Petersen Joins Webs' Pitching Arsenal

Anyone who follows the Wailing Onions Baseball League knows the name Mel Petersen. But now the Flash will get to know the SP a little more intimately over the second half of this season. The Charlotte Webs completed their second blockbuster trade of the year on Saturday. Petersen spent 3 and a half years in with the Detroit Great Lake St, where he went 62-24 (a .721 win percentage) with a 2.62 ERA. He also won the AL Cy Young in Seasons 2 and 3.

Anytime a pitcher of Petersen's caliber switches hands, you expect a pretty penny to have been paid. But none of the three pitching prospects Charlotte sent to Detroit (SP Alberto Barrios, SP Slick Sosa, and RP Danny Campbell) have scouts drooling over them. All three have questions about their control above all else. Sure Petersen is just a rental player, but considering he will also bring compensation draft picks to Charlotte when he leaves, the ransom for yanking the reigning Cy Young away from Detroit was certainly an affordable one.

Though Petersen bolsters a fearsome starting rotation for the Webs, some insiders have said Charlotte should have looked for bullpen aid instead. While every starter except SP Garrett Collins has a shimmering sub-3 ERA, no bullpen man has a sub-4 ERA. Even their closer, RP William Lui, has posted a 4.34 this season.

Still, the bold move may provide the necessary spark to push a 43-35 Webs team into the playoff picture, where anything could happen with such a dominant starting rotation. After 3 years and no playoff berths, the Web management has made it very clear that that result is no longer acceptable.

Webs Snag Wood: Perhaps following the advice of this very blog, reports indicate that the Charlotte Webs have agreed to a deal that will bring RP Steven Wood to them for two prospects, pending league approval. Wood has never done anything other than close games for the Santa Fe Booze Hounds, a task he successfully completed 81.7% of the time in a very tough ballpark for pitchers, earning him the distinction of being an all-star in seasons 2 and 3. The Webs packaged two power-hitting prospects to complete the upgrade, giving them yet another bullet with which to gun down the Flash, just days after bringing Petersen to the National League.