Slayers welcome new pitcher

via Alynda Silvane, Dryad Reporter

MINAS MORGUL - The fallout with Elensar hit the fans hard. They were shocked that all of this was going on, but didn't really blast the team for it. "She will be missed, she was pretty good. But we'll go on. We endured being one of the worst teams, this will be easy to get over." One fan spoke. Another fan replied, "Bah. She was an over-glorified .500 pitcher. I mean when you win 18 games and still are barely over .500, that tells me something. If she really pitched well, she could have had way over 20 wins, and I bet if THAT happened, Arborna would be gone now, not her."

Taking Elensar's place will be a very unusual pitcher. Ishanna is a Knuckleballer, but that's not terribly unusual. Her skill set is.

Scouts think she has a nasty knuckler with tremendous bite whenever it breaks and often has several movements within its flight path. The movement is very consistent, sharp, and often has one last "bite" at the end, right when it's about to cross the hitting zone.

There's one problem, however. Ishanna has very little control over the pitch. One scout thinks she could walk over 130 batters, easily. This, combined with her rather low endurance for a SP will make for some interesting stat watching on this new arm.

Still, she could have success. The walks will pile up, but it will be the hits and strikeouts that will determine her success. She does have some potential for improving her control, but it doesn't appear she'll become anything special at all in that area. However, she should keep the ball in the ballpark and that's job #1 when pitching in Blackfield Park.

In terms of personality, she's a really quiet dryad, keeps to herself a lot, but is generally a nice person to be around. Early indications that she and Niara [Smoothflower] could become good friends as they are very similiar in personality.

"We'll have to see how it goes with her and see how best to use her. Our
bullpen is a mess too, so it's not out of the question to utilize her in the bullpen if it seems starting won't do it for her this year. We'll be watching her and trying to see how we can help her come next offseason." K.L. spoke.

Ishanna, 27, will begin as starter #2 in the rotation for next week's games.

Despite the new pitcher, K.L. might it really clear that the Slayers "are still seeking a starting pitcher of good or better ability" and that the same pieces are up for trade [draft picks and prospects besides "Fireflower" and any at the major league level].

Posted at June 22, 2005 09:27 PM | more from Minas Morgul