The Nuthouse

Not a ton of behind-the-scenes stuff going on today — The Wingnuts are trying to snap their one-game losing streak. I don’t think that really qualifies as a streak though, does it? According to the Baseball Bible, Major League, a streak doesn’t happen until a team gets to three wins or losses in a row.

So in lieu of giving Wingnuts updates, I’m going to complain about the ridiculous offensive numbers in the American Association. Too many high batting averages. I know most teams are now just approaching their 20th game, and it’s still a small sample size for these guys, but 39 of roughly 110 batters who played last night are hitting .300 or better.

To put that in perspective, it would be like MLB having 97 .300 hitters involved in a full slate of games on a given day. I’d say that’s a lot, probably. I’m not going to check because I want to feel confident in my outrage on this topic.

With such inflated offensive statistics, you can imagine that pitching is suffering in the AA. While I wouldn’t commend you for an elaborate imagination, you’d be right. Of 23 pitchers who appeared in Monday night’s games, 15 had ERAs of 4.00 or higher. Numbers are absurdly ridiculous (which kind of mean the same thing) in Amarillo, where Tim Alberts leads the league with a .477 average. That doesn’t do much for the legitimacy of Amarillo, but we already knew that place was a bandbox.

The point is, let’s get some pitchers in here. Soon.

As if a 10-game winning streak weren’t (or is it ‘wasn’t') exciting enough, we have the potential for a benches-clearing brawl today at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium between the Wingnuts and Grand Prairie. I don’t think it will happen, but the possibility is enough to hook you, isn’t it?

The Wingnuts celebrated last night’s walkoff homer from C.J. Ziegler by going with the Prince Fielder routine at home plate. Now with Detroit, Fielder made the celebration famous in Milwaukee, and it involves him jumping on the plate and his teammates going down as if drilled by a grenade. The last time Fielder did it, if I recall, he nearly fought in the tunnel of whatever stadium it was. It’s an over-the-top routine that doesn’t make opponents very happy.

And apparently Grand Prairie isn’t very happy, either. I’m hearing that some of its players were put off by the Wingnuts’ antics last night, and when those antics were mentioned today on Facebook, former Wingnut and current Grand Prairie closer Justin Dowdy said, “I don’t make threats, just promises.” So take that however you want.

I’m certainly no betting man, but I’m guessing we avoid any real dramatics of the bench-clearing variety today. My guess is that Grand Prairie hits either Ziegler or John Rodriguez, who was quoted in today’s Eagle taking credit for orchestrating the celebration, and that either one of them jog to first. Then it’ll be over and everybody will  move on.

But the possibility of a brawl is exciting in its own right, don’t you think?

The Wingnuts are back home after sweeping road series against Fargo and Gary. Both those teams have hyphenated names, but I’m not going to waste time typing Southshore and Morehead. Wait, I just did. Dang it. Anyway, Wichita has won eight straight overall and it returns home to the kind of weather it experienced in Fargo but without the comfort of having the likes of William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi attend games. I had to look up who was in the movie “Fargo” because I shamefully have never seen it.

Wichita also comes back to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium with a new look, having made several roster moves on Thursday. Gone are Jared McDonald, Josh Dew and Salomon Manriquez; in are Juan Richardson, Robert Roth and…that’s it. No backup catcher for now, but the Wingnuts are confident they’ll find one quickly. Taylor Freeman is the starter.

I’m saving a lot of info and Hooper quotes about the roster moves for my Sunday notes, but adding Juan Richardson, even in the midst of an eight-game winning streak, is an easy decision. Richardson hit .360 for the Wingnuts last season with 86 RBIs. He gives Wichita another accomplished hitter in the middle of the lineup, to go with former MLB’er John Rodriguez.

Tonight, Wichita begins a series against defending American Association champion Grand Prairie. The Air Hogs dispatched the Wingnuts in four games in the playoffs last season, a disappointing end to Wichita’s inconsistent season. Right-hander Jose Perez starts for Wichita tonight. He’s 1-0 with a 2.53 ERA, coming off a strong start at Gary this week. Here’s what Hooper had to say about Perez:

“He’s had really good minor-leauge numbers, most of it out of the bullpen. But he wanted to come here to start. I like those guys, giving those relievers a chance to start and maybe jump-start their career again. Kind of like (former Wingnuts pitcher Will) Savage. He competes. If he can throw his fastball like he did in Gary, for strike one, he’s going to be very successful because that slider is very good. He doesn’t get fazed. He goes out there and he has the same demeanor no matter what’s going on.