That's a long time

After Justin Hall's four-hit, 98-pitch shutout of the Joliet Slammers Friday night, one thing came to mind: When was the last time a Wild Things pitcher threw a nine-inning complete-game shutout on the road?

I knew that Jeff Sonnenberg's shutout of Lake Erie last August -- when he faced the minimum 27 batters -- ended a long streak of no nine-inning shutouts by Wild Things pitchers, but that game was at home. What about on the road?

I did some research and found a nine-inning whitewash by Aaron Ledbetter in a 3-0 victory at Evansville in a weekday afternoon game June 18, 2007.

Hall's shutout ended a streak of 169 consecutive road games for the Wild Things without a nine-inning shutout.

First day of camp

Saw roughly 2 1/2 hours of the Wild Things' first day of spring training Thursday (I was trying to put off mowing my lawn for as long as possible). The practice was notable only for what was worn and who wasn't there.

The players wore the traditional Wild Things hats with the familiar mascot-head logo on the front. The difference was the bill of the cap was royal blue instead of red or black. The socks that were visible on some of the players also were royal blue. I guess we now know why the "Wild Things" logo on the team's homepage is blue.

I didn't hear anything about a change in color schemes, and you'd think that wouldn't make sense when you have a red, black and white logo (the largest logo in baseball?) on the field behind home plate.

The biggest player news was significant. Right-handed pitcher Jeff Sonnenberg was not in camp. He was placed on the retired list. Word is he as a shoulder injury that required surgery and is out for the season.

That's a significant blow to the pitching staff, which is already short on starting pitchers with pro experience. A healthy Sonnenberg would have been expected to be the the ace of the staff. Last August, he threw what was the best game ever by a Washington starting pitcher at Consol Energy Park when he faced the minimum 27 batters in a two-hit shutout of Lake Erie.

I saw the first four innings of an intrasquad game. The dominant player during that period was left-handed pitcher Vidal Nuno, who threw four scoreless innings before being replaced. Nuno, who was signed after spending two seasons as a starter in the Cleveland Indians' system, worked fast and threw strikes. He gave up three singles, did not walk a batter and struck out five. He even picked off a runner.

The pitcher for the other team was another newcomer, Jhonny Montoya. The Miami, Fla., native looked good for three innings and struggled in the other (the third inning). In 3 2/3 innings, he gave up two runs (one earned) and three hits but walked four.

The best defensive play was made by right fielder Luis Rivera, who threw out Gerardo Caceres, who was trying to stretch a single into a double.

Examining the roster

Spring training is less than two weeks away for the Wild Things – the season opener is 27 days from now – but their roster is far from set. Yes, this is a busy time for Frontier League managers and coaches as they scramble to sign players cut during minor-league spring training and released by other independent leagues. Teams also will be adding players from tryout camps, including the Frontier League tryout May 2-3 in Florence, Ky.

A check of the Wild Things' roster shows there are still spots that must be addressed before spring training begins. The most obvious is catcher, where only Blake Ochoa and Greyson Schram are on the roster. Billy O'Conner was placed on the suspended list last week. You can't go through spring training with only two catchers, so expect one or two more to be signed.

The same can be said for the outfield, where only four players are on the roster. Though some of the infielders have position flexibility (a Mike Tomlin term), here's thinking that at least one more outfielder will be signed for spring training, if only to make fewer infielders play out of position during intrasquad games.

One other spot that appears to be quite unsettled is starting pitcher. Judging by the quotes from manager Darin Everson in Wild Things press releases, many of the pitchers signed by Washington seem ticketed for bullpen duty.

Of the 20 players who had their options picked up in December, five were starting pitchers last year. Another, Jason Neitz, did not play last season but was a starting pitcher for Washington in 2009.

Of those six starting pitchers, I've heard that one (Billy Muldowney) won't be coming back, though you never know for sure who will and won't return until camp opens. I've seen guys be no-shows at camp, and at least one who wasn't expected to return arrive several days into camp (and woefully out of shape).

Another starting pitcher (Justin Edwards) is coming off shoulder surgery and won't be back until midseason. Two others (Zach Groh and Steve MacFarland) ended last year on the injured list and aren't even listed on the Wild Things' roster on the Frontier League's website.

The other starting pitcher is Jeff Sonnenberg, who developed into the staff ace last year.

It looks like the other starting options could be lefty Joe Rodriguez, who was selected in the Oakland County dispersal draft after making four starts for the Cruisers, and Sean Keeler, who had some starting experience (three games the last two years) in college at Franklin Pierce.

Depending on the status of MacFarland, Groh and Neitz, this could be a position the Wild Things are actively trying to address. My guess is there's a starting pitcher or two who Washington is waiting to receive a contract from in the next 10 days.

How good was that?

From pure baseball standpoint, there have a few really good Wild Things games played at Consol Energy Park, some real hard-to-watch clunkers and a whole lot of games that fall inbetween.

In this guy's opinion, Washington's 3-0 victory Thursday night over the Lake Erie Crushers was the best-played game at the nine-year-old ballpark. There have been more exciting games and wild finishes, but from a quality baseball standpoint that was the best-played game I can recall. There was tremendous pitching and enough outstanding defensive plays to fill a week's worth of games. If pitching defense is your game, that was one for you.

