Harry Lyerly and the Denver Brewers of the WPK

[BirdWatcher]

...Spinners on verge of MGL title.



This is what a likely future Hall-of-Famer does when his team is on the verge of clinching the pennant but sees their lone competition putting up 15, 12, and 9 runs in a 3-game sweep to keep the pressure on.
He throws a shutout and guarantees his team another win.

The Denver Brewers have a 101-58 record, already having earned the second best season mark in franchise history, and need to win all three of their final games in L.A. against the 104-55 Spinners just to get a regular season tie and force a tie-breaker to decide the MGL.

And the Spinners have performances like the one detailed above to thank for that.

[BirdWatcher]

Brewers record: 5-2 (week), 101-58, 2nd place, MGL, 3 gb (season)

September 28, versus Phoenix: 9-6.

The Brewers get the 3-game sweep of the Speed Devils in Denver behind Eric Sloan (10-7, 3.56). Sloan lasts 8 innings, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits, striking out 8 batters while walking none. Bobby Erbakan leads the offense with a 3 for 4, 2 RBI game and hits a pair of doubles to get to 19 on the season. RodRod goes 1 for 3 but scores twice, drives in 2 runs, and hits his 9th homer of the season.

September 29-October 1, at Brooklyn: 6-3, 5-6, 2-3.

The Brooklyn Aces were predicted before the season to win the MGL. And indeed they had the talent to do it and their run differential would indicate that they should be in the thick of the race going into the final week of the season, right there with the Brewers. But they are not, having greatly under-achieved. They do have a chance to play the spoiler role here though.
In game 1 they fail to do so, as Cheol-han Lee (16-5, 3.27) goes the distance for the win, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits. Josh Schaeffer has a 3 for 5 game and hits his 18th homer. And Rich White goes 2 for 4, drives in 2 runs, and hits his 2nd triple of the season.

But in game 2 the Aces do hand the Brewers a loss, breaking a 5-5 tie with a walk-off single by Adam Pester in the bottom of the 9th. This game featured a match-up of probably the best two starters in the MGL this season- Aaron McNally for the Aces and Sadahige Kawasaki for the Brewers. And neither was at his best. Kawasaki gives up 4 runs on 9 hits in 6 innings pitched and gets a no-decision. Tim Shore takes the loss in relief and drops to 2-5 with a 4.22 ERA. The Brewers hit 7 doubles in the loss, including Joe McPhillips, who went 2 for 2, hitting his 25th and RodRod hitting his team-leading 38th two-base knock.

And in game 3 the Aces again prevail by a single run. Harry Lyerly was solid in perhaps his last start as a Brewer, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits while striking out 8 and walking just 1 batter in 6 innings pitched. Ben Flynn (4-3, 5.27) took the loss in relief. Bobby Erbakan went 3 for 4 in the loss, hitting his 21st double.

October 2-4, versus Detroit: 15-5, 12-4, 9-1.

The Brewers returned to Denver for their final home series of the season and, perhaps taking out some frustration from their tough last two losses and their failure to gain ground on the L.A. Spinners, the Brewers punished the visitors in this series, outscoring them 36-10 in the 3 game sweep.

Game 1 saw Matt Helm (12-5, 2.78) pitch well enough to get the win, allowing 4 runs on just 5 hits in 7 innings. Joe McPhillips went 2 for 4 with 3 runs and 2 RBI and hit his 5th triple of 1975. Andrew Kennedy only collected 1 hit in 3 at-bats but his one hit was homer number 4 on the season, and he scored 2 runs and drove in 3. And Little Joe Willemse, who has provided great value to the Brewers as their prime infield utility player, was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI and hit his 8th double.

Joe McPhillips came up big again in game #2, leading the offense with a 3 for 5, 3 RBI performance, and hit his 25th homer of the season. Steve Green (15-6, 3.36) finished up perhaps his finest season yet with a solid game, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings pitched, striking out 8 but also allowing an uncharacteristic 5 walks. RodRod was 3 for 5 with 2 runs and 2 RBI and started a spectacular 5-2-3 double play to end the top of the 5th inning and thwart a Falcon attempt to rally.

If game 3 was an audition for Sekien Hamasaki to take over Harry Lyerly's spot in the Brewers rotation in 1976, he passed with flying colors. Hamasaki lasted 8 innings, giving up just 1 run on 4 hits, while striking out 7 and walking 4. He improves to 4-2 with a 3.48 ERA. RodRod led the offense with a 3 for 4, 3 runs scored, 2 RBI game. He hit 2 doubles to get to an MGL-leading 40. Joe McPhillips went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI and hit his 26th HR. Jorge Gonzalez went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and hit his 3rd triple. And Ryan Rodgers went 3 for 5 in the game and finally lifted his batting average over .280 again (.282).

