More on the Lawson trade ...

Last Monday, the lead story on the North American Baseball League's website was the trade between the Wild Things and San Angelo Colts that sent second baseman Scott Lawson from Washington back to his native Texas. The Associated Press even ran the trade in its transactions section.

The trade involved five players and "future considerations." The Frontier League finally posted the trade on its website today and we've learned the identity of the future consideration. Right-handed pitcher Ryan Turner, also a native of Texas, has been dealt to San Angelo.

Turner, you might recall, was the pitcher Washington signed this offseason who had been drafted four times, including three by Tampa Bay, for whom he played last season. New Wild Things manager Chris Bando had said that Turner "should be at the back end of our bullpen."

Washington also signed right-handed pitcher Alfredo Caballero, who last year pitched for three teams in three independent leagues and compiled a 7-7 record and 5.77 ERA. Caballero was named the Pitcher of the Year in the hitter-happy Pecos League after going 6-3 with a 4.52 ERA for the Alpine Cowboys.

Caballero played his college ball at Incarnate Word, an NCAA Division II school in San Antonio. Caballero's statistics during his final season in 2010 were off the charts. As a reliever, he was 6-1 with 10 saves, a 1.26 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 57.1 innings.

The Wild Things also announced the signing of first baseman Mike Bando.

Waiting for Goudeau: Two trades made

The Wild Things have made their first two trades of 2012, one a five-player deal.

Gone are two players signed during the offseason and one of the top offensive players from last year's team.

Washington traded second baseman Scott Lawson, pictured, and outfielder Trevor Bloom to the San Angelo Colts of the North American League in exchange for three players. The Wild Things also dealt right-handed pitcher Mickey Jannis to the Abilene Prairie Dogs of the North American League.

Lawson had the third-best batting average (.280) among Washington's starting position players last year. Hitting out of the leadoff spot, Lawson had nine home runs and 37 RBI and also stole 16 bases. Lawson is a native of Texas. Bloom was a player Washington signed in the offseason out of San Diego Christian College, where new Wild Things manager Chris Bando is the head coach.

In exchange for Lawson and Bloom, Washington gets infielder Clint Stroud and pitchers Andy Wells and Corey Goudeau.

Stroud has one year of experience in independent leagues, bouncing between the Pecos and North American leagues last year. He did hit 14 home runs in 62 games for three teams. Stroud played college ball at Arkansas Tech in NCAA Division II and signed with Joliet of the Frontier League last February, but he never played for the Slammers.

Arkansas Tech, by the way, has one of the most unique nicknames in college sports: the Wonder Boys.

Wells is entering his third season as a pro and has already played for five teams. He was with four teams in three independent leagues last season and compiled a 2-4 record and 7.14 ERA in 14 games (12 starts). He did make two postseason starts for Roswell, which won the Pecos League championship. Wells was 2-0 (2.77 ERA) in those games.

In 2010, Wells pitched three games in the Frontier League with Evansville and was 0-1 with a 12.00 ERA and gave up 10 hits and seven walks in six innings. He played his college ball at two schools, Wagner and Siena.

Goudeau is entering his second season as a pro, splitting last year between two teams in the North American League. He went 2-6 with an 8.38 ERA in 25 games (8 starts). Goudeau was drafted by the Marlins in the 18th round in 2010 out of Frank Phillips College, a junior college in Texas. He reportedly signed with the Marlins, but I find no information about Goudeau playing with an affiliated team.

Jannis was the most experienced player the Wild Things signed during the offseason, having advanced to high-Class A for two games in the Tampa Bay system last year. Jannis pitched in 34 games over two seasons with the Rays.

If you don't build it, they will leave

In its 20 or so years of existence, independent baseball has had its share of success stories (see places like Lincoln, Neb., or some of the franchises and leagues that have been around for a decade or more). However, without ties to major league organizations to help pay the bills, indy baseball is crapshoot at best. At its worst, it's a mess for all involved. An example of the latter can be found in Zion, Ill., home of the Lake County Fielders of the North American Baseball League.

How the Fielders' situation is tied to the Wild Things and ends up on this blog is this: Steve Grife, a relief pitcher who re-joined the Wild Things Friday, spent the first half of the season with Lake County after being traded there by Washington late in spring training. The Fielders' story and Grife's recounting of his experience with the team makes you appreciate the Wild Things and the Frontier League.

A little background on the Fielders: The team was an expansion outfit last year, billing itself as having actor Kevin Costner as one of its owners. The primary owner, however, is a guy named Rich Ehrenrich, who left a trail of unpaid bills after owning the Northern League team in Schaumburg, Ill.

The Fielders lured Fran Riordan away from the Frontier League to manage the team last season. They played much of the season's first half on the road while a "temporary" ballpark was being built. Riordan got out of Lake County after the season and returned the Frontier League as the Florence Freedom's manager. It was the best move Riordan has ever made.

