Cleaning out the notebook
Some notes and thoughts and we head down the homestretch of the Frontier League season:
* It seems far removed from the Wild Things and Lake Erie Crushers, two teams who are playing out the string tonight at Consol Energy Park, but there are excellent playoff races in both divisions of the Frontier League.
Windy City rallied Tuesday night to edge Oakland County 3-2 as the ThunderBolts pushed their lead in the East to 2 games over the Cruisers. Meanwhile, Traverse City won a game over Kalamazoo that it probably should have lost and now trails Oakland County by only 1 game and Windy City by 3. Keep in mind that all of Traverse City's remaining 11 games will be played at home, including the final three against Washington.
In the West, Southern Illinois has ran away with the division title. The Miners clinched a playoff berth Tuesday. Gateway, meanwhile, missed a chance to pull closer to second-place River City. The Rascals lead Gateway by 2 1/2 games for the final playoff spot. River City has a big advantage in the remaining schedule as they do not play another game against a team with a winning record.
* Southern Illinois, which was 32-4 at one point, might have seen its championship chances take a big hit earlier this week. Joe Augustine (10-3, 1.97), who is a serious contender for the league's Pitcher of the Year Award, had an emergency appendectomy Monday. The team was returning from Lake Erie when Augustine began experiencing pain. When it was determined Augustine needed medical attention, the bus was within seven miles of a hospital in Louisville.
Augustine leads the league in wins and strikeouts (121). You might recall that Augustine pitched nine shutout innings last week at Consol Energy Park in the game Washington won 1-0 in 11 innings.
Southern Illinois manager Mike Pinto hasn't ruled out having Augustine back for the playoffs, saying his pitcher will be permitted to resume throwing in "10 to 14 days." Pinto called it a "50-50" chance that Augustine will return in the postseason.
* Washington pitcher Justin Edwards, who suffered a groin injury during a start earlier this month at Southern Illinois and was put on the disabled list, was activated Tuesday night and looked sharp against Lake Erie, allowing only one hit in six innings.
Had Edwards left the Southern Illinois game only one out earlier, Washington would have had an interesting decision to make with the right-handed pitcher. A one-out earlier exit would have left Edwards with 60 innings pitched, which is a magic number in the Frontier League. Throw 60 1/3 innings and your roster classification is bumped up one level the next season. Stay at 60 and you status doesn't change. Had Edwards been at 60, Washington could have kept him on the DL for the remainder of the season and his status for next season would have remained at L1. Each FL team is permitted a maximum of 7 L1 players and 3 L2 players.
It doesn't matter now because Edwards was at 60 1/3 and threw six more innings, but this is the time of year when you see guys throughout the league being benched to keep their status from changing. Typically, about half the teams in the league do this. The only Washington player who is near a status-change mark is pitcher Zach Groh, who is currently on the DL. Groh, who is an L1, has pitched 57 1/3 innings.
* It seems far removed from the Wild Things and Lake Erie Crushers, two teams who are playing out the string tonight at Consol Energy Park, but there are excellent playoff races in both divisions of the Frontier League.
Windy City rallied Tuesday night to edge Oakland County 3-2 as the ThunderBolts pushed their lead in the East to 2 games over the Cruisers. Meanwhile, Traverse City won a game over Kalamazoo that it probably should have lost and now trails Oakland County by only 1 game and Windy City by 3. Keep in mind that all of Traverse City's remaining 11 games will be played at home, including the final three against Washington.
In the West, Southern Illinois has ran away with the division title. The Miners clinched a playoff berth Tuesday. Gateway, meanwhile, missed a chance to pull closer to second-place River City. The Rascals lead Gateway by 2 1/2 games for the final playoff spot. River City has a big advantage in the remaining schedule as they do not play another game against a team with a winning record.
* Southern Illinois, which was 32-4 at one point, might have seen its championship chances take a big hit earlier this week. Joe Augustine (10-3, 1.97), who is a serious contender for the league's Pitcher of the Year Award, had an emergency appendectomy Monday. The team was returning from Lake Erie when Augustine began experiencing pain. When it was determined Augustine needed medical attention, the bus was within seven miles of a hospital in Louisville.
Augustine leads the league in wins and strikeouts (121). You might recall that Augustine pitched nine shutout innings last week at Consol Energy Park in the game Washington won 1-0 in 11 innings.
Southern Illinois manager Mike Pinto hasn't ruled out having Augustine back for the playoffs, saying his pitcher will be permitted to resume throwing in "10 to 14 days." Pinto called it a "50-50" chance that Augustine will return in the postseason.
* Washington pitcher Justin Edwards, who suffered a groin injury during a start earlier this month at Southern Illinois and was put on the disabled list, was activated Tuesday night and looked sharp against Lake Erie, allowing only one hit in six innings.
Had Edwards left the Southern Illinois game only one out earlier, Washington would have had an interesting decision to make with the right-handed pitcher. A one-out earlier exit would have left Edwards with 60 innings pitched, which is a magic number in the Frontier League. Throw 60 1/3 innings and your roster classification is bumped up one level the next season. Stay at 60 and you status doesn't change. Had Edwards been at 60, Washington could have kept him on the DL for the remainder of the season and his status for next season would have remained at L1. Each FL team is permitted a maximum of 7 L1 players and 3 L2 players.
It doesn't matter now because Edwards was at 60 1/3 and threw six more innings, but this is the time of year when you see guys throughout the league being benched to keep their status from changing. Typically, about half the teams in the league do this. The only Washington player who is near a status-change mark is pitcher Zach Groh, who is currently on the DL. Groh, who is an L1, has pitched 57 1/3 innings.
Labels: Joe Augustine, Justin Edwards, Lake Erie Crushers, Southern Illinois Miners
posted by Chris Dugan at
8:09 AM
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