Washington breaks ties with Banks

The Wild Things have traded first baseman Ernie Banks (pictured) to the River City Rascals in exchange for left-handed starting pitcher Chris Ingoglia and outfielder Ryan Groth.

The Wild Things also signed catcher Kyle Obal and announced the retirement of pitcher/catcher Josh Eachues.

Banks is fourth in the Frontier League with a .343 batting average and leads the league with a .686 slugging percentage. He has 19 home runs and 55 RBI.

Ingoglia has a 5-7 record and 6.66 ERA. The league is batting .321 against him. This is Ingoglia's second year in the Frontier League. He had a 6-8 record last year with Florence.

Groth has played in 29 games with the Rascals and has a .270 batting average with three home runs and 14 RBI. Groth has one year of experience in affiliated ball.

Obal played this spring for Temple University after transferring from Winthrop. He batted .313 and did not have a home run.

There is no questioning Banks' ability to hit. The trouble spot for the first baseman has been his attitude. He was suspended by the team for 14 days early in the season after being ejected twice in a three-game series at Traverse City. He was at the center of the benches-clearing incident at Florence last month and had to be restrained last week during a similar incident against Lake Erie.

After being robbed of a hit Saturday night by Kalamazoo third baseman Amos Ramon, Banks returned to the dugout and either threw or knocked several plastic cups onto the field that were retrieved by Brett Granstrand.

Mason said Banks' attitude wasn't the primary reason for the trade.

"It was a combination of stuff," Mason said. "We were looking for a pitcher and an outfielder, which we were able to get. They wanted a first baseman because their guy is returning to school. The deal made sense for both teams.

"We're getting a guy who is hitting almost .300 as an outfielder, and Ingoglia is a guy we wanted in the offseason but couldn't get anyone to deal with us. We tried to trade for him in the offseason."

Eachues was retired because he suffered a broken right collarbone when hit by a foul tip in the ninth inning Saturday night.

The Wild Things are expected to make several more roster moves after Sunday's game. They are hopeful of re-signing outfielder Tim Alberts, who played with Washington last year. Alberts was with Joliet of the independent Northern League thisseason but was placed on waivers over the weekend.

Roster musings

Some thoughts and notes after watching two exhibition games Friday against Lake Erie, the latter of which ended in a 3-3 tie after 10 innings:

- The Friday games did little to help manager Mark Mason figure out who to keep in his bullpen. For example, lefty Dan Horvath was the only consistent reliever on the team last year (with the exception of one puzzling outing against Traverse City) but he gave up six hits, two walks and hit a batter in one inning of the day game. Do you judge Horvath on what he did last year or do you write off Friday's outing as just one of those days?

- Sidearmer Kyle Heyne gave up a home run but it was a swing-late fly ball down the left-field line by a left-handed hitter that ended up in the visitors' bullpen. More of a wall-scraper than a blast. Otherwise, Heyne threw strikes. He also has a track record of pitching well in tight situations - he's the all-time saves leader in the Mid-American Conference.

Kedrick Martin walked three over 2 1/3 innings but retired five in a row (two on strikeouts) at one point.

Josh Eachues, Kalen Gearhart and Michael Lucas combined for four scoreless innings (two hits and one walk allowed) in the opener. Each helped his case for a roster spot. My guess is that only Kris Rochelle and Alan Wiggins will make the team as catchers, so does Eachues' value increase because he can be a third catcher? I don't know because I haven't seen him catch this spring. I guess that means no.

- Second baseman Michael Parker went 3-for-4 with a walk in the night game. It looks like he will be an impact newcomer.

- Rob Hedrick is creating another difficult decision for the coaching staff. They like the former California University player's arm strangth as a pitcher, which was not his primary position with the Vulcans. Hedrick played second base in the day game, then pitched a perfect 10th inning in the night game, retiring Lake Erie's 3-4-5 hitters. If Hedrick makes the team it will be as the 24th man, a utility guy who can be worked with all year to refine his pitching mechanics.

- Heyne probably made the team Friday night and Horvath lost a spot on the roster.

- It seems that three pitchers who have locked up spots in the starting rotation are Rick Austin, Craig Snipp and Eric Evans.

- The three pitchers with no pro experience (Michael Mondesir, Brian Honeyman and Hedrick) began the spring at the bottom of the depth chart but tossed a combined eight scoreless innings against Lake Erie.

- Right-hander Jace Smith arrived in Washington Friday night, which brings the number of pitchers in camp to 21. Smith will pitch in tonight's exhibition game.

- Mason has said he wants to trim the roster to 24 or 25 players by the end of the weekend.