This year, Lake County joined the new North American Baseball League and was put in a division with teams in Calgary, Edmonton and Hawaii (can you see how money is going to be a problem?). The Fielders and the league, from what I can gather, were told that their temporary ballpark would be completed by midseason. So the NABL scheduled the Fielders to start the season with a 31-game road trip.

That's right, 31 consecutive games on the road. Two trips to Hawaii, trips to Canada, Arizona and California. The team flew from city to city, except for a bus trip from Edmonton to Calgary.

"The flights were hectic," Grife said Saturday. "We didn't always have the players and coaches on the same flight. One time, when we went to Hawaii, we were split, on two flights. By game time, we had only half the team there and no coaches. All the position players were there plus two or three relievers. The players made out the lineup. The manager got there sometime in the first inning. We ended up winning the game in 14 or 15 innings."

Throughout their seven weeks on the road, there was one serious problem: a lack of money. In part because they were on the road and not generating revenue from home games, and in part because of lousy ownership, the Fielders were rarely getting paid or their $20 meal money per day.

According to Grife, sometimes the money was there, sometimes the paychecks bounced. Meal money was always a problem.

At one point, the Fielders held a team meeting and discussed whether they should play that night's game or not, and whether they should quit or continue the season. But as Grife pointed out, how would the players get home if they decided enough was enough and they were quitting? After all, they weren't getting paid.

"Our coaches were phenomenal," Grife said. 'They were behind us 100 percent. They paid for some of our meals out of their own pockets. They kept us afloat."

So the Fielders marched on, hoping that things would change when they returned to Zion for their home opener July 3 against the Yuma Scorpions and their player/manager Jose Canseco.

Through all the troubles, the amazing part of the Fielders' story is they returned home in first place in the NABL's East Division.

"We took an attitude of us against the world," Grife said. "The team was awesome. We knew we were going to win. We would hit three or four home runs a night, steal some bases and our starting pitchers would go eight or nine innings."

The Fielders finally made it to Illinois and found that their ballpark was still a "temporary" facility. But, the home opener drew approximately 5,000 fans. And, during one game in the middle of the seven-game homestand with Yuma, Grife capped a Fielders victory by striking out Canseco to end the game.

"I kept throwing him fastballs and he kept nipping 'em and fouling 'em off," Grife recalled. "I know a younger version of (Canseco) would have hit a couple of those fastballs out of the park. I finally got him on a fastball up and in. I think he he got tired from swinging and fouling off so many pitches. He got worn out."

Still, though they were playing at home, the Fielders weren't getting paid. Shortly before the July 9 against Yuma (the next-to-last of the series), Fielders manager Tim Johnson quit. It was reported that Johnson, the former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, hadn't been paid since May.

Out of protest, 11 Lake County players refused to play that night.

Hiting coach Pete LaCock, a former Chicago Cubs player (and son of longtime Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall) ran the team that night. With a limited roster, he put pitchers in the field. Grife played five innings at shortstop. Some non-pitchers pitched.

To level the playing field, Canseco decided to let some of his pitchers play the field. Canseco even pitched six innings, throwing fastballs and knuckleballs. Grife had one hit off Canseco.

LaCock quit after the game but was fined $2,500 by the league for "making a farce of the game."

Earlier that day, the Fielders players had filed for free agency because they were not being paid. By Monday (two days later), 13 of them became free agents. Nine others were traded. Grife was among those released.

In all, the Fielders had four managers in less than a week and either released or traded 23 players in three days.

"It came down to a lot of promises that weren't kept," Grife said. "When we became free agents, you should have heard the cell phones ringing. A lot of teams were looking for players. We had two pitchers go to Windy City, one to Normal."

Grife called Washington manager Darin Everson, who offered the right-hander another shot with the Wild Things and, yes, a regular paycheck.

Here are a few links to stories about the Fielders' fiasco:

Read the story here.

Read the story here.

Riverhawks owner: Rockford returning to Frontier League

The Rockford Riverhawks are returning to the Frontier League.

Riverhawks owner Dave Ciarrachi told WREX-TV in Rockford that the team will leave the North American Baseball League and play in the Frontier this season. The switch comes on the heels of Chris Hanners, owner of the Chillicothe Paints during their days in the Frontier, joining the Riverhawks' ownership group. He replaces longtime Riverhawks owner Kurt Carlson.

The Riverhawks are returning to the league in which they played from 2002 through 2009.

Ciarrachi told the television station that the North American Baseball League recently had two teams pull out, and with five road trips on the schedule that require air travel, which is an added expense, the RiverHawks decided to leave the league.

"Collectively the move back to the Frontier League made a lot of good business sense," Ciarrachi told WREX. "The league provides us with good financial stability."

Hanners is expected to take over Carlson's duties on the business side. Carlson still owns Road Ranger Stadium, home of the RiverHawks.

Carlson, by the way, is the brother of Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos.

Is Rockford the 12th team?

Let's face it, the Kalamazoo Kings have no plans to play in the Frontier League in 2011.

Never did.

