The W.P. Kinsella League random update thread

[BirdWatcher]

Bernie Lopez, currently ranked as the 52nd best prospect in the WPK, pitched a gem- a 4-hit, no walks, 6 K, shutout off the Oklahoma City Diamond Kings- in his first start as a Brewer this season, and just his 2nd big league start. It is his first big league win, but likely the first of many.



With an injury depleted roster, the Brewers got big games from veteran outfielder Val Guzman (.203/.268/.329), who went 2 for 4, scoring twice and driving in a pair while hitting his 4th homer of the season, and veteran catcher Willie Ortega (.218/.242/.318), who was 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 3 RBI, and hit his 5th homer of 1986.



Following the game, it was announced that Myles Ford was diagnosed with a strained hip flexor, which although only expected to affect him for a week did lead to the team placing him on the 14-day IL as a precaution and bringing up outfielder Dave Wofford, who is hitting .376/.419/.522 with 3.7 WAR down at AAA Chester this season, for his second stint with the big league club this season.

[BirdWatcher]

Jerry Lillie went through a bit of a power outage after this year's All-Star game, in which he was the starting right fielder for the MGL, but his power sure has returned this week, as he has hit 4 homers in his last 3 games, including 2 in yesterday's win in Brooklyn, a pinch-hit 3-run shot in the game before to help the Brewers get a come-from-behind victory, and 12th inning blast in game 1 of this series against the Aces which gave the Brewers a 7-6 lead which they did not relinquish.



With the sweep of Brooklyn the Brewers increase their MGL West lead to 6 1/2 games over Phoenix, and they lead the wilting San Francisco Velocity now by 8 games.

[BirdWatcher]

The WPK standings as of August 1st, 1986:





It's fun to see the two 1975 expansion clubs, Chicago and Houston, battling it out for supremacy now in the SJL West.
The SJL East is seeing two of the perennial powerhouses of the early years of the WPK- Jacksonville and Washington playing leap frog with first place- while quietly the Boston Berserkers have moved themselves into serious contention as well.
As previously mentioned, the Denver Brewers have built up a decent lead in the MGL West, having gone 18-7 in the month of July.
And over in the mediocre MGL East, the Detroit Falcons remain not only the team in first place, but the only team playing over .500 ball.


July Award Winners:

SJL:




One of the reasons the Houston Cavaliers are hanging right there with reigning WPK champs Chicago is due to the play of 24-year old second baseman Wilfredo Garcia.
Milwaukee's Andy McLaine was a top 100 prospect for several years, though always towards the bottom of that list and hadn't exactly taken the league by storm in his first few WPK seasons. But he did this past month and got the SJL Pitcher of the Month honors to show for it.

MGL:




All Phoenix' 24-year old center fielder Hyeong-uk Chun is doing this season is having what is certainly the greatest rookie season in WPK history, and arguably one of the greatest seasons (offensively, at least) in league history period. (He is on pace for 69 homers and 11 WAR.)
And Jon Harrington's bonafides are already well established, including being a 2-time Harris/Lee award winner.

Chun was of course, also named MGL Rookie of the Month, while in the SJL that honor went to 20-year old Milwaukee second baseman Eric Ross (whose father Adam Ross pitched at least parts of 10 seasons in the WPK, all his appearances in relief). Young Mr. Ross is ranked as the 7th best prospect in the WPK.

[BirdWatcher]

A few high-level Brewers numbers:






It probably should be noted at this point that the Denver Brewers are the team in the WPK that is most over-performing their pythagorean expected win-loss record. Their run differential of +80 trails two teams in their own division (San Francisco, +90, and Phoenix, +87) as well three teams in the SJL (Washington, +108, Houston, +90, and Chicago, +89).
This past month, in particular, the Brewers seemed to have an inordinate number of walk-off and come-from-behind wins. Their 19-6 record in 1-run games is the best in the WPK, with Phoenix right behind them at 18-7 but no other team really close. (For comparison, the worst records in 1-run games are Brooklyn at 8-17, Montreal at 12-22, and Pittsburgh and Portland each at 11-19.)

The back end of the Brewers bullpen has been very good, particularly closer Dan Folk, who has 25 saves in 27 opportunities.

Given their current level of success and hopes for another shot at a championship, the team didn't make any trades prior to the trading deadline other than the aforementioned trade that sent away Jose Corpeno and Joe Sandwell.

