Harry Lyerly and the Denver Brewers of the WPK

[BirdWatcher]

If there is one Brewer who certainly can't be blamed for the team's poor play lately it is firstbaseman Bobby Erbakan.
In addition to his usual gold glove play at first, Erbakan lately has been hitting the cover off the ball and this past week that earned him the MGL Player of the Week honors.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers face the first place Spinners at the lovely new Avalon Park for a four game series.
The Brewers leave the series in the same situation as when they started it, with a .500 record, having gained a series split.

In game 1, they were able to stop their five game skid behind the strong pitching of ace Cheol-han Lee. Lee goes the distance, allowing just 1 run on 8 hits with 3 strikeouts and 1 walk allowed, and he improves to 5-0 with a 1.74 ERA. The Brewers win 3-1 and get 2 hits apiece from Andrew Kennedy (.269/.305/.423), Jamison Bash (.256/.302/.465) and the surprising Spencer Wilson (.350/.381/.375).

The Brewers lose 8-6 in the second game when young starting pitcher Justin Peacock struggled for 3 2/3rds innings, giving up 6 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, walking 4 and striking out 3. The bullpen calmed things down a bit and the Brewers made a late push, scoring 3 runs in the 9th, but unfortunately Joe McPhillips hit a harmless flyball out with runners on the corners to end the game with the Brewers falling short.

The Brewers win a pitching duel in the third game of the series, with Harry Lyerly and the bullpen out-lasting the veteran star and Spinners captain, Jose Santos. Lyerly lasted 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 2 hits (1 of them a HR), while striking out 5 and walking 3. Lyerly improves to 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA. Bobby Erbakan (.346/.429/.529) hit his 10th double of the season in the game. Andrew Kennedy is getting hot at the plate now (.279/.311/.430) and he went 2 for 3 and hit his 5th double.

The Brewers drop the final game, 5-1. Steve Green is off to an inconsistent start to 1972, as he takes the loss having given up 3 runs on 5 hits in 7 1/3rds innings pitched, walking 3 and striking out the same amount. Green is now 1-3 with a 3.07 ERA. Rookie centerfielder Joe McPhillips (.242/.299/.484) has another one of those games that reminds the team why they are so excited about his future, going 2 for 4, hitting his 3rd double and 3rd triple of the season.

(Interesting/funny note from the second game of the series. Thirdbaseman Jamison Bash needed a breather, so I inserted defensive specialist Oscar Vargas into the game to take his place. But forgot to re-arrange the lineup so that he wasn't hitting in Bash's customary clean-up slot. Vargas, you might remember, is probably the weakest hitter on the team. Once the game started I realized my mistake but decided to just go with it. So what did Vargas do? Oh, he just went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI. Perhaps he was excited about the apparent vote of confidence. )

[BirdWatcher]

So with the surprising Charlotte Sting red-hot and having just over-taken Los Angeles for first in the MGL, naturally that is where the Brewers are next headed (Charlotte, that is) for a three game series.

[BirdWatcher]

Boy has this guy come out of nowhere.
Jonathan Edwards, a 15th round draft pick in 1967, is off to the best start of any Pittsburgh starting pitcher this year, and better than most any pitcher in the SJL.
Granted, Edwards had a good deal of success in the minors in 1971, being named the Pitcher of the Month three times during the season. But that was at AA. He came into this season just outside of the Top 100 Prospects list at #101. Most scouts seem to perceive him as a middle of the rotation starter at best but more likely a back-end of the rotation guy. And 5 starts is hardly enough to form any great judgments upon, but still, it's a fine start for the kid.
Now about that Wild Man nickname. Ironic, perhaps? After all, we are talking about a guy whose best quality as a pitcher (other than a plus plus slider) is his very fine control.

[stevem810]

Good start. He'll probably come down to earth and be about what he was like in AA. Still has some potential, too.

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by stevem810

Good start. He'll probably come down to earth and be about what he was like in AA. Still has some potential, too.

