Baseball in Fort Wayne

Just got back from Louisville, Kentucky where we didn’t see Jared Wells. But We did see former Wizards and current Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) pitcher, Dale Thayer pitch a scoreless inning for the International League All-Stars.

Thayer worked a scoreless fifth inning, giving up a one-out double to the PCL’s Matthew Brown, who went 2-3 with an RBI and run scored in route to being named PCL Star of the Game.

Now a full-time relief pitcher, Thayer is the three-time reigning Southern League (Double-A) saves champion and doing well at Triple-A. He has a 1.46 ERA in 37 appearances and a newly introduced slider, which he rarely threw before this season. In doing so, Thayer has posted better strikeout numbers (57 in 49 1/3 innings).

“Dale can pitch and be successful in the big leagues today,” Bulls pitching coach Xavier Hernandez said [source: Montgomery Advertiser].

With the Wizards in 2003, Thayer appeared in  45 games, all in relief. He posted a 1-3 record with a 2.06 ERA and 25 saves. In 48 innings pitched, he gave up 15 runs (11 earned) and struck out 72 while walking just 15. His WHIP was a crazy .960, although his MiLB career WHIP is still just 1.12.

In fact, his whole career has been remarkably consistent with the numbers he posted in the Fort. He boasts a career record of 24-13 with 132 saves (25, 23, 27, 27, and 21 over 2003-2007) and a career ERA of 2.10.

Photos by Chad Gramling. See more photos from the trip.

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