Wild Things: Gimme 2!

The Wild Things drafted two right-handed pitchers Tuesday at the Frontier League's annual tryout. Washington selected David Trivett in the first round (sixth overall) and Quinn Bright in the second round.

Trivett (6-4, 215), who is from Washington state, played in one game last year for the Sioux City Explorers of the independent American Association. Before that, he played at Olivet Nazarene University.

“David threw well, up to 92 (mph), at the tryout and showed good secondary pitches,” Washington manager Darrin Everson said. “We look for him to compete for a bullpen spot.”

Bright (6-0, 175), a native of Virginia, played at Norfolk State, where he compiled an 11-11 record with one save and walked only 38 batters in 157 1/3 innings. He began his collegiate career at NCAA Division III Bridgewater (Va.).

Bright attended the Wild Things' open tryout Saturday.

"He increased his velocity each time I saw him pitch,” Everson said. “He's an 88-91 (mph) guy with good sink on the ball and we look forward to having team.”

Three pitchers from last year's Wild Things team were selected in the draft. Matt Maradeo, who played in Washington in 2008 and '09, was taken by Florence in the second round (one pick after Washington selected Bright). Chris Kupillas was chosen by Kalamazoo with the final pick of the second round, and former California University pitcher Rob Hedrick was selected by Southern Illinois in the fourth round. Hedrick was the next-to-last pick in the draft.

Cleaning out the notebook

Some random thoughts, opinions and notes from the pressbox at Consol Energy Park:

* The Wild Things made one roster move Saturday, releasing pitcher Matt Maradeo. In his second season with Washington, Maradeo had a 1-0 record and 8.22 ERA in 12 games. The sidearming right-hander has been plagued by inconsistency and his numbers in Washington did match those he put up in the Chicago Cubs' system.

* Pitcher Justin Edwards, who left Friday night's game with back spasms, will not go on the disabled list. According to manager Mark Mason, the spams were related to Edwards being dehydrated. Edwards is expected to be out for two days. Opponents are batting only .222 against Edwards, who has 21 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings.

* To fill Maradeo's spot on the roster, Washington will sign relief pitcher Aaron Guinn, a 6-5 right-hander from Mesa (Ariz.) State, which finished the year ranked No. 5 in NCAA Division II. Guinn had a 5-2 record, 9 saves and 1.40 ERA this year.

* It sure looks like center fielder Chris Sidick has lost his confidence when hitting against left-handed pitching. Sidick is only 2-for-25 (.080) with 10 strikeouts against lefty pitchers, but the average isn't the big concern. It's that many of his swings against lefties have looked bad.

* If you're going to attend a Wild Things home game and stay from start to finish, plan on being there a long time. Washington has played 12 home games with 11 going at least nine innings (there was a rain-shortened game against Gateway). of those 11, only one has been played in less than three hours, that being a 2-hour, 59-minute game against River City June 6. The Wild Things' nine-inning home games are averaging 3 hours and 8 minutes.

* Washington will have to drop a player from the roster Monday when Craig Snipp comes off the disabled list to pitch against Midwest.

* Phil Laurent doesn't get cheated on any of his swings. There's no check-swings or half-hearted swings with that guy.

* With the 13-run output Saturday night, the Wild Things are now in a three-way tie for the most runs scored in the Frontier League, though their record is only 10-17. Of all professional baseball teams that have played at least 27 games this season, only two (Midland of the Class AA Texas League and High Desert of the Class A California League) are averaging more runs per game than the Wild Things.

* Here's the humbling statistic: No team in pro baseball that has played at 27 least games is giving up more runs per game than the Wild Things (7.04).

* Manager Mark Mason on his team's 6.63 ERA: "I want a team ERA of 4.00 or under. If that's what our ERA was, then our record would be reversed. We've hit enough to win almost every game. The pitching has to come to the party."

* Has anyone noticed that closer Nick Peterson has 23 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings pitched?

* Here's one that's hard to do: Chris Demons had two singles last night, which were his first singles all season. Demons had two home runs and a double but no singles in his first 32 at-bats.

* I forgot to mention this when I originally posted this article: Am I the only one who thinks the umpiring has gotten significantly worse this year? Talking to people from visiting teams, it seems to be that way around the league, not just in Washington.

Up in smoke

The Wild Things awaken today with a 2-4 record and without a series win. They should be 5-1 and coming off their second series win.

The reason for the three-game difference can be summed up by two words: relief pitching.

After tying for the league lead in blown saves last year with 15, the Wild Things have failed to convert three save opportunities in the last four games, including both games of a doubleheader Thursday at Gateway. In Washington's last three losses, the opponent scored the winning run in its final at-bat.

The bullpen received a major overhaul in the offseason, but it seems the more things change the more they stay the same. Jon Lewis was brought in to be the closer, but he has two blown saves in as many opportunities, including Game 1 Thursday, when the winning run scored on a wild pitch. In the nightcap, Washington had a 7-4 lead in the seventh inning (doubleheaders are seven innings) but gave up three solo home runs that forced extra innings. Chris Demons homered in the 8th to put the Wild Things back in the lead, but Gateway scored in the bottom of the eighth and won the game on a bases-loaded hit batsman in the ninth.

For the season, Washington relievers have pitched 20 1/3 innings and given up 18 hits, 20 walks and hit four batters for a 6.21 ERA. They have a 1-3 record.

Manager Mark Mason left himself open to some second-guessing during the doubleheader. In the opener, he took out starting pitcher Zach Groh after six innings. Groh was throwing a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and just one walk. In the second game, Matt Maradeo, who has been Washington's best reliever to date with 4 1/3 scoreless innings and no walks, was taken out after throwing two perfect innings and the game heading to the bottom of the seventh.

I wrote about this last year, but it's worth mentioning again: To me, the most impressive season by a Wild Things player was not Josh Loggins' MVP year in 2003, but Robert Garvin's 2002 season. Garvin began the year as just another arm in the bullpen but won the closer's job early in the season. He went 2-2 with 18 saves and a 2.20 ERA in 33 games. Those numbers are good, but not great, right?

Looking deeper into Garvin's season you'll find that he converted 18 of 20 save opportunities, including 18 straight. His two blown saves were in his first appearance of the year (in middle relief) and in his last outing of the regular season which, as it turned out, was a meaningless game because the Wild Things had clinched the division title only minutes earlier because of Richmond loss.

The most impressive aspect of Garvin's season was that he pitched 47 innings and issued only four walks. Think about that for a moment. Four walks in 47 innings. During one stretch, Garvin went 15 consecutive outings and 17 1/3 innings without walking a batter. Over that span, Garvin struck out 24 batters. Twenty-four strikeouts to zero walks. You think the Wild Things would like to have someone with those numbers today?

Another note from the doubleheader is Washington catcher Alan Robbins is facing a suspension after bumping the home-plate umpire following the game-ending wild pitch and play the the plate. It's never a good idea to make contact with an umpire, but it's even worse to do it when the league commissioner is in the ballpark.

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."

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.