wild Things' bus pulled out of Consol Energy Park Monday afternoon headed for a six-game trip to the St. Louis area. The bus was carrying plenty of baggage. Much of that was emotional baggage from a season-opening three-game series against the Lake Erie Crushers that could be best described as ugly. In terms of quality of play, it was one of the worst series the Wild Things have ever played. And Lake Erie wasn't much better.

The Wild Things can look back on the series and say they should have won two games instead of one. They gave away a win Sunday. Of course, you can just as easily say that Lake Erie should have swept the series had its defense not gift-wrapped a win for Washington on Saturday night.

Amid all the walks, hit batsmen and fly balls that were dropped or lost in the lights, there were some positives signs for Washington. So let's look at what we've learned about this team from three games:

The Good:
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- Grant Psomas can flat-out hit. The ball jumps off his bat like no Washington hitter I've seen since Josh Loggins. If he continues hitting like this, manager Mark Mason will have to move him up in the lineup to either the No. 3 or No. 4 spot.

- Amid all the walks, there were a few pitchers whose performances might have gotten overlooked. Opening night starter Craig Snipp was impressive the first time through the Lake Erie batting order and had eight strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. Reliever Matt Maradeo looked more like the guy who put up good numbers in the Chicago Cubs' system than the one who struggled with the Wild Things last year. Kedrick Martin tossed two shutout innings to get a win Saturday. Even Saturday starter Sean Heimpel and reliever Justin Edwards showed flashes that they could be very good.

- Catcher Kris Rochelle, coming off elbow surgery, had a very good series with three hits in two games and throwing out two basestealers in as many attempts. Rochelle gunned down the Crushers' Jodam Rivera each time. In the Sunday game, Rivera had a huge walking lead and jump at second base with a right-handed batter at the plate. Rochelle's throw was perfect and got to the base well ahead of Rivera.

The Bad:
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- The fielding. Three dropped fly balls of various degrees of difficulty. No excuse. By the way, whatever happened to catching fly balls with two hands?

- The baserunning mistake by Michael Parker that led the Wild Things not scoring on a sacrifice fly to deep center field. Sure, Chris Sidick could have been running faster to home plate, but he should not have needed to sprint like it was an Olympic 100-meter dash final. Parker trying to advance to second base wasn't wise. At least it was a mistake of aggression, which can often be overlooked.

The Ugly:
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- The pitching.

Here are the ugly numbers:

Washington pitchers walked 22 batters in 21 innings. They also hit five batters.

Lake Erie scored 21 runs in the series and 10 of those were batters who reached base via walks.

Nine times in the series, including five times Sunday, Washington pitchers walked the leadoff hitter in an inning.

Almost every pitcher worked from behind in the count. Someone told me Sunday that starter Eric Evans fell behind in the count to all but two of the 17 batters he faced. It wouldn't surprise me if that was true, even when you factor in Evans' six-pitch first inning.

Washington leads the league with its 22 walks allowed. Windy City's pitchers have issued only six walks in four games.

"Pitching-wise, we've got to get better," Mason said Sunday. "We were behind in the count all night. ... That means our pitchers are trying to be too fine and not pitching to contact. Either we're not comfortable with our stuff or we're trying to embarrass every hitter. If we do that at Gateway, in that park, we'll give up 20 runs."

One thing Mason said he saw too much of was breaking balls thrown on 1-0 and 2-1 counts.

Lake Erie also had its pitching problems, giving up 16 walks.

"Both clubs have entirely new pitching staffs," Lake Erie manager John Massarelli pointed out. "One year, when I managed with Mace as my pitching coach, we had the same situation and the first few games of the season were just like that. You're basically just running guys out there until you figure out what roles to put them in."

Looking back: Game 1

A few very random thoughts and some leftovers from the season opener Friday night:

* Grant Psomas can hit. It looks like it didn't take long for Psomas, who played 180 games in Double-A and seven in Triple-A the last two years, to figure out the Frontier League's style of pitching. Even before his two home runs Friday, Psomas' swing reminded me of Josh Loggins'.

"Adjusting to the fastball is the big thing for Grant," manager Mark Mason said. "He's used to seeing it at a higher range, so he was out in front. He's made some adjustments. He's seeing the ball deeper now."

* That was a game the Wild Things gave away. A classic we-don't-want-it, you-take-it game. You can't walk the bases loaded in a 4-3 game and drop a fly ball in the ninth inning and expect to win. Of Lake Erie's last six runs, four reached base on walks and two were unearned because of a dropped fly ball.

* I hate home openers. Some baseball person a long time said something that rings true with me: "The real baseball season begins with the second game of the season." I agree. Nothing about the opener is routine.

* Judging by the people I spoke with, I'm probably in the minority when I say I didn't mind the purple jerseys. I've been told they will be worn for Sunday home games. But, if they were going to wear a colored jersey, I prefer red. They wore a red jersey in one game last season (think it had something to do with a Washington Hospital promotion) and those were the best-looking colored jerseys they've had.

* Washington starting pitcher Craig Snipp was spectacular for 3 1/3 innings, striking out seven, including four in a row at one point. After giving a one-out triple to Gordon Gronkowski in the second inning, Snipp struck out the next two batters to strand the runner and keep the game scoreless. Lake Erie, however, figured out something about Snipp the second time through the order.

"We got beat by the 7-8-9 hitters in the fourth," Mason said. "Other than, I thought Snipp did a good job. He was outstanding the first time through the order."

* The one lasting vision I have from opening night is this: When pulling into the parking lot and seeing the large roped-off area, I thought this might be reserved for WJPA Radio's Bob Gregg, based on his vote on the tax-for-turf issue Thursday. Nope! I saw Bob getting out of his car, and it was parked somewhere closer to Greene County than the ballpark.

Getting a Grant

The Wild Things added a big piece to their roster when they announced Wednesday the signing of third baseman Grant Psomas, a Keystone Oaks High School graduate and West Virginia University product.

Psomas is one of the three players classified as Veterans by Frontier League roster standards. The others are Chris Sidick and Brett Grandstrand.

Psomas comes to the Wild Things after spending five seasons in the minor leagues - two in the New York Mets' system and three with Florida. He made it as high as Class AAA, playing in seven early-season games last year for Albuquerque in the Pacific Coast League. Psomas went 9-for-18 with three home runs for Albuquerque, but he struggled the rest of the season in Class AA and high-Class A.

I believe outfielder Doug Garcia (2003) was the only other Wild Things player to have played in Triple-A.

Psomas had two productive seasons (66 extra-base hits) for the Mets after being drafted in the 15th round in 2004. Psomas was one of three minor-leaguers New York traded in 2005 to Florida for all-star first baseman Carlos Delgado and $7 million. Psomas, who was the "player to be named later" in the trade, went to Florida along with first baseman Mike Jacobs (now in the majors with Kansas City) and pitcher Yusmeiro Petit, who is currently playing for Arizona and has replaced injured Brandon Webb in the Diamondbacks' rotation.

In his first two years in the Marlins' system, Psomas hit 26 home runs, including a 50 extra-base hit season in 2007 for the Carolina Mudcats in Double-A. But his batting average dipped to .238 - he was a .283 hitter in Class A.

In five minor-league seasons, Psomas hit 55 home runs including 23 above the Class A level.

"Grant will provide us veteran leadership and an impact bat in the middle of the order," said new Wild Things manager Mark Mason. "We have received very strong reports on him, and his numbers speak for themselves."