[BirdWatcher]

The great Aaron McNally doesn't have nearly as many dominant outings at age 35 as he did back when he was clearly the best pitcher in the game, but yesterday we got a little taste of his former glory as he shut out Seattle on just 2 hits.



For the second place Charlotte Sting, who are four games under .500 on the season, starting pitcher Chris Sheehan (who threw the lone no-hitter of the 1985 season last mid-September) has been one of the bright spots this season.



On the other hand, the ever selfish and unlikable Blake Brock reportedly wants out. It says here that they would be better without him (although he does remain a very good defender at both shortstop and second base). To put it bluntly, Brock's a jerk.

[BirdWatcher]

Granted the Montreal Royals are the worst team in the WPK, but still a 16-2 drubbing in the rubber match of the series on the road is still nothing to sneer at.



And once again Jerry Lillie (.297/.408/.639) led the way with a pair of homers in a 3-hit night, scoring 3 times and driving in 5 runs.
Catcher Willie Ortega (.231/.254/.349) isn't known for his bat, but lately he's had a couple of games like this: in this one he went 3 for 5, hit his 12th double and 6th home run of the season, and drove in 6 runs.

And starting pitcher Eric Maisch improves to 13-3 and struck out 10 in this one while giving up 2 runs on 5 hits with 1 walk in 7 innings pitched. With a strong finish to the season Maisch could certainly find himself in contention to win his 2nd career Harris/Lee award.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers are off to an inauspicious 2-5 start to the month of August and have now lost 4 straight, including being swept by the Detroit Falcons on the road, but in yesterday's loss to Baltimore young top prospect second baseman Nick Mull hit his first big league homer in front of the home fans.




And the even more recently called up top third baseman prospect, Jeremy Beeson, went 3 for 4, hitting his first double and driving in a run.

A few other recent call-ups, starting pitcher Bernie Lopez and reliever Cesar Perez, however, were not a good in this one.

[BirdWatcher]

It took a pretty dominant start from staff ace Eric Maisch and some timely hitting in the later innings, but the Brewers avoided getting swept at home by the Baltimore Lords and stopped their losing streak, which had stretched to 5 games.



Unfortunately for the Brewers the Phoenix Speed Devils got a dominant performance of their own out of their starter Rick Smiley in a shutout victory over Charlotte and Phoenix maintains their pressure on the Brewers, sitting just 1 1/2 back in the standings in the MGL West now. (San Francisco, mostly treading water for some time, remain 6 games off the pace.)

[BirdWatcher]

It wasn't long ago that Pittsburgh Roadrunners first baseman Toby Noguchi (cousin of former big league reliever Tetsuhiro Noguchi) was threatening the single-season home run record in the WPK, only to fall short and finish the 1983 season with 51 bombs, which is at present the second highest single season total. (Rookie Phoenix slugger Hyeong-uk Chun is sitting at 50 at the moment and will surely exceed Noguchi soon and is likely to fly past Devin Schwisow's 54 from 1977 which is the current record.)
Noguchi's best season was 1983 when he had a slash line of .265/.334/.587 and a WAR of 4.7. While he followed that up with a 31 homer season and then a 43 homer season in 1985, his career slash line is now .224/.296/.496 and he has led the league in strikeouts 3 straight seasons and likely will again this season. Prodigious power is his calling card and pretty much his only valuable skill.
Yesterday he slugged 4 homers. He can do that sort of thing on occasion. Too bad he's pretty much a one-trick pony.




Former Brewer staff ace Sadahige Kawasaki, a 2-time MGL Harris/Lee award winner, is having something of a comeback season with El Paso at age 38. While his performance is far from the dominance of his prime, he does have a respectable 12-11 record with a 4.15 ERA. The numbers were much better prior to August, as he has lost 3 of his 4 August starts and wasn't very good in the one no-decision. Still, given that he was at least a borderline Hall of Fame candidate prior to his steep decline last season, when the Brewers unceremoniously released him in early May, this season has helped to pad some of his career stats just enough to maybe push him over the edge into legit HOF candidacy.
Either way, Kawasaki has let it be known that this is his last season as a professional ballplayer so any last push to boost his credentials will have to happen in the next month and a half or so.

[BirdWatcher]

After a small slump, rookie rightfielderJerry Lillie collected 4 hits in the just concluded 3-game series in Oklahoma City but 2 of them were homers to get him to 30 for the season, the first 30 homer season for the Brewers since Antonio Acuna hit 33 in 1980.



