The W.P. Kinsella League random update thread

[BirdWatcher]

Aaron McNally, a likely future Hall of Fame starting pitcher, was traded yesterday from Detroit to the Philadelphia Mud Hens.



After a great first 8 seasons as a member of the Brooklyn Aces, during which he won 3 Harris/Lee awards and achieved 2 pitching Triple Crowns, McNally signed a huge 7-year deal with the Detroit Falcons as a free agent.
That didn't work out well.
Not that McNally wasn't still a solid pitcher in Detroit, but with a bad team around him his numbers took a bit hit and he was very unhappy. And then in 1984 he had a disastrous season, leading the league in losses with 19 with a 4.30 ERA, by far the highest of his career. 1985 saw him with a better record(12-13) but an even worse ERA (4.32).

With only 1 year left on his contract he now moves to a contending team that seems determined to overtake the Washington Night Train and win the SJL East in 1986.
That might not be so easy though as Washington has also made some moves in the offseason, the biggest being acquiring 24-year old left-handed starting pitcher Julio Michelena in a trade from Baltimore.

Still, McNally certainly appears to be thrilled with this change of scenery and it will be interesting to see if it can bring a resurgence in his career.

[BirdWatcher]

In what appears to be an offseason battle for supremacy, the Washington Night Train follow-up arch-rival Philly trading for a Detroit starting pitcher by acquiring one of their own.



Ryan Rystrom, as has been documented here recently, had a career year in 1985 for the Falcons and they rewarded him by trading him away to an actual contender.

It appears that the return Detroit got for Rystrom is more promising than the four players they got for McNally.
Catcher Alex Herrera is a good leader, a decent looking hitter with some pop, and a solid defender. And if the rumors about the WPK possibly instituting a Designated Hitter rule starting next season are true, Joe Lowe, a promising hitter without a legit defensive position, could be an even better acquisition.

For Washington this adds depth to an already excellent rotation which might prove to be the best in the WPK other than Oklahoma City's.

[BirdWatcher]

A pair of veteran relief pitchers with some hopes for eventual Hall of Fame enshrinement signed with new teams through free agency yesterday.

Tim Shore, after 10 plus seasons with the Denver Brewers, is now a member of the Brooklyn Aces bullpen.



And Joe Hall, who has pitched for the San Francisco Velocity for his entire career up until now, will head over to the SJL to join the not very good Columbus Whalers.

[BirdWatcher]

And the Mud Hens make the next move in their chess match with Washington to win the offseason.



Malachi Person is 31 years old and considered fragile, but on the other hand he has become one of the best middle infielders in the game the past few seasons and is coming off two straight 5+ WAR seasons.
He was a late bloomer and does have a reputation for selfishness, but he is also an excellent defender who can play both middle infield positions and a fine hitter with a line drive, gap hitting approach.

This is a risky signing for Philly, but it has some real upside potential as well.

[BirdWatcher]

In a year with a weak Hall of Fame class it was thought that this might be the one and only chance for one of the better players who has been on the ballot for at least a few years- a Brad Tesh or Jose Santos or Jaime Schardein- to sneak into the Hall.

It didn't happen.




Tesh came closest (he is only one I voted for this year) but with very strong Hall classes coming up for the next several years his chances of eventually getting in aren't looking good.

[BirdWatcher]

Luis Ramirez is a likely future Hall of Famer, following in the footsteps of fellow left-handed ace and former teammate Jake Harris as a member of the Columbus Whalers rotation.

And now it appears that Ramirez will likely finish his career with the same team he started with, as he and the Whalers management have agreed to ta 5-year extension that will keep him in Whalers blue through the 1991 season, when he will be 39 years old.



While it might be seen as a bit risky for the team, Ramirez continues to be one of the better lefties in the game and is considered an Iron Man, and the opportunity to have one of the game's greats be a Whaler for life was likely worth the risk.

[BirdWatcher]

After giving it much thought, and changing my mind several times, I have decided to institute the designated hitter rule in the WPK (and affiliated minor league systems).

Probably the prime reason I decided to do this at this time is that the talent pool, coming into the WPK universe through the amateur draft, includes a great number of DH-only type players. As a consequence, there is a stockpile of very good hitting, no field first basemen on the market. Granted I could do what I've been doing up until now, which is to let these players be sorted out of having significant big league careers by their own inadequacies. But I suppose I'm curious about what might happen if I try not doing that for awhile.
Which is also to say that this doesn't need to be a permanent change in the WPK baseball world. I can always go back in later in my role as sometime commissioner and reverse this decision if I end up not liking it.
But for at least several seasons I would like to see how this plays out.