Washington's Jeff Sonnenberg, pictured, faced the minimum 27 batters in throwing a two-hit shutout with no walks. Only one Lake Erie batter reached a three-ball count. After each of the hits allowed by Sonnenberg, the next Lake Erie batter grounded into a double play. At one stretch, Sonnenberg retired 22 consecutive batters, getting 23 outs in the process.

First baseman Eric Stephens made two terrific defensive plays, going far to his right to snag a grounder by Jodam Rivera in the fourth and to a catch a liner by Raphael Turner to end the eighth. Center fielder Luis Rivera also tracked down Arden McWilliams' deep fly ball on the warning track in the sixth inning. Sonnenberg said he thought McWilliams' shot was going to be a home run.

The biggest defensive play came in the first inning when right fielder Mark McGonigle threw out Jodam Rivera, who was trying to score from second base on a single. Catcher Jared Dyer was able to block home plate with his left foot and make the tag.

Lake Erie also made some web-gem-like defensive plays, especially Rivera at shortstop and Andrew Davis at third base.

Was there ever a better performance by a Washington pitcher than the one by Sonnenberg? Washington pitchers have thrown two no-hitters -- Jason Hickman at Kalamazoo in 2002 and Eric Palmer in the second game of a doubleheader at Windy City in 2004 -- but neither was a shutout. Hickman gave up a run on a two-base throwing error, wild pitch and groundout. Palmer gave up a run on two errors.

Aaron Ledbetter had several outstanding games at home, as did Jared Howton, Ben Ally and Dave Bradley, to name a few. The one that stands out to me was Howton's game against Johnstown in 2002 when he threw a three-hit shutout with no walks and 13 strikeouts. Lake Erie, however, is a better team than Johnstown was in 2002.

While trying to think of a game that was better-played than last night's, I came up with a few possibilities. One was a pitcher's duel in 2006 when Rockford's Derek Roper beat Ledbetter 1-0. The other was in 2003, on Father's Day, when Ally pitched Washington to a 4-0 win over Cook County. Ally threw a four-hittter with one walk and 12 strikeouts in a game that lasted only 1:57. Cook County's James Clelland also threw a complete game and didn't walk a batter, striking out six.

Those games, however, fall short of the game played Thursday night because of defensive plays and Sonnenberg facing the minimum 27 batters. The latter, however, was odd because if you weren't watching the game closely or keeping score, you probably didn't know what was happening. After all, Lake Erie had two hits and Washington started the night with an error, the only one of the game.

Changing the blueprint?

The Wild Things announced the signing of seven players to contracts during a two-day period last week. Nothing surprising about that. Mid-to-late April is the busy period for Frontier League transactions. Plus, first-year manager Darin Everson said he wants to bring 32 players to spring training, and he was more than a dozen short of his goal.

Several things, however, stand out about the signings of pitchers Matt Vieira, Jeff Sonnenberg, Kevin Hammons, Matt Lyons and Ben Rodewald, ultilty player Joel Hartman and infielder Devin Murphy. One is that six of the seven are rookies (Hartman is an L1), according to Frontier League standards. Washington still has open L2 and Veteran roster spots. The second noteworthy thing is where the new players come from. Only two of the seven have experience in affiliated ball, which often seemed to be a requirement for players on past Wild Things teams.

Of the seven newcomers, Vieira and Hammons played in the Florida Marlins' system, in which Everson did his coaching the past four years. Hammons, however, last played in affiliated ball in 2007, when he played for Everson in the New York-Penn League. Hammons posted an 0-2 record with Gateway of the Frontier League in 2008, his last year in pro ball.

“I saw some improvement on Kevin’s delivery from our time together in the past, and he seems very focused and determined to become an impact left-hander on the mound for us,” Everson said.

Hartman spent the last two years playing in independent ball in Texas, and his numbers were quite good last season (.290 with 40 stolen bases in 55 games).

This is what we know about the other four guys:

- Rodewald: Drafted out of high school but did not sign. Played at Central Michigan University but his last season there was 2007.

- Lyons: Played the last two years in a sandlot league.

- Sonneberg: Played winter ball in Australia.

- Murphy: Also has no pro experience, having last played in college in 2008.

Those aren't your typical Wild Things backgrounds. That doesn't mean these guys can't play. What it does tell me is either there were fewer cuts than normal by affiliated teams this spring or Everson is thinking outside the box – working without Washington's previous blueprint. In past years, the Wild Things were heavy on players who had affiliated experience, were natives of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey and/or were released by the Pirates, Phillies, Mets and Astros. You could almost correctly guess who they were trying or not trying to sign.

Who knows if any of these guys will make it to opening day. Vieira, however, looks lock a lock to make the team while Hartman and Sonnenberg – who was dominant pitcher for a very good NAIA school – seem to have a solid chance to stick around this summer. We do know that the Wild Things aren't rejecting players because they live outside the Eastern time zone or have no experience in affiliated ball.