Spring training: Game 1

The Lake Erie Crushers, the newest franchise in the Frontier League, scored eight runs in the top of the sixth inning Friday to beat the Wild Things, 8-2, before a crowd of 2,800 school kids at Consol Energy Park.

Five Lake Erie pitchers combined on a six-hitter. Left fielder Jacob Dempsey had two of Washington's hits, including a home run to lead off the eighth inning.

Dempsey was the only Washington player who has locked up a spot in the starting lineup to play in the game. Lake Erie also held out several of its top hitters.

Lake Erie scored all of its runs against left-handed relief pitcher Dan Horvath. The Crushers had six hits in the big inning and combined them with two walks, a hit batsman and two errors.

Four other Washington pitchers - starter Michael Mondesir (3 innings), Josh Eachues (2 innings), Kalen Gearhart (2 innings) and Michael Lucas (1 inning) - combined to blank Lake Erie on four hits over the other eight innings.

Washington scored first on Alex Paluka's triple down the right-field line that drove in Joe Spiers, who had two hits and reached base three times.

The teams will play the nightcap of the day-night doubleheader at 7:05 p.m.

Letter from camp

Thoughts and observations from Thursday, the second day of spring training:

- Only saw the morning session, which was the intrasquad game. There were more relievers than potential starters on the mound. None of the pitchers stood out but none got lit up, either. Josh Eachuses, the converted catcher, and Dan Horvath got the best results. Justin Edwards, the former West Liberty pitcher, seemed to throw the hardest of the group and might be a candidate for a starting spot. Michael Mondesir struck out three of the six batters he faced.

- The story of the day had to be the field conditions, or to be more specific the outfield conditions. Water, water and more water. What a mess. Reminded me of some of those games last year against Midwest. Because W&J's Ross Memorial Park was hosting to the Presidents' Athletic Conference tournament, the Wild Things had little choice but to muddle through the muck at Consol Energy Park. Late in the scrimmage, shortstop Joe Spiers dove for a fly ball in shallow left centerfield and landed in a mud puddle. One batter later, Blake Butler was playing right field when a shallow fly was hit in his direction. Butler tried to make a face-first diving catch. After seeing the water fly, I was tempted to give Butler a 9.8 for his dive into the pool (the Russian judge would have given the dive a 7.5). When he stood up, Butler's uniform was soaked and covered in mud. It looked like he had just played four quarters in the rain at Heinz Field.

- Two rarities did happen during the intsrasquad game: a triple play was turned and Chris Sidick grounded into a double play. The triple play came with runners on second and third and the infield drawn in. The batter grounded out to second base, then Spiers took off late for home and was tagged out in a rundown. The runner on second base was then thrown out. The triple play would have never happened in a game situation. Had it been during a game with a coach at third base, Spiers would have been running on contact or staying put. Sidick's 6-4-3 DP was interesting only because he grounded into just four double plays in 1,096 at-bats the last three years.

- Sidick has changed his uniform number from 12 to 5.

- Second baseman Michael Parker, pictured, made the play of the day. He fielded a ball on the grass behind the bag and, as his momentum carried him toward left field, he threw out the batter. Washington's had some good defensive second basemen, but the only one I've seen make the play Parker did was Ryan Ellis.

- That Butler even attempted to dive into the water and catch the fly ball probably shouldn't come as a surprise. He seems to play full-tilt all the time, even on the basepaths.

_ Kris Rochelle should no longer be considered injured. His arm looks as strong as ever.

Nine players signed

The Wild Things announced Monday the signing of nine players, including six who were with the team last season.

Returning are relief pitchers Rick Austin, Dan Horvath and Matt Maradeo and Josh Eachues, who was a catcher last year but is being converted to relief pitcher. Eachues was a briefly used as a reliever in the Philadelphia Phillies' system last spring.

Also back are outfielder Matt Sutton and catcher Kris Rochelle, pictured. Sutton is the most interesting of the nine signings. He was one of Washington's top players in 2007, when he batted .295 with 12 home runs and 26 stolen bases. He also had a big postseason that year as the Wild Things reached the Frontier League championship series. Last year, however, Sutton played only 33 games with the Wild Things before being suspended and eventually released. Sutton was free to sign with any team for 2009.

Rochelle had elbow surgery last September and will likely not be ready until mid-season.

Also signing contracts were infielder Joe Spiers, right-handed pitcher Sean Heimpel and left-handed pitcher Craig Snipp. Each player was acquired in trades during the offseason. Spiers played last season for Chillicothe. Heimpel and Snipp played last year in the independent Can-Am League. Heimpel pitched in five games for Nashua. Snipp spent two years in the Can-Am and had a 10-7 career record including an 8-5 mark with a 3.94 ERA for Sussex.