It also creates a new challenge/opportunity for me as a GM/manager.
Yes, it also leads to less in-game managerial decisions, but the reality is that this isn't one of the aspects of the game I emphasize. I play out all the game for my team, but even then I only control substitutions and I'm okay with not having to think so much about things like double-switches. My focus is much more on big picture organizational tasks. For instance, I am mostly hands-on with the minor league system, controlling all hiring and firing and promotions/demotions, for both players and coaching staff. I mostly don't tell my minor league managers how to manage in-game, other than occasionally forcing a player being used in a particular role/at a particular position. But I am very involved otherwise with all things player development and identification.

I have also decided to try upping the active roster in the regular season (up until the September 1st roster expansion, which I am leaving as is for now) to 26 players. This is largely due to the doubleheader issue where there isn't a good way to add a player just for doubleheader days. I suppose it is also just that I want a bit more flexibility in managing my own roster now that there will be a DH.

[BirdWatcher]

Free agent left fielder Cameron Olsen, one of the top names on the market this offseason, has signed with his second MLG West team based in California, as he moves from the San Francisco Velocity down south to the Los Angeles Spinners.




Olsen certainly boosts the Spinners offense but he is also considered a disruptive influence in a clubhouse, so it will be interesting to see how this works out. At age 30 he does remain a very good defensive left fielder, is fast and a very good base stealer. In 1986 he stole 28 bases while being caught only 3 times. In his career he has 255 stolen bases and 70 caught stealing.




Meanwhile, the Washington Night Train added another quality arm to their 1986 rotation when they dealt a pair of pretty good prospects in 20-year old Melvin Ramirez and excellent hitting 22-year old third baseman Josh Lane (along with a non-prospect) to Portland and got veteran left-handed starting pitcher Matt Jenkins in return. Jenkins, as has been discussed here recently in another post, led the MGL in wins two seasons ago with 21 and went 11-12 with a 2.91 ERA last season. He is a 2-time All-Star and 2-time Gold Glove award winner. He does have a reputation for sloth, and is considered injury prone, but with a six pitch repertoire which includes a plus plus changeup and plus plus circle change, Jenkins is good at keeping hitters from making solid contact.

[BirdWatcher]

The Portland Wild Things continue to gather some younger talent while unloading older arms.
In yesterday's trade with the Brooklyn Aces they received a promising defense-first catcher Frankie Rodriguez. Granted, he isn't that young (29) but he has yet to get a chance to have a full season's worth of play, and while he might not in Portland either, who have a very similar starting catcher in Danny Morales (who is also team captain), he is certainly a better fit on the team than the veteran relief pitcher, Jonathan Williams, who was sent along to Brooklyn.



On the other hand, Brooklyn netted a guy who could become one of the most dangerous designated hitters in 22-year old Roger Rhinehart. So ultimately, maybe this wasn't the best move by Portland.

[BirdWatcher]

Luis Gonzales announced yesterday that he won't be returning as a player this upcoming season.



Gonzales has a career slash line of .300/.364/.468 with 339 home runs, 1,478 RBI, 1,210 runs scored, and 414 doubles. The 6-time All Star put up a career WAR of 54.7, won 1 Gold Glove, 1 Silver Slugger, was the 1970 SJL Rookie of the Year and the 1983 Kinsella Classic Series MVP when he won his one championship ring, as a member of the Washington Night Train, for whom he played 13 of his 16 big league seasons.

[BirdWatcher]

Andrew Litteral has arguably been the premiere catcher of this generation other than L.A.'s Jason Ott and now he is a member of the last-place St. Louis Redbirds, where he hopes to bring some winning culture.



Perhaps more importantly for MGL West opponents, this marks yet another key player from the San Francisco Velocity roster who has left the club via free agency in this offseason (Cameron Olsen having gone to L.A. and veteran reliever Joe Hall to Columbus). Although they have picked up a few useful players through trades this offseason (veteran first baseman Tyler Stockett from Philly and very recently veteran catcher, and former Brewer, Erik Bettencourt from Montreal), on balance at this stage of the offseason they look like a diminished club.

