Some of you might be familiar with Harry Lyerly, even if you weren't following along in the previous thread about the Brewers.
Lyerly was the source of some controversy (here:
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=295788)
as a young pitcher with very poor movement who nevertheless had rocketed up to being the 3rd best prospect in the WPK, based largely, it seemed, upon his terrific, bat-missing, stuff and potential for good control.
Lyerly, who was originally selected by the Brewers in the 4th round of the 1966 amateur player draft, out of Jackson State in Jackson, Mississippi, was not expected to be more than a marginal big league pitcher at best. The thought when he was drafted was that with his great stuff and very good fastball, combined with a decent sinker, he might someday work his way into a big league bullpen as an injury replacement for a short period of time. His early work in the minors was spotty, but he did show continuous improvement in his velocity. Then something odd happened (well, random talent change, really) and Lyerly developed a fourth pitch to go along with his great fastball, solid sinker, and poor changeup: a knuckle curve with very good potential. At the same time his velocity moved up into the upper echelon (99-101 mph), and the scouting staff reported that it appeared his control had better potential then even earlier thought.
And, all of sudden, as mentioned above, he was one of the top prospects in the WPK. But that propensity to give up the longball, that poor movement. Could be possibly overcome that to have success at the big league level?The first test of that came in the 1969 season, when due to injuries on the starting staff, Lyerly got the call to come up to the big league club. When he was brought up in mid-June it was felt that it would just be a brief stint to get us through until others returned from injury and to see what he might be able to do. Well, it turned out that what he could do was impress the heck out of everyone and earn a permanent spot in the rotation. In his 18 games started from that point until the end of the season he finished with an 8-3 record and a 2.99 ERA but even more than that he struck out 9.7 batters per 9 innings pitched and put up 3.4 WAR. This included several games where he reached double digit strikeout totals, eventually setting a new team record with 14 K's in a game.
He had earned a spot in the 1970 rotation though the general feeling was that a full season in the bigs might start to reveal his weaknesses more and that he was due for a bit of let-down. Boy, was that wrong. Lyerly finished the 1970 season with an 18-9 record, a 2.44 ERA, a league-leading 239 strikeouts (including 4 more 14-K games), a 1.02 WHIP, 6.6 WAR. For his fine season he was awarded the MGL Pitcher of the Year award and his first All-Star game appearance. All at the tender age of 22. He did see some statistical decline in 1971, partly due to an elbow issue (bone spurs) mid-season which sidelined him for over a month, but when it was all said and done he finished with the exact same fine ERA at the prior year (2.44), a 14-6 record, led the league in strikeouts (in spite of pitching far fewer innings than his nearest competitors) with 183, and K/9 at 8.8 and finished 6th in the Pitcher of the Year voting.
He will be 24 entering the 1972 season and already has a WPK career record of 40-18 with a 2.58 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. Can he continue his brilliance going forward or will his propensity to give up homeruns catch up with him? (There are some indications that moving from OOTP19 to OOTP20 has led to some lowering of expectations for him with our scouting staff.) Only time will tell.
Stay tuned.