Patience pays off for Simunic, Hawks

Patience and Doug Simunic have never gotten along swimmingly during the manager's reign with the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.

Simmy is the kind of guy who dies a bitter death with every defeat. During his eight seasons in Fargo-Moorhead, he has also proven to be the kind of guy who is not afraid to pull the trigger on a trade, signing or release if those stinging defeats are coming a touch too rapidly for his liking.

So when the RedHawks began this season by losing seven of their first 10 games, a streak during which their bats carried all the pop of cooked pasta, the antsy Simunic must have been bouncing off hotel walls wanting to something, anything to turn around his team's fortunes.

Right?

Actually, not so much.

"I liked my team," Simunic said Thursday prior to Fargo-Moorhead's game against Winnipeg. "I wasn't going to panic because I knew sooner or later we were going to start hitting and I knew that we had some pitching.

"When Bitt (former pitching coach and current consultant Jeff Bittiger) and I were building this team we spent a lot of time on the pitching. We wanted to make sure we had all the gaps filled, so we talked pitching. Every once in awhile, Bitt would say, 'What are you going to do for offense?' And I'd tell him not to worry about it, because we'd be OK. We didn't have that big guy to hit the three-run homer to stick in the middle of the lineup, but we had a lot of different elements that together would be good. It was a matter of being patient."

And so he was. Despite the 3-7 start, the RedHawks made only three moves before Tuesday's acquisition of bopper Jason Kinchen that completed an earlier deal with Joliet.

There was a pair of trades that resulted in Fargo-Moorhead getting relief pitchers Mel Spivey and Brent Franklin. And there was the signing of designated hitter Eric Kofler.

Other than that, Simunic sat calmly and waited. As calmly as he can sit, anyway.

And wouldn't you know, the RedHawks began to hit a little. Combined with the pitching staff Bittiger and Simunic so astutely constructed, it proved to be lethal. The RedHawks won 11 straight to improve to 14-7. Since then they've gone 12-5.

After Thursday night's 5-2 victory over Winnipeg, Fargo-Moorhead is 26-12 and leading the Northern League's North Division by two games over St. Paul and four over the Goldeyes.

Not bad for a team that was four games out of first place the first week of the season.

Patience, it seems, is a virtue even in short-season baseball. Although Simunic points out that salary-cap considerations would have prevented him from making any moves the first couple weeks of the season anyway.

"I had a feeling we'd start hitting the ball better, but pitching has really been our bread and butter as far as what we've done since our start," Simunic said. "We've walked a few guys, but some of them have been warranted in order to avoid major damage. We've been hard to score against. You have to score to win baseball games and it has not been easy to score on us."

Starter Ray Clark solidified that Thursday, pitching eight rock-solid innings.

The RedHawks lead the league in team earned-run average (3.52). Their top two starters, Mike Peschel and Todd George, have combined to go 8-1 with a 1.80 ERA.

Fargo-Moorhead's hitting, meanwhile, has followed the blueprint the team used last year in winning its second championship. No big sticks in the middle of the lineup - at least until Kinchen, the league leader in homers, joined the team - but a whole bunch of guys who know how to get on base and get timely hits. The RedHawks don't have a single player with more than 30 RBI in their 38 games- but have nine with at least 20.

Their lineup includes guys like shortstop Bryon Jeffcoat, who is hitting just .229, but has driven in 27 runs to go with a team-high 30 walks and an on-base percentage of .367.

"Prior to Kinchen getting here, we had three guys at the top who could get on base and score, three guys in the middle with a little power and three guys at the bottom who could hold their own," Simunic said. "Now that we can throw Kinchen in there, providing he keeps doing what he's been doing, it should only make us better."

With a two-game lead and 10 games remaining in the first half before the first pitch against the Goldeyes, that's not a good sign for the rest of the Northern League North.

For that, the RedHawks can thank patience, not panic.

Forum sports columnist Mike McFeely can be heard Saturdays at 8 a.m. on he WDAY Golf Show (970 AM). He can be reached at (701) 241-5580 or mmcfeely@forumcomm.com