Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.
Jesting aside, largely because of the kind and encouraging words of folks like stevem810, pauwoo, and Sizeman21 over in the most recent thread where I recently concluded my rather detailed reporting on the Denver Brewers of the W.P. Kinsella League, I have decided to offer up at least occasional updates and tidbits of information from the WPK as the league moves forward into the 1980's.
For anyone not familiar with the background, please see the links in the signature below (if you wish). For anyone who has followed along in the past, I hope that this less frequent and much more abbreviated coverage of the league (and in particular, the Brewers) still offers some enjoyment and edification.
I had put together a framework for this first post, with specific categories of discussion, but hey, in the spirit of this more casual approach, I'm going to skip that for the moment and go straight to this:
Antonio Acuna continues consecutive game hitting streak, now 2nd longest in WPK history!
As anyone who has followed along here no doubt recalls, the Denver Brewers veteran star second baseman
Bobby Erbakan put together a 45-game hitting streak in the early summer of 1977, to easily shatter the previous mark of 34 straight games set by Nick Haran of Phoenix in 1969. (As an aside, the 38-year old Haran, who is very injury prone- Wrecked- and who has had a series of sub-par seasons since reaching his mid-30's, is experiencing a renaissance this season as a member of the Washington Night Train, hitting .312/.455/.605 and being on pace for 6.6 WAR, which would be his best since his career peak of 8.6 set at age 27. The question is how long he can stay healthy.) Well, now
Erbakan's teammate
Antonio Acuna, the reigning MGL MVP, has passed Haran to move into second place and isn't done yet. He still has a long way to go to get to Bobby's mark. But there can be no doubt that
Acuna has become the biggest star on the Brewers club.
It should be noted that while the Brewers liked the tools profile of
Acuna when they traded away the 1975 MGL Rookie of the Year Rodrigo "RodRod" Rodriguez and capable outfielder John Flores (who has been a mainstay of the Wild Things lineup since) to acquire him from Portland, he was hardly a hot prospect. Having been selected in the 5th round of the 1974 draft out of Paradise College,
Acuna was a late bloomer. As recently as early last season, he was considered a 4th outfielder by the club. But at this point
Acuna has proven himself to be one of the finest players in the game and a true 5-tool talent. (In addition to leading the league in home runs with 15 and sitting in 2nd place in RBI with 56, he has also stolen 18 bases while being caught trying only 3 times.)
Current WPK Standings:
Whalers Thompson hurls first WPK No-Hitter of 1980:
As has been well documented elsewhere, the Columbus Whalers are the pitching powerhouse of the first decade and a half of WPK history (think Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz era Braves). Last season they had four 20-game winners on their staff and one of their top pitching prospects, Bill Thompson, found himself languishing in the bullpen most of the season. With young Kevin DeRouen, who was 20-6 with a 2.70 ERA in 1979, out for the season after elbow ligament reconstruction surgery, the fan favorite Thompson is finally getting his crack at the rotation. And in his most recent start he hurled the first no-hitter of the 1980 season, and against one of the better lineups in the SJL in Philadelphia. (The Whalers starting staff, although still formidable, is not performing as well this year as they did the past several seasons. Although some of that might be attributed to an uptick in offense around the league, some also theorize that bringing in coveted free agent catcher Greg Foster, who is one of the finer hitters at his position but considered merely average defensively, may have been detrimental to the staff.)
Brewers Banter:
As you can see from the standings the Brewers remain a strong team this season although they have found themselves looking up at the upstart San Francisco Velocity pretty much from the earliest days of the 1980 campaign. The Brewers do still have the best run differential in all of the WPK and have under-achieved somewhat thus far and there is a great deal of season left.
I won't go into great detail at this moment, but will talk about a few developments with the club.
The aforementioned
Bobby Erbakan, in the first year of his new lucrative contract extension, got off to a horrible start at the plate (.230/.271/.411, and that marks an upswing from his even more anemic start) before being sidelined with a herniated disc in his back. He is currently on the IL, where he has been since May 20th, and isn't expected to be able to return to action for at least another 3 weeks. Oh, and reports are that his work habits have taken a nosedive now that he has been locked up to one of the more generous contracts in the league. At age 33, and combined with his propensity for injury, this does not bode well for the remainder of his contract and his career.
On a brighter note, young left-handed starting pitcher
Austin Bond, who has mostly moved his way up the minor league system with a minimum of fanfare, has emerged as a valuable 5th starter for the club this year, and after a fine start yesterday against the Baltimore Lords he is 7-3 with a respectable 3.94 ERA. (His BABIP is .309, his FIP is 3.94 and his FIP- is 92, indicating that his numbers seem like solid reflections of his reality at this stage of his career, and with more development still expected for the 23-year old sparkplug.)
I need to run now (well, not literally, but my father awaits a regularly scheduled phone call from me) so I'll end this here.
But I'll try to check in with updates and will certainly keep you all posted regarding
Antonio Acuna's hitting streak.