Agreed. Of course he is helped by the fact that homeruns aren't plentiful so far this year so that low movement isn't really killing him.
(Then again, my guy Harry Lyerly has pretty much the same low movement and was Pitcher of the Year in 1970, so this league has some history of being kind to low movement starters. Of course, this guy doesn't have nearly the stuff Lyerly has.)

I suspect he'll be a decent mid-rotation starter if that control gets anywhere near the potential that is projected. Unless the WPK experiences a big boost in power hitting. And if that screwball develops a bit more he will have a fine 4-pitch arsenal.

However it turns out, I just love stories like this in my fictional universe.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers faced off against the now first place Charlotte Sting at BB&T Ballpark for a three game series.
BB&T and is the smallest park in the MGL, in terms of seating capacity, as it holds a maximum of 34,800 fans. It plays as a slightly hitter friendly park, even friendlier for left-handed hitters than right-handers.

The Brewers got a 5-1 win in the first game as veteran lefty Daniel Torres had his best start of the young season, getting the complete game victory, allowing the 1 run on just 4 hits while striking out 6 and walking just 1 (rare for the control challenged Torres.) He improves to 2-2 with a 2.92 ERA. Rookie Paul Mackins (.235/.235/.353) had a nice game, going 2 for 4, scoring 2 runs and hitting his first big league triple.

Former Brewer Adam Getchell held the visitors to a single run on 6 hits (though also 4 walks) in 6 innings pitched and the Sting beat Denver 2-1 in the second game of the series. The dominant Jamel McNeil pitched the last 3 innings for Charlotte, giving up 3 hits but essentially shutting down the Brewers and earning his 6th save (0.69 ERA.) Andrew Kennedy (.295/.323/.453) hit 2 doubles in the game to give him 7 on the season and Bobby Erbakan (.345/.422/.522) hit double #11 his single at-bat (pinch-hitting.)

In game 3 the Brewers dropped another low-scoring game, ending up on the wrong end of a 3-1 final score. Matt Helm (1-1, 1.95) did a nice job in his 6 innings- allowing just 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 5 and walking 1. The game was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 9th inning, but stopper Jose de los Santos was not sharp, giving up 2 runs on 2 hits and taking the loss, dropping to 1-3 with a 3.18 ERA. Catcher Kevin Curtis (.209/.303/.313), off to a very slow start with the bat, is showing some signs of heating up and went 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles in the game, giving him 7 on the season. Bobby Erbakan hit his 12th double, tying him with Portland's Jay Ebersole for the league lead in that category.

With the series loss the Brewers drop under .500 and are in a virtual tie with Phoenix and an exact tie with Baltimore for 4th place in the MGL.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers return home to Denver to take on the Los Angeles Spinners in a 3-game, mid-week series, hoping that their fortunes might turn in front of the hometown faithful.
That didn't happen.

Although it started out pretty well with a victory in game 1 behind the solid pitching of Harry Lyerly. Lyerly worked 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on just 5 hits while striking out 8 and walking 1. Andrew Kennedy (.310/.337/.470) and Chad Brown (.313/.336/.430) were the hitting stars for the Brewers. Kennedy went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and hit his 8th double. Brown, in the lead-off slot, went 3 for 5, scored 2 runs, and picked up his 5th stolen base of the season. With the 4-2 win, Lyerly improves to 4-1 with a 2.95 ERA. Jose de los Santos, who has been inconsistent thus far, worked the final 2 innings to get his 4th save (2.84 ERA.)

Game 2 saw another disappointing start by Steve Green, as he was provided a 6-3 lead going into the 4th inning and could not hold it. Green allowed 6 runs on 11 hits in 6 innings pitched, giving up 2 HR's, though also striking out 6 with no walks allowed. In the end the Brewers lost by just one run, 8-7. Green did not figure in the decision and reliever Liann-wei Hua took the loss and drops to 1-1 with a 1.59. With the bad start, Green sees his ERA rise to 3.78. The offense saw quite a few good performances. Among them, Pat Rondeau (.308/.326/.385), who has been one of the most consistently good hitters thus far on the team, went 3 for 5 and hit his 3rd double. Jamison Bash (.254/.307/.439) was also 3 for 5 and hit his 5th HR.

