[BirdWatcher]

Following Bobby Erbakan's 21-game hitting streak, he cooled off a bit. Don't get me wrong, he is putting up numbers that many WPK players would still envy, but is not on pace to have the kind of MVP-candidate season he had in 1974.

One thing Bobby has always been good at is taking one for the team. He generally racks up a good number of HBP per season. And generally this has been a positive thing. But yesterday, not so much. He took a blow to the hand and will be out for up to 5 weeks.

With Erbakan on the IL now the team promoted young slugger Sepi Koller from AAA Chester. Koller is having another terrific season at the plate and is an adequate defender, even if not anywhere near Erbakan's caliber. He is a left-handed hitter which leaves the Brewers lineup even more susceptible to strong left-handed pitching, but likely Andrew Kennedy will play first on days when the Brewers are facing a left-handed starter (Kennedy is also a left-handed batter, but hits same-handers pretty well- I mean he just hits everyone very well), and this will give right-handed extra-base machine John Flores more playing time in left field.

The amazing thing about this team so far in 1975 is that they continue to lead the league in runs scored and batting average (.301) as well as many other offensive categories, in spite of having their three best hitters from 1974- Joe McPhillips, Ryan Rodgers, and now Bobby Erbakan- out for significant stretches of the season (of course, we don't know yet how they will survive Erbakan's absence, but they weathered the losses of McPhillips and Rodgers quite well). A look at the offensive leader boards in the MGL shows very few Brewers, with the exception of Andrew Kennedy still having the top batting average (and showing up in a few other categories) and Josh Schaeffer being 2nd in OPS, SLG, and in the mix in a few other categories.

This is a testament to the depth the Brewers boast. Getting a career year from right fielder Schaeffer has certainly helped. But the team has also received wonderful contributions from 5th outfielder John Flores, utility infielder Joe Willemse, rookie center fielder Jorge Gonzalez before he was sent back to AAA to make room for McPhillips return, and the two catchers- Zacarias Martell and Kirk Patnode- have been real over-achievers this season, both as expected great defenders but also producing much more offensive value than could have been expected. (Edit: and somehow I forgot all about RodRod when typing this earlier. Having returned from the IL he has picked right back up where he left off, as one of the best hitters on the club.)

And this is also with Jonathan Koch continuing to have a below replacement level season, and while Chad Brown has been hitting a bit better lately he is pretty much at replacement level overall.

The Brewers are holding onto first place, though they trail the Brooklyn Aces a bit in terms of run differential so some of this is due to the Aces under-performing a bit so far. But the Brewers starting pitching has been quite strong and the bullpen is showing signs of turning things around (Ben Flynn has been quite good lately, Jaden Francis is looking like he might be returning to form, and lefties Jeremy Walker and Eric Marino have mostly been pitching better the last week or two also. Of course, Jordan Stephens is another Brewer on the IL and won't be back for about a month.)

But now we have a new test and it remains to be seen if the team can hold onto first with Erbakan out for more than a month.