Unfortunately, the Brewers dropped the final two games of the series and see their lead over the Phoenix Speed Devils, winners of four straight, shrink to just a game and a half.

[BirdWatcher]

At one time Kevin DeRouen was one of the prize prospects of the Columbus Whalers pitching factory, towards the end of that particular era of the Whalers franchise. And when DeRouen, at age 22 in 1979 went 20-6 with a 2.70 ERA and 1.12 WHIP it certainly appeared to be the start of an illustrious career.
It hasn't worked out that way. Granted, the biggest factor is that near the very end of that wonderful season DeRouen went down with an elbow injury that ended up requiring ligament reconstruction surgery and sidelined him for a bit less than a year and a half. When he did return in 1981 he still put up decent numbers. But boy was it all downhill from there.




And yesterday, after having already been released by the same team earlier in the season only to be signed to a minor league contract shortly thereafter, and having appeared in 16 games for the Phoenix Speed Devils out of the 'pen, to the tune of a 5.59 ERA, DeRouen once again found himself let go and searching for a home. At age 30 he still has an excellent splitter and a pretty fine sinker and throws upwards of 98 miles per hour with plus stuff. But he's also a flyball pitcher with low stamina, poor control, a useless changeup and weak slider and while he might get a few more chances pitching out of big league bullpens somewhere the great promise he once showed as a future Harris/Lee award winner has long ago vanished.

[BirdWatcher]

The WPK Standings on September 1st, 1986:




As we enter the final full month of the 1986 regular season in the WPK, it appears we might have some exciting pennant races taking shape in at least 3 of the 4 divisions.

In the SJL West, the two 1975 expansion clubs, the reigning WPK champs, the Chicago Fire, and the Houston Cavaliers, are battling it out for the division crown this season. Although the former powerhouse club in the division, the San Antonio Keys, had a great month of August, including winning 11 straight at one point, it almost surely is too little too late. And other than Chicago and Houston only the somewhat surprising Seattle Alligators are even playing .500 ball.

Jacksonville has recently overtaken Washington again at the top of the SJL East standings, with Boston still trying to hang in there.

In the MGL West, the Denver Brewers end the month a bit flat and go just 14-13 in August, but maintain a 2 1/2 game over Phoenix with the early season leaders and division champs from the past two seasons, San Francisco, likely out of contention.

And finally, in the weakest division, the MGL East, Detroit continues to maintain the lead and is the only team with a winning record. Not much of a winning record, but it shouldn't take much more than a .500 record to win the MGL Least.

Batters of the Month:



Danny Belmontes finally seems to be stepping out of the shadows of more famous teammates like future Hall of Famers Bud Lindsay and John Mussaw, and Ryan Campbell, now a Denver Brewer. The 29-year old San Antonio left fielder's biggest challenge is staying healthy (as also has always been the case for Lindsay and Mussaw) but when he is at full-strength he is one of the better hitters in the game and also a threat on the base paths, though his defense is suspect. He was healthy in August and earned SJL Batter of the Month honors.



Phoenix Luis Olivez was the MGL MVP in 1983 and while surely his offensive numbers are somewhat inflated by the hitter's haven that is the Speed Devils home park, Olivez is once again putting up good power numbers combined with strong defense in right field and great speed and base stealing skills. Although he has been upstaged this season by rookie teammate Hyeong-uk Chun, who almost surely will win the MGL MVP award for 1986, Olivez remains a perennial contender for MVP and will surely get some votes again at the conclusion of this season.

(On the subject of Hyeong-uk Chun- the rookie center fielder hit his 54th homer of the season on the last day of August and is now tied with Devin Schwisow for most homers in a single season, a mark that he appears destined to not only best soon, but to completely demolish. He is on pace for 67 home runs.)

Pitchers of the Month:



It isn't common for a reliever to win the Pitcher of the Month award, but that is exactly what Milwaukee closer Isaiah Stewart did this past month. Stewart is only 24, can reach triple digits in velocity, and still has some room for growth in his already elite stuff. On the other hand his control is poor and his movement just average and many question his makeup (low intelligence, low work ethic, low leader, low adaptability, low greed- only one of those things is good, obviously). But for the month of August at least he was nearly unhittable.