In spite of another fine start by staff ace Cheol-han Lee, the Brewers lost the rubber match of the series 4-2. Lee gave up 2 runs on 5 hits over 8 innings, striking out 6 and walking just 1. At the end of 9 innings the score was tied 2-2. Both bullpens were solid through the 12th, but then in the top of the 13th Eric Singer, who is having a miserable season thus far, gave up 2 runs and the Brewers were unable to counter in the bottom of the frame. Singer falls to 0-2 with a 6.43 ERA. One nice note for the Brewers in the game is that youngster Jonathan Koch, recently brought up from AAA Chester as slumping Danny Roman was sent down to clear his head a bit, collected his first big league hit, an 8th inning double, and came around to score his first WPK run as well.

[BirdWatcher]

In the midst of a very rough month for the Brewers, one bright spot has certainly been the play of Andrew Kennedy. The left-fielder with the sweet left-handed swing has not only emerged as one of the better players on the team (currently 4th in WAR among position players on the Brewers squad) but he is unquestionably one of the most respected players in the clubhouse, where, at the still tender age of 25, he is looked to as a leader.

Rumor has it that Brewers management had approached Kennedy's agent with an offer to keep him in purple for next year (he was arbitration eligible at the end of the season) but were surprised to find that Kennedy had other ideas, reportedly seeking an 8-year contract. While that was a bit more than team management was prepared to offer, they eventually decided that he was valuable enough, and his demands reasonable enough, that they did ink him to contract that will extend through his age 31 season (with a team option for that last year.)

The Brewers outfield picture is a bit crowded, admittedly, but with veteran superstar Ryan Rodgers having an opt out after next season, Antonio Puente's contract expiring at the end of 1974, and Pat Rondeau only under team control for one more season, Kennedy is the youngest and most reliable of the experienced outfielders on the team. (Joe McPhillips is still considered the future centerfielder, but he has been struggling at the plate quite a bit of late in this his rookie season.) Plus, with Kennedy being the best backup at first for Bobby Erbakan, management is convinced they will be able to find ample playing time for him in the future.

[BirdWatcher]

In just his 3rd big league start, the Baltimore Lords' 25-year old righty Chris Sutherland threw the first no-hitter of the 1972 season, blanking the Phoenix Speed Devils potent offense, 3-0.

It wasn't the prettiest of no-hitters as Sutherland managed to walk 9 Speed Devils (while striking out 8) and still get the shutout along with the no-hitter.
Sutherland isn't considered a premium talent but he is a very hard worker, and today that work paid off in spectacular fashion.

[BirdWatcher]

I wanted to fill in some blanks and add some context about the WPK, especially for any of you who might just be getting acquainted with this thread and didn't follow along during the OOTP19 portion of this fictional universe.

So first a little information about some processes that I use that are mostly analog but interact with and inform the WPK.

1) The creation of WPK relatives of current players. Basically this is to ensure that at least some current WPK players will have relatives who also exist at some point of time in the WPK universe. This consists of an analog process which identifies on an annual basis two current WPK players who will have a relative who also plays baseball professionally. These relatives could be from the same generation as the current player (brother, cousin), or the next generation (son, son-in-law), or the generation after that (grandson). The process establishes a date of birth and name for the relative to be created and populated into the WPK universe and identifies what year they will enter via the amateur player draft. The process also involves identification of position and player type. I won't go into the details about this here, but essentially it involves having some player archetypes (speedster, defensive whiz, slugger, etc. among hitters, flame thrower (2 types), control artist (2 types), workhorse, etc. for pitchers, plus the rare Superstar (regardless of position.) There are then a series of templates for ratings for the various player (arche-)types and it is identified before-hand which template will be used for each created relative player. Early in the year that the player is to enter the draft I create a new player in the WPK OOTP universe to be part of the upcoming draft pool. The system is built so that most of these relative players will either never make it to the big leagues or will be marginal players in the WPK (Superstars being the obvious exception) but with the potential for some to turn into solid players or even stars.

