(AP)WASHINGTON--The Washington Sea Dogs have been like a game of badminton
so far this year; you never really know where they're gonna land, and they
always take a nosedive at the end. While their record, at 4-5, doesn't
seem to indicate serious problems, the Sea Dogs' manager, Aaron Weiner,
knows better.
"We've been completely down at clutch time," Weiner said. "We're letting
up big homers, big hits, our lefties aren't pitching with any
consistency. We're losing almost all of our close games."
Indeed, a lot of the early-season blame has to go to Chuck Finley, last
year's ace, and Shawn Estes. The former has given up ten runs so far in
14 innings, and Estes leads the PVBL in walks allowed, a whopping nine in
13.2 innings, which wouldn't be quite so bad if he hadn't also allowed 15
hits.
"I'm not sure that Chuck's lack of success so far this season is
necessarily his fault," Weiner said. "Three of his runs have been
inherited, and he's given up almost all of them after the sixth inning,
when he might be starting to tire."
Finley, who posted a 2.28 ERA last year, wasn't quite so apologetic.
"I've been losing my concentration in stretches this year," Finley said,
"and late in the game, when we can't afford it. Maybe I can break out of
this rut I'm in next time I pitch."
However, it's not just Finley and Estes that have to shoulder the blame.
Take Chuck Knoblauch, for example; Knoblauch has hit in all but one Sea
Dog game this year, and is batting .432, but has zero RBI in the #3 hole.
Bill Mueller, Charles Johnson, Terry Steinbach and Mark Whiten, the latter
two brought in for offensive help, have hit a combined .184 so far.
"It's really been frustrating for me so far," said Mueller, batting .182.
"I mean, I've been getting a few pitches to hit, hitting in front of
Chuck, but I just haven't been able to get 'em. I think I'll break out of
it sooner or later though."
On the other hand, despite their offensive woes, the Sea Dogs do rank in
the top half of PVBL offenses, with 32 runs in seven games. And they have
won three of four one-run games, meaning that the bullpen, as expected in
the preseason, is generally doing the job.
"But if you don't have a lead," Weiner said, "then you can have all the
bullpen in the world and it won't mean squat unless you can score runs
late. And we haven't."
Notes and Quotes
While Washington can't seem to get it done with the bat, they're certainly
getting it done on the bases. Knoblauch has five steals in nine games,
ahead of his 60-steal season last year, and Barry Larkin, who also has
nine RBI so far, has four to spark a DL second-best 12 team steals.
"Two out of four limbs aren't bad."
-Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, DL steals leader
Washington GM Aaron Weiner announced that the Chris James fiasco was
almost over.
"Well, we drafted the guy in the third round of the FA draft, and it looks
like he's finally going to actually be a Sea Dog," Weiner said. "We're
awaiting information on other moves before we finalize James's contract."
Chris James, who had a horrible season last year, is in most years a solid
backup outfielder/DH and a player that Weiner coveted.
"We've moved our team around a lot, done a lot of things with it since the
McDonald deal," Weiner said. "And we're looking forward to having Chris
on the team. He'll probably start the year in AAA as our AAA #3 hitter.
Washington also has been frustrated in trying to acquire a left-hander for
the bullpen.
"We've been close to a couple deals," Weiner said, "but nothing really
definite so far. It's early in the season yet, but the fact that we had
to bring in Heinie Phillips a few games back to pitch to Brady Anderson
really demonstrates the need. We've had pipedreams of moving Nigel to
middle relief."
Some players that Weiner is reported to have been looking at were
Montreal's Steve Cooke, Cincinatti's Mike Holtz and Ron Villone, and
Macon's Tony Castillo.
The manager mentioned that despite his early-season struggles, Chuck
Finley had no danger of being moved out of the top spot in the
rotation despite the acquisition of Ben McDonald.
"We just pushed him back a couple days because we wanted our righties
going against Phoenix," Weiner said. "He'll be back in the top spot after
the off-day.
"In no way do we believe that two starts is a season, or that Chuck Finley
is somehow over the hill."