The Oklahoma City Diamond Kings had the best rotation in the WPK last year and were the favorites to once again win the MGL East this season. But that just hasn't worked out for them, largely because of a complete lack of offense. They are still 1st in fewest runs allowed and their rotation has the 2nd best ERA in the MGL and 25-year old Josh Berman, who has pitched exclusively out the bullpen up until this season at the big league level, has given them another quality arm. Berman is the MGL Pitcher of the Month. Now if only he and his fellow pitching staff mates got any kind of run support at all.

[BirdWatcher]

Some of the stuff:





The Brewers offense remains strong, the defense much improved over 1985, and the pitching solid. Actually, even though the Brewers are 4th in the MGL in runs allowed and starters ERA, their 1st place position in FIP, pitching WAR, and strikeouts by pitchers seems to indicate that even with the improved defense behind them the staff has slightly underperformed their true talent if anything. Eric Maisch is once again a contender for his 2nd Harris/Lee award after a few disappointing and/or injury shortened seasons. Jim Atwell is the consummate innings-eater and as is often the case with him his surface stats are not nearly as good as his underlying and perhaps more meaningful stats are. He is tied for 2nd in the MGL in (f)WAR, 6th in BB/9, and has a FIP- of 79, which is exactly his career average. And the youngsters Stephen Brooks and Eric Fehrenbacher have both shown they belong in the big leagues and should only get better (Brooks FIP- is 96 and Fehrenbacher's is 95). Even veteran lefty Austin Bond, with underwhelming stuff and no true out pitch, has bounced back pretty well from a dismal start to the season and his FIP- of 96 also indicates that he has been a bit better than his 4.57 ERA might indicate.

The bullpen remains strong, with 25-year old Dan Folk emerging as one of the most dominant closers in the game.

Among Brewers position players, rookie right fielder Jerry Lillie remains probably the biggest story, and in any normal year (read, a season when there wasn't a rookie like Phoenix' Hyeong-uk Chun having a record-breaking season) he would be a likely Rookie of the Year and even a strong MVP candidate. Shortstop Willie Romero only has an OPS+ of 85 but is such a great defender (17.6 ZR) and his 17 homers ranks as 3rd best on the team to tie him with Ryan Campbell for 2nd in WAR among batters at 3.3 (Lillie leads in this category with 4.1 WAR). Veteran second baseman Justin Banks is next with 3.2 WAR and leads the team in stolen bases with 27 (only 6 times caught stealing).


As is becoming something of a Brewer organizational tradition, the team signed a great veteran player on his last legs but with some skills yet who was languishing as a free agent to a minor league deal shortly before roster expansion and then brought him up to the big league club for the pennant race stretch on September 1st. A few years ago it was likely future Hall of Fame second baseman Josh Jenkins, and this year it is another great veteran second baseman, 39-year old former San Antonio Key (and former Ryan Campbell teammate on that club) Jared Hancock. Hancock is a great influence on the youngsters, a sparkplug of a competitor who remains, even at his advanced age, dangerous on the base paths, a decent defender, and a pretty good hitter. Although he won't get a lot of chances to start down the stretch, he has the potential to make some key contributions as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner, and occasional starting second baseman. (Had Hancock not spent 17 seasons playing on a San Antonio team that saw younger future Hall of Fame middle infielders like Bud Lindsay and John Mussaw emerge to take the lion's share of the starts the positions Hancock primarily played, he may well have continued on a Hall of Fame trajectory that he was seemingly on through his age 30 season, as his reduced playing time after that point was almost entirely about the quality of his positional competition on the Keys and not about any significant decline in skills. As it is Hancock will likely stick around on the Hall of Fame ballot for at least a handful of years even if his chances of induction are on the longshot side of things.)



In addition to bringing up Hancock, the Brewers also brought back 24-year old starting pitcher Bernie Lopez, who in an earlier callup this season really struggled (1-2, 8.34 ERA, 1.85 WHIP in 6 games, 5 starts) after an excellent first start at Oklahoma City on July 27th. Also returning is 23-year old relief pitcher Cesar Perez with fellow young relief prospect, 22-year old B.J. Adams having rejoined the club just a few days prior to the roster expansion. Nick Mull, the 25-year old second baseman most likely to be the future starter at that position, also got called up for a second stint with the big league club. A pair of moderate prospect outfielders who were tearing up AAA this season also got called back up to the big league club: 27-year old Dave Wofford, who is a solid defender and fine contact hitter who has put up big offensive numbers the past several years at AA and AAA, and 25-year old corner outfielder Matt Turner, who is slow and just an average defender but has good power (29 homers in AAA in 1985, and 31 this season). On a lesser team, either of these guys could be everyday starters and could be solid contributors but neither likely has a future with the Brewers and this may simply be an audition for trade bait status in the offseason.

