All-Decade Team: Relief Pitcher

Though it might seem like light years ago, the Wild Things led the Frontier League in wins during each of their first five seasons.

So it was no surprise that Washington had a relief pitcher lead the league in saves during four of those first five seasons: Robert Garvin (2002), pictured, Anthony Kozol (2003), B.J. Borsa (2004) and Jim Popp (2005).

Though it was 10 years ago, Garvin's season remains the best ever by a Washington closer. And the interesting part of Garvin's story was that he wasn't assured of a roster spot when spring training began.

Garvin was one of the holdovers from the Canton Crocodiles franchise that was sold and moved to Washington. In one season with Canton, Garvin had mediocre results, posting a 0-4 record with a 4.29 ERA and two saves while playing in the pitchers' haven known as Thurman Munson Stadium.

Garvin did win a roster spot out of spring training in 2002 but it was a middle reliever. But after Garvin earned a three-inning save June 4 against Chillicothe and duplicating the feat four days later against Johnstown, Washington manager Jeff Isom opted to move the hard-throwing right-hander to back of the bullpen to replace Bret Giaudrone (remember him?) as the closer.

It proved to be Isom's second-best move (signing Josh Loggins was the best). Garvin became the league's All-Star reliever by going 2-2 with a 2.30 ERA and 18 saves.

The two most impressive parts of Garvin's season still have not been matched or topped by a Washington reliever:

* At one point, he converted 18 consecutive save opportunities.

* He walked only four batters ALL SEASON. That was in 47 innings (in a game last year, Washington relievers walked five batters in one inning). During a stretch of 15 appearances, Garvin was 1-0 with eight saves, ZERO walks and 24 strikeouts in 17.1 innings. For the year, Garvin struck out 59 and walked four.

It wasn't until his final outing of the regular season that Garvin blew a save. It turned out that the blown save was meaningless because Washington had clinched the East Division title a few minutes earlier when Richmond lost.

Garvin was signed by the San Diego Padres after the 2002 season.

When Garvin was with Washington, one knock against him was that Isom tried not to use him two days in a row. Isom said Garvin's arm seemed to take a longer time to recover from an outing than most relief pitchers.

However, when with the Padres, Garvin led the high-Class A California League in appearances in 2003 with 61. He was used on consecutive days eight times that season.

After the 2003 season, Garvin was selected by the Montreal Expos in the Class AA phase of the Rule 5 draft but didn't make a team. He ended his career back with Isom in 2004, pitching for Joliet of the Northern League and saved 21 games.

All-Decade Team Relief Pitcher: Robert Garvin (2002)

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.