Notes from around the league:
It's all over, of course in the SJL. The Whalers are champs, the Houston Cavaliers finish in last and have lost 100 games with three to play. Trevor Leach goes into the last few days of the season holding a small lead in the batting average race (.334). The Pitcher of the Year award field looks very competitive, though veteran great Jake Harris could still win it in spite of only pitching 180 innings. Justin Vargas looks like the odds-on favorite to win the MVP award but will have some competition from sure ROY Xiao-mei Mah and dark horse candidate Curtis Horah.
In the MGL, the Brewers need to sweep the last 3 in L.A. just to force a tie-breaker. This is extremely unlikely. But with 101 wins already the Brewers have nothing to be ashamed of. With his last series in Denver, where he was on fire, RodRod is once again the prohibitive favorite to win his first batting title. He leads the great Felix Lopez of Brooklyn, .351 to .339. Aaron McNally will surely win his 2nd straight pitching Triple Crown and Pitcher of the Year award. The MVP award is somewhat up for grabs with the strongest candidates probably being Brooklyn teammates Danny Salvador and Felix Lopez and Phoenix slugger Ju-ao Ju. With his very strong finish, last year's MVP, Joe McPhillips, has worked himself back into the discussion, but with all the time he missed earlier in the season, he will surely fall a bit short.

[BirdWatcher]

It hasn't been a very good season for former Brewer Ruben "Streak" Souffront, as his WAR of 0.8 (in 675 plate appearances) would indicate, but at least the last full week of the 1975 season was a good one for Ruben.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers top pitching prospect, John Weaver, was awarded the AAA Pitcher of the Year award today, with teammate Damian Hahn finishing in third place.



Weaver is expected to be given an opportunity to win a spot on the Brewers active roster in 1976 at the age of 23.

[BirdWatcher]

Well, give these Brewers some credit. Apparently they aren't ready to just roll over and play dead yet.

The Denver squad rolls into L.A., confident after a dominant sweep at home against Detroit, and humiliates the Spinners in game 1.






Cheol-han Lee finishes the season 17-5 at age 34. RodRod gets double number 41. Little Joe Willemse comes through big again, as does Bobby Erbakan. And Chad Brown's 3-run, 2-out double in the first inning of one of the best starting pitchers in the game, Mike Stagner, really set the tone. Horrible game for Stagner. Great game for Denver.

The season's not over yet!

[BirdWatcher]

In the end, of course, it is the bullpen which betrays the Brewers and ends their hope of a repeat.




After having taken an early 3-0 lead over L.A. in the penultimate game of the 1975 regular season, starter Sadahige Kawasaki, who picked a bad time to have back-to-back poor starts, gave up 4 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning to let the Spinners take the lead.
The Brewers offense fights back and ties it in the 7th thanks to a Zacarias Martell lead-off single and an Andrew Kennedy one-out, pinch-hit single to send Martell home.
And the score remained there until the bottom of the 8th. Having received a strong inning from veteran WPK starter Chris Clough, who was signed to a minor league contract earlier in the season and brought up recently to provide some experience to the 'pen, Tim Shore was brought in to face the dangerous middle of the Spinners order. (Clough has little left in his arsenal other than guile, experience, and pinpoint control, but in hindsight the Brewers might have been better off leaving him in the game over the, on paper at least, superior arm of Shore.) As has all too often happened this season, Shore was not up for the challenge. He allowed 2 runs to put the Brewers in a tough spot going into the 9th. And the Brewers offense once again proved resilient, giving Shouta Hori, one of the best relievers in the game in 1975, more than he bargained for. But unfortunately in the end they fell short, as Jorge Gonzalez, who had collected two hits in the game, including his 13th double, struck out swinging with the bases loaded and two outs.

And thus endeth the Brewers saga of 1975. (Well, one game remaining, but meaningless now and likely will feature many young players who are fighting for a position on the team next season.)

[pauwoo]

Gutted for the brew crew... bright side - it appears that club ownership has us in good shape for the bicentennial campaign!

[BirdWatcher]

With the pennant race having been decided the day before, the Brewers figure they have nothing to lose by giving 22-year old John Weaver his first big league start on the final day of the regular season.


And in fact, they do have nothing to lose, as Weaver gives them a fine outing and earns his first big league win. Weaver worked 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on just 3 hits, striking out 4 and walking 2. It was really just one bad pitch that hurt him, a knuckle curve that didn't, which WPK great Jesus Hernandez blasted into the seats for a 2-run HR.
Heroically, the Brewers bullpen finds a way to preserve the win for the young right-hander. Jaden Francis pitches the 9th and earns his 7th save of the season. Joe McPhillips, one of the few regular starters in the lineup for the Brewers, went 3 for 4 in the game and scored twice. Young Mr. Weaver himself got a hit in 2 at-bats and drove in a run.