[BirdWatcher]

Having recently seen their former star catcher Andrew Litteral sign up to play with the St. Louis Redbirds, the San Francisco Velocity did pick up a quality offense-first catcher in Francisco Maza to pair with the more defensively gifted Erik Bettencourt, who they also recently acquired.



In getting Maza from Detroit the Velocity didn't have to give up much, although 28-year old Greg Lipton is a terrific defensive outfielder with elite speed. His poor hit tool though should limit him to defensive sub/pinch-runner roles.

[BirdWatcher]

The San Francisco Velocity made their biggest move yet of the offseason yesterday when they completed a trade with the San Antonio Keys to bring veteran slugging first baseman Mike Shervey to the Bay Area.



Shervey was the SJL MVP back in 1983 and remains a dangerous hitter but his 3.2 WAR season in 1985 was the lowest for him in the past five seasons. At 30 years old he is also considered an injury risk. And, in typical San Francisco Velocity fashion, he is another not great in the clubhouse type (selfish).
He has been a post-season performer, winning the SJL Championship Series MVP in 1980 and was also the 1984 Kinsella Classic Series MVP.

To get Shervey the Velocity sent a young reliever with filthy stuff in J.D. Cameron to the Keys along with a moderately promising 22-year old catcher named Adam Huber, who likely projects more as a backup than a starter.

[BirdWatcher]

Just three games into the Spring Training exhibition season and the Brewers have suffered their first injury, with starting center fielder Myles Ford expected to be sidelined for strained hip flexor for approximately 2 weeks.




Meanwhile, big news on the trade front as the El Paso Dawgs sent star veteran left fielder Pete Wiederkehr to the Phoenix Speed Devils for veteran defensive specialist infielder Rico Perez and a young reliever, Heiko Martin, with poor control but nasty stuff and movement and some upside for a role in the Dawgs bullpen before too long.



Wiederkehr, at age 34, is considered injury prone but remains a sparkplug with excellent defense and a potent contact-first bat and great speed. Last season, in 123 games and 341 PA's he had a slash line of .359/.437/.503 with 18 stolen bases, 8 home runs, 11 doubles and 42 walks with only 8 strikeouts for 3.4 WAR. If he can stay healthy, it should be interesting to see what kind of numbers he can put up in the hitters haven that Phoenix Municipal Stadium is.

[BirdWatcher]

With a pair of out of minor league options players clearly not going to make the big league roster this season, the Denver Brewers decided to see what kind of deal they might be able to make with Opening Day approaching.



And what they came up with was another step towards shoring up what has been a poor defense for the past few seasons.
In 29-year old center fielder Danny Hendricks the Brewers get a very talented defender with not much offensive value. He won the Gold Glove in center in the SJL last year for his play with the El Paso Dawgs and has put up ZR's of 12.0 and 10.9 the past two seasons. If somehow he can get back to his batting production of 1983, when he hit .279/.367/.394 and had a 3.9 WAR season the Brewers would be thrilled. But mostly they are looking for him to help shore up that middle of the field defense.

[BirdWatcher]

Mike Warner, starting the season at AA Nashville but likely not far from being in a Denver Brewers uniform, moves up to #3 on the Top 100 Prospects list in the WPK.



Largely on the strength of Warner's high ranking, but also with the emergence of 17-year old scouting discovery Mario Valle, out of the Dominican Republic, as a top 20 prospect pitcher, the Brewers have the 3rd highest rated minor league system, prospect-wise.
Valle just turned 17 a few days ago and is still at the Brewers International Complex but surely he will be a minor leaguer before too long. He will need to develop a third pitch (he has 3 but the 3rd is a changeup with little potential) if he is ever going to break into the Brewers rotation, but he is thought to have the potential to develop plus movement and plus control with above average stuff, and has a sinker and splitter that both look like they could turn into big league out pitches. He is an extreme groundballer, which fits well into Brewers organizational philosophy, and has very good stamina and an strong ability to shutdown the running game.

[BirdWatcher]

The Shoeless Joe League Predictions:




The WPK prognosticators believe that the Chicago Fire will repeat as SJL West champs, and that doesn't seem like a stretch. They don't even think it will be close, though once again they do expect the main challengers to be San Antonio and Houston.

Much more surprisingly, the experts are predicting that the Pittsburgh Roadrunners will win the SJL East, also easily. Color me skeptical.
The Washington Night Train, who were the class of the SJL East in 1985, made several key moves to improve their team, in particular their starting pitching rotation. For some reason the experts see them falling to .500 in 1986. Well, maybe. But I doubt it. Everyone else in the division is expected to have losing records.