2) WPK retired player deaths. Like the process described above, this is an analog approach for adding more full immersion to my OOTP fictional universe. Nobody lives forever and identifying when WPK (former) players pass away provides a more expansive view of the history of the league. It is a good time to look back at the past and one player's role in the WPK. And it provides the possibility of some interesting storylines around a player turning a milestone age (90, even 100?) and/or having the distinction of being the oldest living former WPK player. I'll leave the details aside here, but will just say that this involves maintaining a list of retired WPK players grouped into age categories, with an analog process (all of this gives me a chance to have the joy of rolling the 20-sided die) to identify, on January 1st, what former players will pass away during the current calendar year, what the date of their death will be, and what their cause of death will be. Thus far, given that we are early in the history of the WPK and the oldest former player is only in his upper-40's, no deaths have yet been identified. (This process is restricted to players who had at least one appearance in the WPK- career minor leaguers are not included.)

3) Statistical modifiers. The WPK started in 1965, mirrored on the structure, finances, and strategic norms of that season in the MLB. And for the time being anyway, I am letting the league move forward with finances and strategies mirroring the MLB season that matches the current WPK season. But for statistical modifiers I decided to pick a 20-year major league span (I settled on 1972-1991) and just prior to each WPK season (day before Opening Day) I roll a 20-sided die which dictates which MLB season to base statistical modifiers upon.

Some notes about league settings:
While I cannot remember the details of all of the settings I used to start the WPK (but could certainly share these later if anyone is interested), I can say that I use a setting that is pretty forgiving of aging and leads to somewhat longer careers and more graceful declines than might be strictly realistic in terms of what actually happens in the MLB.

I do use league evolution, but (for now, anyway) a few options are not allowed-primarily the institution of the DH and any change in the 40-man roster.
Thus far just one instance of league evolution has occurred in the WPK when, prior to the 1971 season, the number of major league service years required for free agency was increased to 7, with a corresponding increase in years of arbitration eligibility.

There is one feeder league that operates in the WPK universe and it is on the collegiate level. I am toying with creating others but so far it is just the one.

It is quite likely that I will be creating an independent league sometime in the next few seasons.

There is an existing Arizona Fall League and has been for several years now. (Current Brewers rookie Joe McPhillips starred in it early in his minor league career as did Bobby Erbakan.)

I also occasionally identify former WPK players who might make good coaches/managers, etc. (high leadership, high intelligence, mostly) and go into commish mode to make sure they are added to the available personnel list. I also have earmarked some minor leaguers, likely never to make the WPK, who could become coaches/managers after their professional playing careers end and will do the same with them.

That is all I can think of right now and probably more than most of you really want or need to know. But just wanted to fill in a few of the details for the few of you who might find this interesting.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers end the home-stand with a 4 game series against the 3rd place Brooklyn Aces.

In game 1 the Aces just make the Brewers look silly, winning 12-2. Starter Daniel Torres lasts just 4 1/3rd innings, giving up 9 runs (6 earned) on 6 hits while walking 4 and striking out 4. Torres drops to 2-3 with a 3.86 ERA. Matt Helm works the next 4 innings, doing just a bit better, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits, but he also hits his first HR of the season and his second as a big leaguer (the least one coming in 1969 as a member of the Charlotte Sting.) The Brewers manage just 6 hits in the game and 2 of them are off the bat of the recently hot Andrew Kennedy (.300/.325/.445).

The Brewers bounce back for a 4-2 victory in game 2, getting a much better start from Justin Peacock than in his first, disastrous start. Peacock worked 6 2/3rds innings, giving up 1 run (unearned) on 6 hits, striking out 5 and walking 4. He improves to 1-1 with a 3.48 ERA. Another good game for Andrew Kennedy (.310/.333/.460), who went 2 for 3 and hit his 9th double of the season. Rookie Jonathan Koch, recently promoted from AAA Chester, continues his strong start in a Brewers uniform, going 2 for 4 in the game and driving in a pair of runs.