The AAA Chester Big Stick are currently in 1st place in the KBL (King Bedlecom League), leading by 3 games over the Brooklyn Aces AAA franchise, the Tampa Thieves, with 11 games remaining in the regular season, and at least a few other Chester players are likely to get a callup to the Brewers once the Chester season is over, hopefully with the 8th championship win for the perennial powerhouse club. Particularly likely to get a first taste of the WPK when the time comes is 23-year old left fielder Wayne LaCross, who earlier this season had a slash line of .372/.409/.602 (2.3 WAR in 252 PA) for the AA Nashville Red Wings which he then has followed up with a slash line of .353/.402/.601 (2.8 WAR in 306 PA) since being promoted to AAA Chester.


With a handful of AAA players joining the Brewers on the first of September, Chester got an infusion of talent up from AA Nashville, with reliever Mike Sanchez, who had 20 saves with a 3.54 ERA and 1.18 WHIP and 10.4 K/9 at AA this season, being promoted, along with left-handed reliever Sharaf Sanchez, who was just drafted earlier this year in the 3rd round and has raced up the system, dominating batters at both single A Bainbridge and AA Nashville. Chester also now has the services of top center field prospect John Bittner, the Brewers 1st round pick in the 1985 draft. Although Bittner is not a great contact hitter, he has plus plus power, a plus eye, and great speed and his OPS+ of 149 in 332 PA's in AA this season is the lowest yet at any of his minor league stops. He is also a strong defender and put up 3.4 WAR in his partial season at AA Nashville before being elevated to AAA Chester earlier today.

[BirdWatcher]

The Phoenix Speed Devils exciting rookie center fielder Hyeong-uk Chun yesterday made history when he belted his 55th home run of the season to break the single-season record of 54, which not coincidentally was also set by a player in a Phoenix uniform, Devin Schwisow in 1977. (Not coincidental because the Speed Devils play in by far the most hitter friendly park in the WPK, which inflates all offensive numbers, not least of which home runs.)



As Chun broke the record on the 1st of September he is likely to end up setting a new record which is significantly higher than the previous one (he is on pace for 68 homers).

Speaking of inflated offensive numbers, the Denver Brewers came from behind in their game in Los Angeles yesterday, erasing a 6-1 deficit by scoring 13 runs in the 6th inning and then just barely holding on to win 17-16. It didn't help the Spinners that they lost their fine 28-year old starting pitcher J.R. Schuman to what turned out to be a day-to-day hamstring tweak (soreness) after he retired the first and only batter he faced in the fateful 6th inning. Their 5 errors, 3 of which happened in that 6th inning, also didn't help. Not that the Brewers were much better, but in the end they were exactly 1 run better, and that is what counts.

[BirdWatcher]

The Baltimore Lords 29-year old shortstop John Haygood has won 2 Silver Slugger awards for the position and yesterday he displayed his hitting prowess again by becoming just the second player this season to hit for the cycle in the WPK.






Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the first place Denver Brewers were winning another high-scoring, close game, this time in extra innings. Veteran left fielder Val Guzman (.219/.298/.348), came up with the big hit, a 2-run double in the top of the 10th inning, having been inserted into the game as a pinch-hitter in the 9th inning. Myles Ford (.294/.347/.518), getting more playing time as the starting center fielder in the second half of the season, continues his recent hot streak, going 4 for 6 in the leadoff slot and hitting his 7th double of the season against his former club. Eric Maisch wasn't sharp, giving up 6 runs (5 earned) on 9 hits over his 6 1/3rd innings pitched in the no-decision.

[BirdWatcher]

Well, that's not great timing, Omari:



The young bat-first catcher has performed well this season and earned the backup spot, leading to the team trading away Joe Sandwell prior to the trading deadline.
With Omari Williams going to the 14-day IL, it does finally give the next top Brewer catching prospect, Rich Fugate, a long overdue callup to the big leagues at age 26. Fugate profiles as being a bit better defensively than Williams and also has an above average hit tool, though his offensive production in the minors has been a mixed bag.




