Workload has been light for Wild Things’ Ginn
During the 1970s, Maytag, a maker of household appliances, ran a series of popular television commercials that portrayed their repairmen as having nothing to do because their products were so reliable.
Wild Things relief pitcher Landon Ginn can relate to the Maytag repairman. He has been the forgotten man in the bullpen.
Ginn is the Wild Things’ closer who has had nothing to finish lately because Washington has either blown out their opponent or lost a game.
Over the past 11 days, entering the Wild Things’ game Thursday night against Evansville that ended too late to be included in this edition, Ginn had pitched in only one game.
And he threw only two pitches.
Ginn’s last outing was Aug. 12 at Mississippi. He was summoned from the bullpen to get the final out in a 12-9 win at Mississippi and needed only two pitches to get a game-ending flyout and his 12th save.
Since then, it has been a week without Ginn making a trip to the mound.
When Ginn, who is from Goldsboro, N.C., and spent three years in the Chicago Cubs’ farm system, has pitched for Wild Things, the results have been impressive. The right-hander has a 1-1 record, a 1.66 ERA and 43 strikeouts with only 12 walks in 38 innings. The league is hitting only .197 against Ginn. He was one of Washington’s four representatives in the All-Star Game and has only two blown saves, none since June.
MVP debate
Sometime next week, coaches, front office members and media around the Frontier League will be receiving ballots and voting for the league’s end-of-year awards.
What appears the toughest-to-predict award is the Morgan Burkhart Most Valuable Player, which is named after the first former Frontier League position player to make the major leagues. There are four solid MVP candidates: Washington first baseman Andrew Czech, Florence first baseman Hank Zeisler, Quebec shortstop Kyle Crowl and New Jersey first baseman Felix Stevens. All four have impressive credentials.
Entering play Thursday, Czech was hitting .331, was first in the league in on-base percentage (.481), tied for the league lead with 27 doubles, ranked second in home runs (24), RBI (93), walks (80), slugging percentage (.691) and OPS (1.172) and was third in total bases (190).
Zeisler was fourth with a .346 batting average, first in total bases (196), third in slugging percentage (.622) and OPS (1.059) and tied for fifth in both doubles (24) and home runs (21).
Crowl was batting .301, was leading the league with 97 RBI, was third in home runs (23) and walks (74) and fifth in total bases (184). His 18 stolen bases is tops among the MVP candidates.
Stevens was leading the league with a whopping .398 batting average and also was the leader in slugging percentage (.730) and OPS (.1.207), second in on-base percentage (.476), third in doubles (26) and fourth in total bases (187). He has 17 stolen bases.
Crowl and Stevens play in the Atlantic Conference while Czech and Zeisler are in the Midwest Conference, so no one player can benefit from being the only candidate to emerge from a particular conference.
Movin’ up
Two players who began the season with the Wild Things were promoted recently in affiliated ball. Pitcher Maddox Long went from the rookie level to West Michigan, the Detroit Tigers’ Class A affiliate. Outfielder Graham Brown was promoted from Class A to Double-A Wichita, an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.