The first game of the Sunday doubleheader saw a rare start for Jaden Francis, who originally was drafted as a starting pitcher. This was Francis first start of 1972 but he started 3 games for the Brewers in 1970 and with not bad results. On this day though, very bad results. Francis gave up 8 runs (5 earned) on 8 hits in just 3 innings pitched. In spite of Francis putting the Brewers in the hole (well, some shoddy defense didn't help) early on, the home team did manage to fight back to get within striking distance, but they couldn't get all the way back and the game ended with an 8-6 loss for the Brewers. Francis falls to 0-1 with a horrible 6.55 ERA. Jonathan Koch (.455/.455/.818) once again paced the offense, going 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored, hitting his 1st big league HR in the 9th inning. Pat Rondeau hit his 3rd triple of the season and went 2 for 5 in the lead-off slot.

It wasn't easy but the Brewers managed to get a series split by taking the night-cap of the doubleheader, winning 7-5. Harry Lyerly wasn't at his best in the start- working 6 innings and giving up 5 runs (4 earned) in spite of allowing only 4 hits and once again no HR's. Granted he did walk 4 while striking out 6 and 3 of the 4 hits he allowed were doubles. Lyerly was taken off the hook and got a no-decision but sees his ERA rise to 3.33. Eric Singer (1-2, 4.35) got the win and Jose de los Santos picked up his 5th save and dropped his ERA back down to 2.45 with a perfect 9th inning. The big hitter in the game was (once again, surprisingly) utility infielder/great glove man Oscar Vargas (.218/.271/.308) who went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and hit his 4th double of the season and his first homer. Joe McPhillips (.217/.286/.434) hit his 4th triple of the season.

Next up for the Brewers is a 4-game series in Phoenix against the Speed Devils, with whom the Brewers are in a virtual tie for 5th place in the MGL.

[BirdWatcher]

Philadelphia Mud Hens 25-year old right-handed starter Jeff Tribble hurled the second no-hitter of the 1972 WPK season, just two days after the first.

Tribble has been in the league for 4 seasons now, the first two pitching out of the bullpen for his original team, the Milwaukee Cadets, who picked him in the 2nd round of the 1965 draft. Tribble was traded to the Mud Hens in November of 1970 and started 33 games for them last season, putting up very solid numbers. He is off to a very fine start this season (5-2, 2.39). He needed to be very good indeed today as the game went into the bottom of the 9th inning in a scoreless tie. The Mud Hens put together a pair of singles, an error by Jacksonville, and a 1-out bases loaded walk to claim the walk-off (literally) win and let Tribble exhale and celebrate his 1-0 no-hit victory.

[stevem810]

Enjoy the occasional ball park graphic when they show up.

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by stevem810

Enjoy the occasional ball park graphic when they show up.

For awhile anyway they will be showing up whenever the Brewers hit the road to play in a city they haven't played in yet this season.
So more to come soon.

Eventually I will find a way to also feature the parks in the SJL. As this universe moves forward I am trying to make sure that I paint a complete picture (even if just in small snapshots) of the WPK beyond just the Brewers.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers visit the brand new Phoenix Municipal Stadium for the first time as they take on the Speed Devils in a 4-game series. Phoenix Municipal holds up to 38,400 fans and profiles as a very good hitters park.

Game 1 goes to the home team, 5-3. Steve Green, off to a very disappointing start, allows all 5 runs on 6 hits (3 of them home runs) over 6 innings pitched and falls to 1-4 with a 4.18 ERA. Bobby Erbakan (.333/.412/.486) gets half of the Brewers 6 hits, going 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored.

The Brewers get a narrow 4-3 victory in the second game, largely on the strength of the slugging of rightfielder Antonio Puente. Puente (.211/.311/.378), off to a very poor start at the plate, clubbed 2 HR's in the game to raise his season total to 4, and drove in 3 runs. Cheol-han Lee had a solid start- 7 IP, 3 R, 9 H, 3 K, 1 BB- but did not figure in the decision. The win went to reliever Jose de los Santos who is now 2-3 with a 2.25 ERA.