The Brewers end the 1975 season with 103 wins, their best total other than the 108 they recorded in 1971. It's always disappointing when you don't make the Kinsella Classic, but it can't be said that this wasn't a great year for the Brewers on the whole.

[BirdWatcher]

No surprise here:

[BirdWatcher]

On the last day of the season, El Paso veteran third baseman Trevor Leach went 0 for 4 while Philly's dynamic rookie Xiao-mei Mah went 1 for 2 and Mah just barely edges out Leach for the batting average title in the SJL.

[BirdWatcher]

He sat out the last game of the season, though management claims it had nothing to do with preserving his lead in the batting race (and in fairness, most of the starters did sit this one out), but RodRod held on, even while nearest competitor Felix Lopez went 2 for 4 in the final Aces game, to win his first ever batting average title.

[BirdWatcher]

Let's take a look at the SJL first:


Obviously it was a great year for the Columbus Whalers. This was the second time in franchise history that they won over 100 games, the first time being 1969 when they won 104 and went on to take their second WPK championship in two years. Boston appears to be a rising power with several good young players and more on the way. The Philadelphia Mud Hens got an infusion of talent in the form of Xiao-mei Mah and had a good season. Last year's SJL pennant winners, Jacksonville fell to fifth place with a respectable, but uninspired, record. We should probably take note that the expansion Chicago Fire finished in 9th place and won 72 games, not a bad feat for a first year club. Their expansion counterpart, Houston, finished with a more typical 103 losses. Oh, and the El Paso Dawgs. Well, the highest they have ever finished was 5th place in 1965. They finished in last five straight years- 1967 through 1971. So their 11th place finish this year, well, more of the same for this bedraggled franchise.

Now the MGL:


It has been well noted here that the Brooklyn Aces under-achieved this year. They finished 10 wins under their pythagorean expected total based upon run differential. The MGL should have been more of a 3-team race then it was. And in fact, based upon run differential, it should have been the Brewers just edging out Brooklyn, with L.A. finishing in third. But should have's don't matter. The final standings are what is. (The Brewers run differential? +273. Brooklyn finished at +219. L.A.: +188. The top run differential in the SJL? Columbus at +144.)
Other than that, nothing much remarkable about the MGL standings. After an early good start, the Detroit Falcons fell back into the second division. And predictably enough, the San Francisco Velocity and Portland Wild Things remain among the worst teams. Charlotte, however, was predicted to finish well above .500 and their last place finish is a bit a shocker. It will be interesting to see if they can bounce back in 1976.

[BirdWatcher]

Let's take a quick look at the teams that will be competing in this year's Kinsella Classic Series (formerly the World Series), starting with the SJL's Columbus Whalers.




The Whalers are a good contact hitting team with below average home run power and above average speed. Their primary power hitter is 32-year old veteran center fielder Brad Tesh, a player quietly building HOF credentials. He is one of the poorer contact hitters on the team but hit 29 homers and takes a good approach at the plate, walking more than striking out, has speed on the base paths (25 SB/ 6 CS), and remains an above average fielder in center. He also is considered a sparkplug on the field and in the clubhouse. First baseman Curt Carroll is an interesting player, having broken out at age 27 in his third full season with Columbus. After putting up 1.1 WAR each of the past two seasons, he provided 4.6 WAR this year, raising his offensive numbers considerably and playing an excellent defensive first base. Catcher Nathaniel Davis, who joined the Whalers in an off-season trade with Portland, is a weak bat but an excellent defensive back-stop.


And the pitching staff he works with is excellent, giving up the fewest runs in the SJL. The starting rotation, led by future HOF'er Jake Harris, is very good and had the second best staff ERA in the league. The bullpen is good, not great, but stopper Jamar Clay, already a fan favorite at age 22, has electric stuff and can work multiple innings, and will likely be heavily relied upon in a best of 7 series. Young fireballer Walter Hackler could be a wild card in the 'pen. He is still coming into his own but has potential to be a dominant sidearmer. His control is just average and he might still be a bit too prone to the long ball, but with his heading toward elite fastball, hitting triple figures in velocity, and an above average and still improving slider, when he is on he can be lights out.

The biggest absence is 33-year old left fielder Leo Gavilla. Gavilla is the team captain, and like Brad Tesh and Jake Harris, has never worn another WPK uniform in his career. The Whalers will miss not only his leadership on the field, but his fine contact skills and great speed and savvy on the bases.

The Whalers play their home games in Huntington Park, which seats 38,500 fans and plays mostly pretty neutral but favors left-handed hitters a little bit.

[BirdWatcher]

And now let's look at the MGL champs, the Los Angeles Spinners.




