First glances

Wild Things fans get their first glimpse of a Chris Bando-managed team tonight when Washington hosts Lake Erie in an exhibition game at Consol Energy Park. It's the first of four games in four days between the teams -- tonight and Friday in Washington, Saturday and Sunday in Avon, Ohio.

Between now and Wednesday, when opening day rosters must be set at no more than 24, the Wild Things must drop 16 players -- if nobody is added between now and the regular season. So there will be many players in Washington's dugout the next two nights who won't be here for the home opener May 22.

With a record number of players in camp, and no numbers on the back of the practice shirts, it was hard to tell who was doing what during the two days I spent at camp. There were, however, a few things I noticed:

* Outfielder James Simmons is big and fast. Make that very fast, especially going home-to-third or first-to-third. Most impressive position player in camp.

* The one player who appears to be a much better hitter than I expected is catcher Michael Surina. In two seasons of independent ball, Surina has a .214 career batting average. He doesn't have a .214 swing. The ball jumps off his bat and he could be an impact hitter in the middle of the lineup.

* Outfielder Luis Rivera has been bothered by a hamstring injury suffered early in camp. He sat out some intrasquad games but will play in the exhibition contests.

* Wish I could tell you more about the pitchers, but I only saw four of them throw, and two were Casey Barnes and Justin Hall.

Pitching in

It has been rather quiet lately in the Frontier League as teams await minor league cuts from spring training.

The Wild Things did make two significant signings last week when pitchers Justin Hall and Jhonny Montoya (pictured) agreed to contract extensions. Washington now has four starting pitchers -- Hall, Montoya, Gary Lee and Chris Smith -- back for 2012.

Smith and Lee were acquired during the 2011 season. Smith made only five starts late in the year, but Hall and Montoya were with Washington from start to finish. You could make a case that Hall (10-7, 3.22) was as good as any pitcher in the league over the second half of last year. Pitching for a team that provided almost no offensive support, Hall was 6-3 with a 2.40 ERA after the all-star break. In his final outing, on the season's last night, Hall pitched 11 innings to win at Windy City 6-2. Hall gave up only seven hits and one walk while striking out a team-record 14 batters.

The most impressive statistic from Hall's 2011 season had to be this one: only 22 walks in 145.1 innings.

We all know that in this league, if you consistently throw strikes and pitch ahead in the count, you'll be very successful.

Throwing strikes is what was a problem for Montoya (4-7, 3.77) last year. Though he was able to pitch in an out of trouble often enough to register 11 quality starts, Montoya too often left games early because of high pitch counts. He walked 51 batters in 117 innings. You have to expect that ratio will improve this year.

The Wild Things also continued to rebuild the Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions by signing Allen Boyer. An outfielder, Boyer played for Point Loma in 2010 and 2011. He batted .312 with three home runs and 14 RBI last year, but did hit .350 with 13 doubles, 19 home runs and 51 RBI as a junior. Keep in mind that there was a significant change made to the aluminum bats in the college game last year, making them play more like wood.

Boyer gives Washington three former Point Loma Nazarene position players currently on the roster. A fourth was signed this offseason but recently traded to another league.

By my count, the re-signing of Hall and Montoya, and the signing of Boyer, give the Wild Things 30 players under contract. There are a four others players -- Steve Grife, Ross Gusky, Chris Sidick and Luis Rivera -- whose contract options have been picked up but have not yet signed for 2012. If Washington re-signs all four, picks up at least two more (which is mandatory) from the league tryout, then they'll have 36 players and that's not counting those signed after minor league spring training.

It's going to be very crowded inside the Wild Things' refurbished clubhouse in early May.

A complete mentality

In this age of closely monitored pitch counts and six inning "quality starts," the Wild Things' Justin Hall (pictured) arrives for work every fifth game with a refreshing outlook to his craft as a starting pitcher.

Hall (8-6, 3.44) wants to finish what he starts.

The right-hander has four complete games, and it would not have been surprising if Hall had been allowed to pitch the ninth inning of the Wild Things' 5-2 win Wednesday night over the Joliet Slammers.