Meanwhile, the Portland Wild Things became the first team mathematically eliminated from contention this season. Probably not coincidentally, rumor has it that former Brewer and possible future Hall of Famer Brett Taranto might want out of Stumptown.
Portland's elimination came courtesy of their 4-1 loss to Oklahoma City and first place Denver's dismantling of the Sting in Charlotte, in which young right-handed starting pitcher Eric Fehrenbacher improved to 16-5 on the season.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers picked a bad time to go cold, as they have now dropped six of their last eight games and are 6-8 in the month of September.
And yesterday they found out that they will be without one of their most valuable players down the pennant stretch run as Willie Romero was diagnosed with a fractured shoulder blade.




In Romero's absence 25-year old Brandon Singer (.276/.348/.454) will get the bulk of the starts at shortstop and while Singer has done pretty well in his 210 plate appearances at the big league level this season, and has shown some decent power, hitting 8 home runs, he cannot provide the next-level defensive prowess that Romero provides.
With just about three weeks left in the regular season the Brewers find themselves clinging to a 2 1/2 game lead over the also struggling Phoenix Speed Devils and 3 1/2 over the recently hot San Francisco Velocity. If the Brewers are to return to the postseason after a two year absence they will have to redouble their efforts and probably will need to get some heroic performances from unlikely sources. It will be a grind and this is shaping up as the best pennant race in the WPK this season.




Speaking of pennant races, the San Antonio Keys are now officially not a factor in the SJL West race, having been mathematically eliminated. Not long ago the Keys were the dominant team not just in their division but in the Shoeless Joe League entirely. They were in the post-season six straight years, starting in 1979, and won 3 championships during that stretch. But having gotten old and injury-prone and also with some of their key players now playing elsewhere (Mike Shervey in San Francisco, Ryan Campbell in Denver), the Keys may need to start the rebuilding process soon.

[BirdWatcher]

The Denver Brewers aren't a very good team right now even as they maintain a slim lead at the top of the MGL West standings.
But at least they are back at home for a four-game series against the Detroit Falcons (before they go on the road to face the two teams trying to catch them- first Phoenix and then San Francisco.)
And though it took a walk-off single by Jerry Lillie, following a Javier Hernandez single and stolen base (his 21st SB of the season) and a Justin Banks single and his 4th stolen base of the game and 37th of the season, the Brewers did get a win in the first of four in Denver versus the Falcons. Eric Maisch pitched his sixth straight poor start, having not won a game since the 16th of August. But at least veteran reliever Paul Johnson was once again strong in a multi-inning relief stint to pick up his 8th win of the season.






Unfortunately for the Brewers, the Speed Devils and Velocity were also winners on this day, with Phoenix rookie superstar Hyeong-uk Chun improving his single-season record home run mark to 60.




A few notes from the SJL on this day:

The Jacksonville Wolf Pack won 2-0 over Seattle with their 23-year old staff ace Casey Van Fossen improving to 17-5 with a 2.90 ERA and remains the most likely Harris/Lee winner for the SJL. Jacksonville now leads the SJL East by 4 1/2 games over Boston, with the Washington Night Train recently scuffling and now 5 games back in 3rd place.

And it should be noted that Columbus third baseman Chris Tobin, who turned 40 sixteen days ago, hit a pair of home runs to get to 21 on the season, his 8th WPK season with at least 20 homers in his Hall of Fame career. But what this reporter missed was that Tobin stole a base on Wednesday (two days ago) to get to the career total of 350, which combined with him having hit his 350th homer earlier this season now makes him the only player in WPK history with at least 350 home runs and 350 stolen bases. (He now has 353 home runs and he also stole another base yesterday to get to 351 stolen bases.)

[BirdWatcher]

Justin Vargas was the 11th pick of the 1966 amateur draft, chosen by the Los Angeles Spinners. After having a respectable but unspectacular season in the Rookie League that same year he found himself being part of a trade between the Spinners and the Boston Berserkers, which also sent the Spinners 1st round pick from the previous draft, starting pitcher Alex Yllescas, to Boston in exchange for veteran pitcher Brian Bauer, who had gone 16-13 with a 3.18 ERA in 1966 and outfield prospect (4th round pick in 1966) Brett Prather.

