Daily Archives: April 21, 2010

Around the American Association

April 21, 201012:20 p.m.

Here is some offseason news from around the league:

Thanks to an ownership change, the Sioux Falls Canaries changed their name to the Fighting Pheasants. Except that a few years ago, the team sponsored a promotion that stated anybody who got a Canaries tattoo would get free season tickets for life. Not only did the name change make the body art out of date, the owner, Gary Weckwerth, inititally said he would not honor tattoos-for-tickets. Thankfully, the story has a happy ending.

LaGrave Field, home of the Fort Worth Cats, and the area around the stadium was nearly foreclosed upon in February. Then, in March, it was announced that wouldn’t happen. At least for now.

The St. Paul Saints have employed a number of ex-major league players during their existence as an Indepedent team. Now it appears the Saints may get another. Scroll down to find the item on a potential Saints addition in Jayson Stark’s recent notes column.

Like former unsigned draft picks Luke Hochevar, Max Scherzer and Aaron Crow, James Paxton will pitch for an American Association team in Texas. But unlike those three, it won’t be Fort Worth. Paxton was the Blue Jays’ supplemental first-round pick last June.

A quick look at the Shreveport-Bossier Captains roster tells us that they’re turning into Wingnuts South. It features former Wichita pitchers Gustavo Mata, Richard Salazar and Justin Young, and former Wrangler Thad Markray. And yes, 42-year-old Jorge Alvarez is returning for his 23rd season of professional baseball.

Work is underway on a new ballpark for the Pensacola Pelicans. It will open in 2011, five years after it was voted for. The stadium cost $40 million.

The El Paso Diablos were nominated for the worst uniforms ever. OK, it was the 1980s Diablos and not the present-day, but Diablos news is tough to come by. I read somewhere that the Diablos won this poll, but I couldn’t find out for sure.

Not long after the Lincoln Saltdogs won the American Association title, tragedy struck the team.

The Sioux City Explorers, a Wingnuts North Division rival, signed an ex-MLB’er of their own. If you’ve heard of him, I’ll give you 100 bucks.

OK, that last note was pretty weak. But I didn’t want to end on a downer, so there it is. The links will be a regular feature on the blog as long as noteworthy stuff keeps happening.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments

Early Roster Analysis: Pitchers

April 21, 201010:27 a.m.

Just a reminder to follow me on Twitter. I’m up to 20 followers. I don’t think it’s unfair to expect more.

Yesterday we looked at the Wingnuts’ offense. While the star power isn’t there as much as it was last season, I think it will end up being just as effective or nearly effective.

I’m not sure you can say the same thing about the pitching. I’m not saying you can’t say the same thing about the pitching, I’m saying I’m not sure. On paper, at least, it doesn’t look quite as strong. But here’s the thing — Kevin Hooper is the manager. That should tell you two things — 1) I’m a total suck-up; 2) the pitching will probably be pretty good because Hooper put the staff together. The Wingnuts will, however, have to pick up the slack for losing probably their two best starters — Derek Blacksher and Will Savage. Blacksher moved on to the Atlantic League and Savage is pitching in High-A in the Dodgers’ organization.

The biggest acquisition for the staff was plucking Nick Singleton from Sioux City. Singleton will be the starter on Opening Day, and he’s looking for a rebound from a somewhat disappointing 2009 season. His ERA jumped nearly two points with a 4.04 mark, and he walked 59, giving him a walk rate of 4.1 per nine innings. That’s not very good, but it was the highest of his career so one could expect him to return to form this season.

Following Singleton in the rotation will be two holdovers from the 2009 team, Adam Cowart and Gabe Medina. Cowart is very reliable as a groundball pitcher who will keep hitters off balance and induce weak contact. Medina is more of a power pitcher, but with velocity in the high 80s, he also needs help from his secondary pitches. Not being the ace, as he was last year, could take pressure off Medina and perhaps allow him to pitch better in 2010. He had plenty of good moments last season but was quite inconsistent.

The rotation should be rounded out by Luke Massetti, who was 7-3 but with a 5.03 ERA for Shreveport a year ago. Doug Hurn, a holdover who pitched out of the bullpen in 2009, is a rotation option for the No. 5 spot. So is Brandon Mathes, a former Kansas Wesleyan right-hander who pitched for Joliet last season. Well, he pitched one game. 

The rotation will be full of new faces, except for Justin Dowdy, whom the Wingnuts acquired in a late-season trade. He’ll keep his job as closer, and with a full season in Wichita’s bullpen I believe he’ll thrive if he can limit walks.

Here are some other bullpen names to know:

Cephas Howard
Luke Demko
Dustin Pease
Matt Petty
Cole Akins
Brock Piper
Will Morgan

All of those guys appear to have pretty solid track records. I look forward to seeing how the staff comes together. Aside from Dowdy, nobody has a set role in the bullpen. And while Singleton appears to be the ace to start the season, there will be competition among the starters, too.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off