But after throwing 115 pitches, Hall's night was over. Washington manager Darin Everson had decided to call upon closer Tyler Wolf to get the final three outs for his 10th save. That, however, doesn't mean Hall couldn't have completed the task.

"We were thinking about maybe letting Justin go out for ninth, but it was a save situation, so you've got to go to your closer," Everson explained.

That was disappointing for Hall, who seems to be a different breed of starting pitcher in the Frontier League. While other starters generally start looking to the bullpen for help after pitching five or six innings, Hall has a nine-inning mentality.

"Most of our starters don't have that six-inning mentality," Everson said. "From day one, we've told our starters that we'll let them go as long as they can. They built up their arm strength to pitch nine innings and are in great shape, which is a credit to (pitching coach) Mark (Dewey).

"Lately, it seems I've been going out to the mound in the sixth and seventh innings just to ask a pitcher how he feels, not to take him out of the game."

While Joliet is enjoying a 6 1/2 game lead in the East Division, Hall has a 2-0 record in as many starts against the Slammers. Back in the second game of the season, Hall threw a four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts at Joliet.

"The key is Hall throws strikes, gets ahead of the hitters and makes them hit his best pitches," Joliet manager Bart Zeller said. "It's a real simple formula, but it's really effective. He's always pitching ahead in the count."

Zeller said he was impressed by Hall in the fifth inning, after Joliet scored twice in the fourth to pull to within 3-2.

"He didn't get flustered after we scored those two runs," Zeller said. "He got six straight outs after that. That's the sign of an outstanding pitcher."

Hall ended up retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced.

Useless information

Cleaning out the notebook prior to the restart of the Frontier League season Friday night:

The topic of discussion in manager Darin Everson's office prior to the Wild Things-Gateway game Sunday was how many wins will it take for a team to secure a playoff berth from the East Division?

The Frontier League went to a 96-game schedule in 2004, and since then the playoff team with the worst record each season has averaged 52 wins. There was a low of 46 (Evansville in 2006) and it took 56 wins to make the postseason in 2009. It doesn't look like the East will have a team pull away from the pack, or one that finishes with less than 30 wins, so the magic number will likely be closer to 52 than 56.

What does that mean for the Wild Things? To get to 52 wins, they need to go 33-16 after the all-star break.

* In Wednesday night's Frontier League All-Star game in Avon, Ohio, Washington's Casey Barnes and Jhonny Montoya each pitched a scoreless and hitless inning. Justin Hall gave up one solo home run in his inning. Catcher Blake Ochoa went 1-for-2 with a walk, and second baseman Scott Lawson was 0-for-1 with a throwing error.

* Washington does not have a home run from the No. 4 spot in the batting order all season.

* Remember Joel Hartman, who was a utility player for the Wild Things last year before suffering a season-ending finger injury? He joined a team in the Pecos League, based in New Mexico, after being released in spring training by the Wild Things. Hartman suffered another season-ending injury recently. According to the Pecos League website, Hartman broke a leg during a play at home plate.

* In Ernie Banks' first 128 at-bats with the Wild Things in 2009, he hit 12 home runs. In 128 at-bats this year, Banks does not have a home run.

* Both Vidal Nuno and Alan Williams -- the two Wild Things pitchers signed this season by MLB organizations -- are off to strong starts with their new teams. Nuno is playing for Staten Island (Yankees) in the Class A New York-Penn League. In five relief appearances, Nuno is 4-0 with one save and a 0.98 ERA. He has 17 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings with only three walks. Williams is with Helena (Brewers) in the rookie-level Pioneer League and has a 1-1 record with three saves in seven outings. The lefty has pitched 11 innings and struck out 24 with only three walks.

Former Wild Things pitcher Tom Cochran, who is in Class AAA with with Cincinnati, took the loss last Saturday in Louisville's 2-0 setback against Indianapolis, the Pirates' top affiliate. Cochran started the game and gave up only one run in five innings to drop his record to 6-2.

