Windy City sends three to Gary

The Windy City Thunderbolts are going to have a tough time replacing RHP Billy Phillips, CF Rob Marconi, and OF John McCarthy, all three of which were sent to the Gary Railcats today to complete earlier trades.  The Thunderbolts have already lost manager Andy Haines and RHP Shawn Phillips, who both signed contracts with the Florida Marlins.

The loss of Shawn and Billy Phillips will be tough to replace in what was a dominating rotation for the Thunderbolts in 2007.  Together the duo started 38 games and went a combined 16-9.  They were also #1 and #2 on the staff in innings pitched, eating up 237.2 of the 843 total innings pitched by the Windy City last year.  That's over 28% for those scoring at home.

The loss of Marconi and McCarthy in the outfield will be just as tough.  Marconi, McCarthy, and Mike Coles made up one of the best defensive outfields I've seen in the Frontier League in the past five seasons.  Offensively, McCarthy was the toughest player to strikeout in the league and Marconi hit .263/.369/.419 while stealing 24-26 bases.

This is why the Frontier League is great - every year is a clean slate.  Players retire, players get traded, players get released - no matter how you did the year before, you always have a shot the next season.  Just ask Windy City, they went from 41-54 in 2006 to a league record 68-28 in 2007.  Anything can happen at least level, folks, reserve your season tickets today!