No great surprises in terms of the expected top hitters. Although for San Antonio's Mike Collado this would represent a strong comeback season as between two teams last year (Washington and San Antonio) he had a 1.4 WAR season after a 4.3 breakout in 1984.

Some young pitchers are expected to breakout this season in the SJL, including Chicago's Bill Johnson, who was very good in the bullpen last season but now should be in the rotation, Jacksonville's Casey Van Fossen, who has been a top prospect for a few years now, Seattle's John Stone, who went 12-15 with a 4.30 ERA in his first full season last year, and Jacksonville's David Parker, who already established himself as a rising ace in the making last season.

The Moonlight Graham League:




Well, apparently the WPK experts and analysts are impressed with the moves the Brewers made in the offseason (with one exception, which will be discussed below), as they predict the Brewers to finish in last place for the first time, well, ever in their history. I won't deny the possibility, but I hope we will be better than expected. San Francisco is expected to repeat in the MGL West, just barely beating out Portland. But mostly the story that is expected in this division is parity.

Oklahoma City, with their dominant starting rotation, is expected to repeat in the MGL East. And with not a lot of problem.

As for expected top batters, here is where the biggest surprise is that the experts think that the Brewers scored a major coup in getting right fielder Jerry Lillie as an add-on in the trade with Portland that brought us Gold Glove shortstop Willie Romero. On that point, I hope they are correct. They also expect a surprise big season from 22-year old Baltimore leftfielder Sam Lawson, who has not had a single plate appearance in the WPK coming into the season. If the prognosticators are right, he will be challenged by Hyeong-uk Chun, who is ranked #6 among top prospects, for the MGL Rookie of the Year award. Well, actually, our guy Lillie is also a rookie. So this might be a hotly contested award.
Other than that it is mostly the usual suspects, but it is interesting that the experts think that two veterans on new teams this season will experience a measure of resurgence: Mike Shervey in San Francisco and Pete Wiederkehr in Phoenix.

Among top pitchers, the experts do think that Denver's Eric Maisch will have something of a comeback season in 1986. Let's just hope he can stay healthy. No real surprises on this list, though the experts do see continued positive career development for youngsters like St. Louis' Dan Clark, Charlotte's Jason Scott, and Phoenix' Ricardo Becerra. All were good in 1985 but are expected to be even better this season.

[BirdWatcher]

Stretching back to the stretch run of the 1985 season, Chicago's dynamic young superstar shortstop Pat Thompson has extended his consecutive game hit streak to 30 games. This is the longest such streak since Denver Brewer Antonio Acuna hit in 35 straight during the 1980 season.

[BirdWatcher]

There are some early signs that the Denver Brewers defensive improvements are paying some dividends, as the starting rotation is doing pretty well (other than Eric Maisch and to a lesser extent Austin Bond), certainly with some help from the fielders.

In yesterday's 7-3 win over Oklahoma City the keystone combination of Willie Romero at short and Mike Garcia at second turned 5 double plays to bail young starting pitcher Eric Fehrenbacher out of a number of jams and give him the win in his first start of the season.



Over in the SJL, Washington handed the Chicago Fire another loss (the reigning champs are off to a 1-4 start) and also held Pat Thompson hitless, ending his hitting streak at 30 games.



The Houston Cavaliers are 4-0 to start the season and the Philadelphia Mud Hens 4-1 to lead their respective divisions in the SJL.

The Portland Wild Things are 3-0 and lead the MGL West (Phoenix is next at 4-1 with Denver 3rd at 3-2.

Four MGL East teams are tied at 3-2 atop that division in the very early going (Baltimore, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, Montreal).

[BirdWatcher]

Although the Brewers are only off to a 4-4 start (granted, they did start the season with 7 games against the two reigning division champs), there have been some nice signs of improvement for some of their younger starting pitchers. Eric Fehrenbacher had a nice outing in his first start of the season and now Stephen Brooks has pitched two excellent games, the most recent a 4-hit shutout of St. Louis on the road.




In the win, rookie right fielder Jerry Lillie hit his first big league home run, of which it is expected there will be many more, and it was of the inside-the-park variety, which one would not expect Lillie to do very often in his career. He also got his first outfield assist, throwing out a runner at the plate and preserving the shutout for Brooks.