Bauer got off to a wonderful start for L.A. in 1967, going 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA in 8 starts. And then tragedy struck when he had to have surgery to remove bone chips from the elbow of his pitching arm. When he was ready to return to action he was a free agent and signed with Detroit. He had a good season for the Falcons in 1968, in spite of leading the league in bases on balls, and then a few mediocre seasons, and his career was over.
Prather was impressive (.375/.423/.500) when he was finally called up to the big league club in 1971 for a 9 game audition. He had been inconsistent in the minors but showed some real bat potential and was a solid defensive right fielder. But as it turned out the 26 plate appearances he got in 1971 ended up being the most he would get in any single season in the WPK. He had a few other cup of coffee callups and also played briefly for Phoenix and Milwaukee, but in the end his big league career amounted to 64 plate appearances and 0.7 WAR.

As for the players Boston got in the deal, pitcher Alex Yllescas, who was considered the 33rd best prospect in the game prior to getting traded, had good stuff and movement but it was his underdeveloped control that was eventually supposed to be his calling card. But it never did develop and his career BB/9 would end up being 4.0 with a career 1.45 WHIP. He did pitch for Boston for 8 seasons, including having a few strong seasons (16-12, 3.16 in 1972, 14-5, 2.97 in 1976) but after becoming a free agent he pitched just one season in Jacksonville, only appearing in 9 games at the big league level, all in relief. He retired from the game in 1982, having put up 9.2 WAR over parts of 9 big league seasons.

And then there is Justin Vargas.




Vargas big league career started a bit slow, with his first big league season being 1969 and seeing him put together a slash line of .247/296/.407 in 374 PA's for 1 WAR, while playing below average defense in center field. In 1970, at age 22, he improved to .278/.365/.422 with an OPS+ of 120 and 4.2 WAR, but his defense in center was below average. His defensive numbers in center got even worse (-11.6 ZR) in 1971. But that was counterbalanced by his offensive performance, as he won the lone batting title of his career with a .353/.405/.548 slash line, an OPS+ of 173 and 7.0 WAR. He also won the SJL MVP award. And that was just the start of a dominant run for the young player as for the next 8 seasons his low point for WAR in a season would be 5.8 in 1972. He would win another MVP award in 1975 with an 8.5 WAR season. And having switched from center field to being full time in right field by 1973 he went from being a defensive liability to winning a Gold Glove award in 1974. He would remain a plus defender in right through the 1978 season, his age 30 campaign, and was mostly solid in right for several years after that, including having +3.1 ZR at age 35 while playing for Portland.
Vargas played most of his career in Boston, heading to Portland as a free agent prior to the 1982 season and playing at least parts of 5 seasons in a Wild Things uniform.
Over the course of his career he was named an All-Star 11 times, a Silver Slugger 3 times, in addition to those 2 league MVP awards and 1 Gold Glove. He is one of just three WPK players to have more than 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases in their career, joining Brad Tesh and the still active Chris Tobin in that category. Of the three he has by far the most stolen bases, with 425.
Justin Vargas is a sure first ballot Hall of Famer. His JAWS score is 70, his Hall of Fame Monitor is in the sure thing area at 173, his HOF Standards score of 58 says Hall of Famer, and his career WAR total of 86.95 is the 7th best in WPK history. He is third in career runs scored at 1,501, 5th in RBI at 1,350, 6th in hits with 2,658, 2nd in Total Bases at 4455, and in the top 10 at least in most important offensive statistical categories.

With the announcement that he is stepping away from the game (as a player, at least) the Boston Berserkers organization announced that they are retiring his uniform number 11 and will honor him with a ceremony early next season.

[BirdWatcher]

Sekien Hamasaki:




Hamasaki joined the WPK when the Detroit Falcons signed him to a contract as an international free agent out of Japan in the Autumn of 1973. He joined countryman Sadahige Kawasaki in the Denver Brewers rotation when the Falcons traded him a few days prior to the trade deadline in the 1974 season to Denver for first baseman Greg Tietz (a great leader who had a very brief and modest big league career) and outfielder Frank Rojas (currently waiting for someone to employ him again at age 36 and having played more than 5 seasons in the WPK as a 4th outfielder or emergency callup).
Although Hamasaki would never reach the heights that Kawasaki, who is on his farewell tour and very possibly Hall of Fame bound, did, Sekien was a solid starter for a number of years and went 90-33 with a 3.21 ERA in a Brewers uniform. His career was in decline when he was traded to Baltimore mid-season 1981 but he hung on to pitch a few seasons for the Lords, followed by brief stints with Washington, Jacksonville, and finally El Paso last season. His career record of 119-65 gives him the 5th best winning percentage in WPK history.
He retires as a 2-time All-Star and with 3 championship rings (all from his time in Denver.) He is well shy of being a Hall of Fame candidate but he certainly acquitted himself well in his years in the WPK. With his high intelligence there is certainly the possibility of a post-playing career as a pitching coach or in some other management role.