In game 1 of the Thursday afternoon double-header, the Brewers edged out the Speed Devils 2-1. In a great pitcher's duel all the scoring on both sides came in the 8th inning. Young lefty Matt Helm was superb for the Brewers, working 7 1/3rd innings, giving up just 1 run on 5 hits while striking out a pair and walking a pair. Helm improves to 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA and is making a strong case for inclusion in the rotation. The big hit in the game was a 2-out triple off the bat of Pat Rondeau (.313/.326/.406), his 4th three-bagger of the season. Rondeau went 2 for 4 in the game and continues to be one of the better hitters on the club in 1972.

The Speed Devils won easily in the second game of the double-header, 8-1, as veteran lefty Daniel Torres allowed 4 runs (3 earned) over just 5 innings pitched while walking 4 and striking out 2. Torres drops to 2-4 with a 4.01 ERA. Reliever Jaden Francis pitched the final 3 innings and continued his recent struggles- allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits (2 of them HR's) and sees his ERA balloon to 7.07. Rookie Joe McPhillips, who has often looked over-matched at the WPK level this season, once again had one of those games where his great talent was on display, as he went 3 for 4, hitting his 5th double and 3rd HR of the season. Most impressively, McPhillips (.241/.305/.494), a left-handed batter, did all of this against the tough lefty veteran, Joey Brown.

[BirdWatcher]

Brewers management felt that reliever Jaden Francis perhaps needed a bit of chance to re-fresh his approach and gain a bit of his confidence back and therefore sent him down to AAA Chester to try to get his mojo back.

In his place they brought up Jordan Stephens, who also potentially gives them another power bat off the bench and someone who can spell Jamison Bash at third base.

(So this is one of those decisions I've referred to that make more sense in the fictional context than in the game. Francis has a very small sample size this season- just 14 innings pitched- and his BABIP is extremely high indicating he has probably had some back luck. He has given up 4 HR's in those innings, which is of concern, but given his overall ratings he is likely a better option on the Brewers squad then Stephens at this point. Well, as a pitcher anyway, not factoring in Stephens potential value as a hitter. But Stephens was very unhappy at AAA, Francis is struggling mightily, and the team is playing very flat, so this all seemed to make sense in the context of this reality.)

[BirdWatcher]

Brooklyn's Heritage Field was the site of the Brewers next series, a 3-game affair against the 3rd place Aces. Heritage Field is a park that slightly favors pitchers, though it is a bit friendlier to right-handed hitters than left-handers.
It seats up to 42,000 fans.

The 19,697 fans who filed in for game 1 were presumably quite happy with what they witnessed, as the Aces defeated the Brewers 4-0. Harry Lyerly was on the mound for the visitors, and while he wasn't at his best, he probably deserved a better outcome. He hurled 7 innings, giving up 4 runs (3 earned) while striking out 7 and not issuing a single base on balls, but he did give up 12 hits. With the loss he drops to 4-2 with a 3.40 ERA. The Brewers bats were largely silent, although Chad Brown (.294/.313/.388) went 3 for 5. Joe McPhillips (.244/.306/.511) hit his 5th triple of the season, which gives him a share of the league lead in that category.

The Brewers bounced back in the second game as Steve Green had perhaps his best start of 1972 thus far and went the distance, giving up just 1 run on 5 hits, striking out 5 and walking 2 and the Brewers won 5-1. Green improves to 2-4 with a 3.74 ERA. Jamison Bash (.238/.293/.401) went 2 for 5 with his 6th HR of the season. Back-up catcher Spencer Wilson (.328/.366/.358) continued his fine start to his rookie season, going 3 for 4.

Behind staff ace Cheol-han Lee the Brewers take game 3, 2-1, earning their first series win since they got a 2-game sweep of Phoenix at the very beginning of the month. Lee pitched 7 innings, giving up 1 run on just 4 hits, striking out 5 and walking none. He improves to 6-1 with a 2.01 ERA. The Brewers maximized their 3 hits as a Jamison Bash (.238/.292/.417) solo HR in the 2nd gave them their first run and they combined a 1-out walk (Kevin Curtis), a sacrifice bunt (Lee) and a Chad Brown (.295/.321/.386) single to plate their second, and ultimately winning, run.

