Early trends

Each Frontier League team is five series into the season and some trends are beginning to appear. Some are quite surprising. Here are some things this guy has found most interesting about the first three weeks of the season:

* The most disappointing team to date has to be the Lake Erie Crushers. I had Lake Erie pegged for second place in the East, but the Crushers currently share the basement with London at 5-10. While the first 15 games of the season do not make or break a team, or are even cause for alarm, the stunning part of Lake Erie's start is where they're losing. The Crushers are only 1-8 at home.

* Word is that London has three players with passport problems and they're being put on the suspended list each time the Rippers return to Canada. When you're crossing the border each time you start a homestand or a roadtrip, why do you sign players who don't have passports? Not a smart move by the Rippers.

* River City is off to a 12-3 start, which isn't shocking considering the Rascals' recent success. But keep in mind that River City is doing this without two starting position players from last year, second baseman Doug Sanders and catcher Danny Sawyer, who are expected to join the team later in the season. Sanders is an assistant coach at Kent State, which has advanced to the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament, and Sawyer earned a baseball part in the Jackie Robinson movie that is currently being filmed.

* Don't know which is more surprising: Washington is 6-8 with an anemic .187 team batting average or Gateway's pitching staff has given up the most home runs and walks in the league, yet is 8th in the league in team ERA at only 3.89.

* Traverse City's Jeff Flagg has a league-leading eight home runs. That's more than three teams, including Washington.

* While River City has the league's best record, the most impressive start might be that of Traverse City. The Beach Bums are 9-6 and have played only three home games.

Wild Things deal for power hitter

The Washington Wild Things have acquired a right-handed power hitter in a trade with the River City Rascals.

Washington sent its first-round draft pick at the upcoming Frontier League tryout and a player to be named to River City in exchange for Josh Banda (pictured).

The 25-year-old Banda is listed as a catcher in the Frontier League transactions and was described as a utility player by the Wild Things. With River City last year, Banda was not used a catcher and played only a few games at first base. He spent most of his playing time as a designated hitter.

Banda played two seasons with River City, batting .270 with 14 home runs and 52 RBI last year. During the 2010 playoffs, he batted .286 with eight hits, four runs and three RBI in eight games. In 2009, he played in 11 games for River City, batting .303 with two home runs and five RBI.

Banda's 99 strikeouts were the fourth-most in the league last season.

The Lakewood, Calif., native also played three seasons with Tri-City of the Class A Northwest League from 2006-2008. He was drafted three times by the Colorado Rockies before signing.

Ochoa played college baseball at California Baptist.

“We are very excited add Josh to our organization and look forward to adding his five years of experience and leadership to our clubhouse," Wild Things manager Darin Everson said. "He brings many valuable assets to our lineup, including his experience as an everyday player who helped lead his team to the Frontier League championship. His impact bat will be a force in the middle of our lineup, and we believe he will continue to push the ceiling of his potential.”

That the Wild Things were able to acquire Banda shows that Frontier League teams should be expected to have more experienced rosters this year under the league's new player classification system (Rookie-1, Rookie-2, Experienced and Veteran). Under the old system of Rookie, L1, L2 and Veteran, Washington already would be over the limit of L2 players with four (Justin Edwards, Billy Muldowney, Banda and Luis Rivera) and have two veterans (Emilio Ontiveros and Chris Sidick). That total would be one under the limit with a entire crops of spring training releases yet to sign.

First managerial opening

After leading the River City Rascals to the West Division title and to within one win of the Frontier League championship, Chad Parker has resigned as manager of the Rascals. Parker said he wanted to return to his home state of Georgia and pursue job opportunities there.

Under Parker's guidance, the Rascals reached set a team record for wins.

"Our organization will always be grateful for what Chad has done this season," Rascals executive vice president and general manager Chris Franklin said. "We were very happy with Chad both on and off the field, and we made him what we felt was a strong offer after the all-star break to continue with the Rascals in 2010 and beyond. The same characteristics that make him a good manager are the same characteristics that make him a good father and husband, and it seems that this situation will be best for him and his family."

The 25-foot triple

If you weren't at Consol Energy Park last night in the eighth inning, you missed a bizarre play that resulted in the umpires enforcing a rarely applied rule and River City coming away with a triple on a sacrifice bunt.

Here's what happened:

River City, leading 7-4, had runners on first and second with no outs and Andy Reilly at the plate. It's an obvious bunting situation.

Reilly put down a perfect bunt that traveled roughly 25 feet (maybe not even that far) up the third-base line, into the grass. Washington third baseman Michael Parker charged and tried to scoop the ball with his glove. Parker snow-coned the ball and it end up shooting out the top of the glove, back toward the dirt area around home plate, to the right-hand side of Washington catcher Alan Robbins.

Robbins was holding his catcher's mask in his right hand, and in an instinctive move reached down with his mask to stop the ball. It was sorta like a hockey goalie making a quick-reaction glove save. Robbins then scooped the ball up in the mask.

When play was stopped, the umpiring crew of Jeremy Stangelo (plate) and Matt Neador (bases) advanced both runners to home plate and sent Reilly to third base. The rule they were enforcing was 7.05 B:

Each runner including the batter-runner may, without liability to be put out, advance three bases, if a fielder deliberately touches a fair ball with his cap, mask or any part of his uniform detached from its proper place on his person. The ball is in play and the batter may advance to home base at his peril.

You can make a strong case that Robbins didn't deliberately stop the baseball with his mask, but there was no doubt he intentionally scooped it up with the mask.

So how do you score the play? A check of the rulebook showed it was a triple, based on Rule 10.07 E:

... score a (triple) when the batter-runner is awarded three bases under the provision of Rule 7.05.

So there you have it, a 25-foot triple.