Manager Aaron Weiner can't believe his eyes this morning.
"Uh...you think we're acting a little weird recently?" Weiner queried.
"I mean, everyone's going everywhere. Who's next, Chuck Finley?"
This reaction was in response to another trade this morning, sending
minor-leaguers Chris Holt and Charlie Blasingame along with solid middle
reliever Eric Plunk to Thunder Bay in exchange for middle reliever Buddy
Moisan, one of the top choices in last year's amateur draft.
"Moisan is supposedly a huge talent," Weiner said. "But by removing Eric
Plunk, we remove a guy who was really huge for our pen."
Indeed, Plunk has been a rock-solid reliever for the Sea Dogs this season,
allowing only a 2.95 ERA in almost 40 innings of work. The manager,
however, will try to get around his loss.
"Well, Bubba Veres is gonna take over for him in middle relief, Fred
(Smith) is gonna take over long relief and we're gonna go with six
bullpen guys until Nigel gets back later this week," Weiner said. "But
losing a guy like Plunk could be enormous."
Closer Bobby Ayala was stunned at the Sea Dogs' handling of Plunk.
"I mean, they brought him in at the beginning of the year to stabilize the
pen, he did it, now he's gone," Ayala said. "The rest of the pen has to
pick up where he left off now, and that's gonna be a hard thing to do."
Weiner himself was the most fazed, however.
"It's unbelieveable to me how many people are being moved," Weiner said.
"I mean, we've only got like a handful of players left from our original
roster."
Indeed, there are only nine current Sea Dogs that were there when owner
A. L. Weiner acquired the team: pitchers Finley, Bobby Ayala, Shawn
Boskie, Fred Smith and Heinie Phillips, second baseman Chuck Knoblauch,
third baseman Bill Mueller, outfielder Warren Newson and LOW outfielder
Don Coker. All the rest were either shed or dealt.
GM Aaron Weiner was, however, completely calm.
"Well, we ARE winning, aren't we?" Weiner claimed. "I mean, we're still
in first place for the wild card, and we haven't made any serious
alterations to our lineup since the beginning of the year except to bring
in Gary Sheffield and Mike Stanley, which we feel is pretty good, not
bad."
The Sea Dogs aren't doing that much winning recently, however; they
dropped another game to the Phoenix Gila Monsters yesterday as they were
shut out by pitcher Chan Ho Park.
"I think Park gets up for us ever since my evil twin wrote that he was a
horrible pitcher," Weiner said. "He just kills us."
* * *
Notes and Quotes:
"This isn't really bad at all. They tell me I've got a good shot at
winning the closer role in Thunder Bay, and I missed that."
-Eric Plunk
* * *
By trading Chris Holt, the Sea Dogs put out of their mind the Dino
Rigopolous trade last year.
"Another black mark on the franchise," GM Aaron Weiner said. "We were
hoping to covert Holt into a starter this season, but it never really
worked out that way."
* * *
Mariano Duncan was surprised the other day to hear that there was another
guy named Mariano Duncan who was almost identical to him in another league
on a team called the Washington Sea Dogs.
"You're kidding, right? I don't believe in all that parallel universe
crap," Duncan said.
* * *
Washington is looking forward to the All-Star Break.
"Well, we'll get Nigel back then, and hopefully, Chuck will be healthy by
the end of it," manager Weiner said. "But it's no gimme; Chuck has that
dreaded bruised heel."