With the series victory the Brewers climb to within a game of .500 and are in 5th place in the MGL, 7 1/2 games behind first place Charlotte.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers head down to Oklahoma to face the Diamond Kings at their new home, Chickasaw Brickyard Ballpark. Chickasaw plays as a fairly neutral park though it looks like it might depress home run totals a bit. (Which, as we will see, is probably good news for someone like Harry Lyerly.) It is one of the smaller parks in the MGL in terms of seating capacity at a maximum of 37,500.

In the first game of three (original first game was postponed by bad weather, and this make-up game is the first of unplanned double-header) the Brewers come out on the wrong end, as the tough veteran Reece Vaughan out-pitches Matt Helm and the Brewers lose by a score of 4-2. Helm did not pitch a bad game, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) over 6 1/3rd innings pitched, striking out 4 and walking 4, but 2 HR's allowed hurt him. Antonio Puente, putting up gold glove defensive numbers in rightfield this season but very sub-par offensive numbers (.216/.310/.369), went 2 for 4 with both of his hits doubles (3).

The Brewers bounced back in the night-cap of the double-header. They got a great performance from rookie righty Justin Peacock, who gets his first big league complete game victory. Peacock allowed 1 run on just 3 hits while striking out 4 and walking 2. Impressively he got the complete game victory with only 95 pitches thrown (he was in the 70's still entering the 9th.) Peacock improves to 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA. Chad Brown (.300/.324/.394) went 2 for 4 in the win, including hitting his 6th double. Joe McPhillips (.257/.324/.495), showing great development of late, also went 2 for 4 and scored 1 run.

The third game was a classic Harry Lyerly start, his best of 1972 thus far. Lyerly went the distance, allowing just 3 hits while striking out 12 and walking 1 (that wasn't until the 9th) in a 92-pitch shutout. As if that wasn't enough, Lyerly also went 1 for 2 at the plate with a walk and 2 RBI. Lyerly ups his record to 5-2 and now has a 2.92 ERA. He also got plenty of run support as the Brewers won easily, 7-0. Andrew Kennedy (.285/.308/.404), who has been slumping lately, went 2 for 4, scoring a run and drawing one walk. Antonio Puente (.226/.321/.383) also was 2 for 4 and hit his 4th double (his 3rd in the last 3 games). Catcher Kevin Curtis, still the pre-eminent defensive catcher in the MGL (1st in ZR, 2nd in RNG, 1st in CS% with an impressive 68.2%, 6th in CERA), had a nice game at the plate as well as behind it, as he went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored, 1 walk, and an 8th inning HR, his first of the season.

With their second series win in a row the Brewers have finally clawed their way back to .500 on the 1st of June. They remain 7 1/2 games behind the still hot Charlotte Sting in 5th place, but with plenty of season left there is some hope they can still compete for their 4th straight MGL title.

[BirdWatcher]

I meant to post this prior to this latest gem by Harry Lyerly, as it was true then even though now it is even more true.

Prior to this last CG shutout dominant performance, Lyerly's numbers for the year were decent if unspectacular. But his FIP was still among the best in the league and his BABIP was quite high. Granted, it is not a high HR environment thus far in the WPK this season and this has really helped Lyerly. He has a by far career best HR/9 so far at 0.4. That won't likely hold as the weather warms up and given that his home park, Centennial Stadium, is a pretty good park for power hitters. His BB/9 is up this year though his last few starts have mitigated that somewhat. But his K/9 is also up and is now 10.2.
With his latest outing Lyerly now has a FIP of 1.79 and a FIP- of 57. Really impressive numbers and he is now 4th in the MGL in FIP and 7th in WAR among pitchers.

Still a lot of season to go, but with some fear prior to the season that Lyerly might really take a step backwards, in fact he is performing pretty much as he always has and is on pace at this point to have a season quite comparable to his 1970 Pitcher of the Year campaign.