* Rockford, which is in fifth place in the East, made a key signing over the weekend, bringing back Jason James. The outfielder has one Frontier League batting title and finished second twice.

* In 46 games this season, Everson has used 45 different batting orders.

* Gateway manager Phil Warren on starting the season with three former West Virginia players and an ex-Pitt player on the Grizzlies' roster: "This is an area of the country that seems to get overlooked in the (major league) draft, for whatever reason."

* Despite losing Nuno, the opening day starter, Washington is tied for second in quality starts with 24. Florence also has 24. Windy City is tops with 28.

Wild Things Average Attendance
at the All-Star Break:
2002 - 2,942
2003 - 3,390
2004 - 3,242
2005 - 3,048
2006 - 3,133
2007 - 3,180
2008 - 2,899
2009 - 2,734
2010 - 2,373
2011 - 2,176

5 Wild Things named to All-Star Game

The Frontier League announced Monday the initial rosters for its all-star game and the Wild Things will have five representatives, including three pitchers.

Selected for the game as position players were second baseman Scott Lawson and catcher Blake Ochoa. Both will be backups for the East Division team that will play the West July 13 at All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon, Ohio.

Washington pitchers Casey Barnes, Justin Hall and Jhonny Montoya will be on the East's staff.

Lawson leads the Wild Things with a .319 batting average, and his .425 on-base percentage is fifth-best in the league.

Ochoa is batting only .198 but is second on the Wild Things with 21 walks and has thrown out 22 percent of opposing base stealers.

Barnes (2-3) is second in the league in ERA at 1.91. Hall (4-2, 3.27) is tied for the league lead with two shutouts and is tops on the Washington pitching staff in wins. Montoya (1-1, 2.20) is fourth in the league in ERA and second on the team in strikeouts with 32 in 49 innings.

The final three rosters spots for each team will be chosen by the game's managers Thursday.

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.

More Wild Things pitching

In the post below about the Wild Things' roster, I mentioned the curious state of the starting rotation. More precisely, who are the candidates for the rotation? There seemed to be a lack of experienced starting pitchers on the roster last week, and the transactions of the last two days have thinned the ranks even more.

Washington added what appears to be one solid starting pitcher Monday, but also traded one starter and released two potential starters.

The Wild Things signed two pitchers, lefty Vidal Nuno and right-hander Justin Hall. Nuno was a starter for two seasons in the Cleveland Indians system, and had a 5-0 record in the New York-Penn League in 2009. You can probably pencil him into the rotation. Hall was a non-drafted player who spent one year in the Tampa Bay Rays' system. Who knows what role he'll be put in.

Three pitchers who won't be in the rotation are Steve MacFarland, Sean Keeler and Joe Rodriguez.

MacFarland, a former 9th-round draft pick of the Pirates who pitched well for Washington last year (3-2) -- when he was healthy -- was traded to the San Angelo Colts of the North American League. In exchange for MacFarland, the Wild Things will receive "future considerations." Translated, that usually means a player not good enough to make San Angelo's roster.

Rodriguez and Keeler have been released. Rodriguez made a few starts last year for Oakland County -- he was the starter in the game in Lovonia, Mich., when the mound crumbled causing a postponement -- and was taken by Washington in the dispersal draft of Cruisers players. I thought he might be a potential fifth starter. Keeler pitched in only eight games (11 2/3 innings) last year for the Wild Things after being signed out of Franklin Pierce College, where he had suffered an injury that sidetracked his career. I had considered Keller as having a chance at earning a rotation spot, though with his injury history that might have been a longshot.

So with spring training less than two weeks away, this is what we know about the Wild Things' starting pitching: Justin Edwards is injured; Jeff Sonnenberg and Zach Groh are listed on the roster but the Wild Things haven't announced that either guy has been re-signed; the rumor is Billy Muldowney won't be back; Nuno seems to have a spot as a starter and there's a bunch of guys who are either ticketed for the bullpen or have no experience as a starter beyond college.

Who knows, maybe the Wild Thing will be signed to pitch?