Baseball in Fort Wayne

• Eddie Bonine Works Quick, Might Stick Around: Last night, former Wizard and current Detroit Tigers pitcher posted the best outing of his short career and made quick work of the Colorado Rockies. “Colorado put the ball in play on Bonine 27 times. Eleven of the 27 came on the first or second pitch of the at-bat. Eighteen of the 27 were ground balls, and 17 of those were outs”. Tigers’ left fielder called it “classic Eddie Bonine right there.”
• LaTroy Hawkins Disappointed with Mop-Up Duty: Latroy Hawkins thought he would be the late inning reliever to set-up Mariano Rivera when he signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Yankees last winter. Instead, he’s trudging out of the bullpen to pitch in mop-up game situations. “Is it eating me up? Yeah . . . You like competing and you like to be at your best all of the time. You want to succeed. When you go out there and you don’t have the success that you’re looking for, it eats you up. This is the big leagues, and you’ve got to keep fighting.”
• Javiar Valentin Makes First Career Appearance at Third Base: Typically a back-up catcher, former Wizard, Javier Valentin made his first career appearance at third base late in Sunday’s game at New York and made a similar cameo there on Tuesday vs. the Blue Jays. Reds manager Dusty Baker informed Valentin on Tuesday he would be starting on Thursday. Valentin thought Baker was joking. He wasn’t.
• Chase Headley Doesn’t Walk This Way: The rookie Padre’s slugger is still looking for his first walk of the season, having not drawn one in 24 at-bats. In 2005, between his junior year at the University of Tennessee, short-season Eugene and Class A Fort Wayne, Headley walked 98 times in 128 games.

Interesting. Four former Wizards headlines. Four different Big League clubs.