Devin Schwisow:




Devin Schwisow, on the other hand, certainly won't be doing any coaching in his post-playing years. He was universally considered a deficit in the clubhouse, with a poor work ethic, no leadership qualities, a lack of loyalty and adaptability, and an excess of greed. What he did have though, for a short period of time at least, was a power bat. In fact, up until just a few weeks ago, Schwisow was the holder of the single season home run record in the WPK. Granted, like the guy who smashed his record, Hyeong-uk Chun, Schwisow had the advantage of playing his home games in the best (by far) hitting park in the league in Phoenix, which inflates all offensive stats, but especially homers. Schwisow led the league in home runs twice and hit 321 over the course of his 11 plus year WPK career. But he saw a steep (and. let's face it, predictable) decline in production after age 30 and with no defensive skills to begin with and being one of the slowest and poorest runners in the game, without a premium bat there was no way to sustain a big league career.
Perhaps somewhat to his credit, he did stick around in the minor leagues for several seasons after his last WPK game, trying to get back to the bigs, but finally he has called it quits on that quixotic pursuit.

Kyle Bidwell:



Kyle Bidwell was the 1st overall pick in the 1965 draft out of A&M Consolidated High School in College Station, Texas. He was picked by the Portland Wild Things and would end up pitching for them through his age 30 season in 1977. He struggled with control and led the league in walks allowed with 104 in 1972, a season in which he also led the league in losses with 18. Granted, the Portland team was pretty awful during those years and lost 96 game that year and the next, having lost 100 in 1971.
Bidwell's luck certainly got better when he joined the Los Angeles Spinners in 1978 and he had records of 16-11, 17-9, and 21-8 in his three seasons with that club. But after joining Brooklyn in 1981 he was relegated to the bullpen the rest of his career (with one season in St. Louis sandwiched by two with the Aces).
Bidwell was trying to get back to the big leagues when he suffered a serious bout of shoulder inflammation that put him on the shelf for nearly 10 months starting in July of 1984 and then while trying to come back from that injury he was felled with torn flexor tendon in the elbow of his pitching arm in early June of 1985. He still came back to pitch in 14 relief appearances in single A this season but it was clear, to everyone else before it was to him, that the playing career was at an end. Finally, he has realized this too.
Given the expectations of being the 1st overall pick in the draft, Bidwell's career could be seen as a failure. But more realistically, his 149-146 career record is more about the teams he played for, his career ERA of 3.71 is respectable, he put up 35.4 career WAR, and he pitched for over 13 big league seasons. It's more than most players could hope for. And it was even capped off with winning a championship ring as a member of the 1983 Brooklyn Aces, even if he did only appear in 4 games for them that season.

Some (other) former Brewers who recently retired:

Jordan Stephens: Stephens, who pitched (and sometimes played third base) for the Brewers from mid-season 1971 through 1975, had a long and modestly successful big league career over the course of 15 years. He led the league in saves in 1977 as a member of the Jacksonville Wolf Pack. He was a 2-time All-Star. And he was part of one championship club: the 1974 Denver Brewers. He was a likable and coachable guy who had a long career.

Ben Malzone: Malzone was the Brewers 38th round pick in the inaugural draft for the WPK and was one of the last remaining (might be the last?, will have to research) players from that draft. He pitched for Denver from 1965 until mid-season 1968 and then pitched for 8 more teams over the course of his 17 plus year big league career. He was never anything special as a pitcher, but give him credit for longevity.

Jacob Kieft: Kieft was technically never actually a Brewer, but he was in the Brewers organization for a time and he's mentioned here largely because he was part of a deal in 1974 that brought Frank Rojas to the Brewers from Oklahoma City. As mentioned above, Rojas, who did play in 7 games for Denver in 1974, was then later traded to Detroit in the deal that brought Sekien Hamasaki to the Brewers. Kieft would go on to play in parts of several seasons with Oklahoma City, the most prominent being 1979 when he was their starting first baseman, hit 20 homers, and put up his career best 1.8 WAR.