That much became obvious when the Kings let their employees go last fall, closed the office, didn't sell season sponsorships for 2011 or sign coaches and players. Who knows what Kings owner Bill Wright was trying to accomplish when he told the Kalamazoo Gazette in mid-February "I’m not leaning towards playing."

Wright knows he's not going to field a team. The rest of the Frontier League knows the Kings won't be around for spring training in May. Commissioner Bill Lee knows it, too.

So why is Kalamazoo still on the schedule? How can a baseball league go ahead with an odd number of teams? Why didn't Lee give Kalamazoo a drop-dead date to announce it's intention to play or "go dark" this season? Will the Frontier League revive the Midwest Sliders and have a travel team as its 12th club?

That's a lot of questions. And because I asked 'em, I'll get the first crack at playing Answer Man. Here goes:

Kalamazoo is still on the schedule because, well, you need a 12th team. Some team is going to play Kalamazoo's schedule. It just won't be the Kings. That Kalamazoo was even on the schedule in the first place, without a commitment from its owner to field a team, makes no sense. Those at the league office must have felt having a schedule with a bogus team at least helped the other 11 clubs in their efforts to start selling tickets and securing ballpark dates.

Obviously, the Frontier League can't have a season with 11 teams. There are two alternatives: the traveling Midwest Sliders or bring in a team from another league.

That leads us to a story by ballparkdigest.com. The website reported Thursday that a group with ties to the Prospect League's Chillicothe Paints (formerly of the Frontier League) is negotiating to purchase the Rockford RiverHawks (formerly of the Frontier League) and move them from the North American Baseball League back to the Frontier.

A quick background: Rockford joined the Frontier League in 2002 and played through 2009. Last year, the RiverHawks defected and joined the Northern League, with its no-age-limit rule and higher salary cap. Though the switch helped both leagues -- each had an odd number of teams before the move -- there were some hard feelings among Frontier League owners toward Rockford's ownership.

To make a long story short, Rockford was one of the three remaining Northern League teams that joined forces several months ago with the struggling Golden League and struggling United League to form the NABL. One of those former NL teams (the cash-strapped Schaumburg Flyers) are no more. The other, the Lake County Fielders, don't have a completed stadium.

The NABL has problems and they are great. It has teams ranging from Calgary to Maui to San Angelo, Texas. Only Rockford and Lake County (Ill.) are in the midwest. Travel is going to be wildly costly for Rockford, if the league even makes it to opening day. Selling the club solves many potential problems for Rockford's owners.

According to ballparkdigest.com, the NAL recently circulated a new 10-team schedule that does not include Rockford. The RiverHawks were supposed to have a news conference last Thursday to discuss their schedule in the NABL. I was told that event was postponed until Monday.

Expect that news conference to either be scrapped again or held to announce the RiverHawks are being sold and moving back to the Frontier League. Let's assume the latter happens. It would create some minor problems and solve many big ones.

Rockford, of course, would inherit Kalamazoo's schedule and play in the East Division. The RiverHawks also would have to trade or release many of its players because they're over the FL's age limit. According to the RiverHawks' website, Rockford has 23 players signed. They would have to get rid of 11 because of the Frontier League's age rules.

That leaves the problem of what to do with the 20 players whose options were exercised during the winter by Kalamazoo. The scenarios that make the most sense would be to declare those players free agents or hold a dispersal draft. Transferring them to Rockford makes no sense.

Then again, what has made sense this offseason in the Frontier League?

Latest on FL in 2011

Don't expect to see the Rockford RiverHawks returning to Consol Energy Park next year.

The RiverHawks, Joliet JackHammers, Schaumburg Flyers and Lake County Fielders appear headed to a new independent league, to be called the North American League, with about 18 teams throughout the country.

The North American League is actually the scraps left from the Golden League, United League and Northern League. Each league has lost teams in the offseason.

All four Northern League franchises recently applied for membership in the Frontier League, but their applications were never accepted or denied. There are issues with each franchise that has made the Frontier League wary of taking on the four teams. Joliet and Schaumburg are deep in debt and in need of new ownership, Lake County has ballpark construction problems and Rockford apparently didn't leave the Frontier League last year in good graces.

An official announcement of the three-league merger is expected Wednesday.

Here's saying this unique setup is doomed to failure. Why would cash-strapped teams from Illinois and other places hook up with a league that has teams in far-flung places like Hawaii, Calgary and Texas? Sounds like a business plan for failure, if you ask me.

So what does this mean for the Frontier League in 2011? While it would have been nice to have a 16-team league with the quality ballparks in Joliet and Schaumburg, it's no great loss for the Frontier League. Other than Rockford, those teams were never in the league, and the RiverHawks bolted before last year.

The big question now for the FL is will the league be 10 or 12 teams? There are serious questions about whether Kalamazoo will return for another season because of its woeful attendance and financial situation. The Oakland County Cruisers still have no definite financing for their ballpark, and another year of selling home dates, playing on inadequate youth league fields or before empty seats at Eastern Michigan University is not appealing to anyone in the league.

The 2011 schedule will be drawn up soon, so final decisions must be made quickly about K-zoo and Oakland County.