The Spinners were second to the Denver Brewers in runs scored in the MGL. They did so with a fairly balanced approach but with particular strengths in getting on base and base running. Like the Columbus Whalers, the home run isn't a big part of their arsenal, but with veteran hitters like Jesus Hernandez and Travis Johnson, both of whom have never had a season that didn't include double digit HR totals, they are certainly capable of launching balls into the seats when needed. Second baseman Bryan Perry, at age 24, has emerged as the newest Spinner superstar. He is a gold glove caliber second baseman with a decent bat including some solid power. He is fast and runs the bases very well. And catcher Greg Foster, while just being average behind the plate, is one of the best hitting players at his position in the game and finished third in the MGL in batting average.

As for pitching, well the Spinners celebrated starting staff finished third in ERA behind the Brewers and the Brooklyn Ace's staffs only in the MGL. Three of the four members of the Kinsella Classic Series rotation have won Pitcher of the Year awards- with Jose Santos having done so twice. And the bullpen was the best in the game perhaps in 1975, helping the Spinners go 12-7 in extra inning games and 26-16 in 1-run games. Shouta Hori is emerging as one of the most dominant closers in the game and appeared in a league high 80 games and Yu-Bao Tong is a gifted set-up man. The reality though is that the rest of the 'pen isn't that special but these two carry so much of the weight of the bullpen that they skew the numbers.

And the Spinners are healthy heading into the series, with no significant players missing due to injury.

L.A. plays in beautiful Avalon Park, a park that slightly favors pitchers and being a bit difficult for left-handed hitters.

[BirdWatcher]

The Columbus Whalers come from behind, scoring 8 runs in the 6th inning, to get a road victory and take Game 1 of the 1975 Kinsella Classic Series.


This game was an interesting test of the bullpens as both teams went to their ace relievers early in the game- Shouta Hori for L.A. and Jamar Clay for Columbus- with very different results. Hori was horrible, giving up 5 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks while only recording two outs. It took him 33 pitches to accomplish this and he may not be available for game 2. As for Clay, he pitched 4 innings, tossing 58 pitches and will surely not be ready to go until the series shifts to Columbus for Game 3. But he was effective and earned the save, giving up just 1 run on 5 hits.
Although he wasn't sharp, Columbus venerable ace Jake Harris got credit for the win. David Beane, the Whalers veteran right fielder who turns 39 in approximately one month, was the hitting star, driving in 3 runs with his 2-out bases clearing double in the 6th.

[BirdWatcher]

L.A. Spinner left fielder Travis Johnson has had a great career. Make no mistake, he will be going to the WPK Hall of Fame five years after he retires.

But at age 36 he is no longer a very good defensive left fielder. And in the 8th inning of Game 2 of the 1975 KCS, that deficit may have cost his team the game. Mike Stagner, having had a horrific start against the Denver Brewers in his last regular season game, was strong in this one and carried a 3-1 lead into the 8th inning. And then Columbus pinch-hitter John Kantlehner led off the inning by drilling a liner into left field. Now maybe a great fielder in left would have caught it and maybe not. But Johnson didn't have a chance, and by the time the play was over Kantlehner was standing on third base. A run and no outs later, Brad Tesh doubled down the left field line. And okay, likely no fielder was going to get to that one, but it scored the tying run. But Miguel Ramos' 1-out double to left might have been caught by someone with more range than Johnson. This drove in the 5th run for the Whalers and they would hold the advantage and claim two road victories to start the 1975 KCS.

The Spinners have their work cut out for the now as the series shifts to Columbus.

[BirdWatcher]

L.A. right-handed starter Kerry Krieg pitched a masterpiece, including working out of a bases loaded jam in the 9th, and hurled his team to their first victory of the 1975 KCS.


The Spinners got solo homers from first baseman Edwin Ayala and third baseman Jesus Hernandez to provide most of the run scoring.

[BirdWatcher]

The L.A. Spinners overcame an early 3-1 deficit to tie the game at 3 runs apiece and send Game 4 into extra innings. And the teams battled without scoring into the 15th frame. The Spinners had a good scoring opportunity in the 11th, which they squandered. And the Whalers did so also in the bottom of the 13th.

Finally, with two outs in the bottom of the 15th, Whalers second baseman Brett Kane, facing former Brewer Will Smart, watched the first pitch pass him by for a strike but sent the next pitch sailing into the night and into the left field stands for a walk-off victory for the home club, the first game of the series the home club was able to take.



And now the Whalers stand just a victory away from their third WPK Championship.

[BirdWatcher]

The Los Angeles Spinners have been to four WPK championship series and now they have lost four WPK championship series.

The Columbus Whalers, for the third time in their history, are champions of the WPK.



Jake Harris pitches a strong Game 5 and Brett Kane, the series MVP, hits another big homer to lift the team to victory. In addition to his hitting exploits, Kane was mostly excellent in the field at second base, including making an incredible play to thwart a Spinners attempt at a 9th inning comeback and end Game 2 in L.A.

[BirdWatcher]

Ok, I did not see this coming.