Ruben "Streak" Souffront and the Denver Brewers

[BirdWatcher]

The pre-season predictions for the 1970 WPK season have been published, and as they did last year, the prognosticators foresee a second place finish for the Brewers, behind the Phoenix Speed Devils.
While they see Denver as once again being the best team in terms of keeping the other team from scoring (with the best team ERA and pitcher strikeout totals in either league), the believe them to be under-powered offensively. (Which is a fair argument.)
The big difference this year is that they see Phoenix as having improved on the defensive/pitching side and actually finishing second to the Brewers in fewest runs allowed while still having a pretty potent offense.

Brewers management maintains that they are happy to be under-estimated and the team will prove, once again, that they are the team to beat in the MGL.

It's Opening Day! Time for the Brewers to begin their defense of the MGL pennant.

[BirdWatcher]

Former Brewers top pitching prospect Rob Ibarra suffers a season-ending injury. Ibarra is a very talented young pitcher but has proven quite injury prone during his professional career, which is precisely why the Brewers decided to part with him in the middle of last season.
It is unfortunate that his great potential will likely never be fulfilled.

[BirdWatcher]

In their 3rd game of the 1970 season the Denver Brewers turn a most unusual triple play.
After starter Abel Pennington walked the first batter he faced in the bottom of the 1st inning and then allowed the next batter to hit a short single into right field, sending the baserunner to second, the third batter hit a wicked line drive into center which somehow Ryan Rodgers caught in a diving effort. The runners having anticipated a hit were well advanced from their bases and Rodgers alertly got to his feet in a flash and threw a bullet to second baseman Juan Lujan, who stepped on the bag to get the lead runner and threw on to Bobby Erbakan at first to get the trail runner and complete the double play, thus thwarting a potential rally for the Sting.
The Brewers ended up winning the game by a narrow 4-3 score to go to 3-0 on the season.

[BirdWatcher]

In his first start of the season, the Brewers give Harry Lyerly plenty of early run support, scoring 6 times in the top of the 1st (Lyerly himself contributed a 2-out RBI single), but the young hurler would not need it.
Lyerly pitched a complete game, 4-hit shutout to get his first victory of the new season. Although he only struck out 6 batters (on the low side for him) he also only issued 2 walks in the masterpiece.
The story from the clubhouse is that Lyerly has heard about the many naysayers who believe that his early success is unsustainable and is bound and determined to prove that his rookie campaign was no fluke.
He is only one game in to the new season, but so far so good.

[BirdWatcher]

Top prospect Joe McPhillips, who fell from being #11 on the Top 100 Prospects list of 1969 to being #12 on this year's list, is off to another great start, now at AA Nashville, winning the Player of the Week honors for the first week of the season.

[BirdWatcher]

The Phoenix Speed Devils have been dealt a blow to their plans to capture the MGL title this season when free agent acquisition Joey Brown (a former Brewer), who had the best season of his career in 1969 when he went 20-8 with a 3.22 ERA, suffered a torn labrum and was lost for the season. At age 36, this might signal the beginning of the end of his career.
And it will certainly complicate things for the Speed Devils, who were looking to improve on last season's poor season with regards to runs allowed for the opposition.

[BirdWatcher]

Harry Lyerly wasn't as sharp in his second start as in his first, but he was good enough that with a little help from his offense and the bullpen he improved to 2-0 (1.62) on the season.
Lyerly struck out 8 while walking 4 and giving up 3 runs on 9 hits over 7 2/3rd innings pitched.
Off-season acquisition Eric Singer picked up his first save of the season and has been a big part of the early success for the Brewers this season as he has appeared in 6 games already with an ERA of 0.96.
Antonio Puente, who is off to another slow start with the bat, did hit his 3rd HR of the season and the team is cautiously optimistic that he may be re-finding his power stroke.

[BirdWatcher]

That kid McPhillips is really tearing up AA so far.
Meanwhile, the Brewers continue their fine start to the season as they are tied for first with San Francisco at 8-3.

[BirdWatcher]

Pat Rondeau has a great day- going 5 for 5 with 3 doubles to help lead the Brewers to tough 7-6 victory over Brooklyn on the road.
Cheol-Han Lee, the ace the Brewers signed to a huge contract as a free agent in the off-season, was not ace-like today as he blew 5-1 lead by giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning.
Tanner Yurek his his 3rd HR of the season to tie Antonio Puente for the team lead.

[BirdWatcher]

A few early 1970 trends (admittedly, with only about 15 games in the books):

The unsurprising: The Brewers once again lead the league in fewest runs allowed while being pretty much middle of the pack in runs scored.
The bullpen, with the addition of Eric Singer and the continued maturation of Liann-Wei Hua (along with a pretty solid start for rookie Jaden Francis), has been superb, leading the league in ERA.
Ryan Rodgers, playing most of his games in leftfield, where he is a premium defender, is off to a great start both at the plate and in the field. His batting average is good, his OBP is astronomical (somewhere around .500.) He has even hit a rare HR early on.

The slightly surprising: The Brewers are middle of the pack in HR's by the offense and towards the bottom of the league in stolen bases. Much of this is due to early power from Antonio Puente (5 HR) and Tanner Yurek (3 HR) and the fact that our best base stealers- Ruben Souffront and Chad Brown- have been having a hard time getting on base so far this season. Souffront, especially, has had a horrible start to the season at the plate and with Pat Rondeau starting hot it is probable that Ruben might be sitting a bit more until he shows some signs of heating up.
Team management is hoping that Puente and Yurek's early power hitting is not just a fluke but actually a return to earlier levels of production by both of them in their first several seasons. (Puente was generally good for about 30 HR's per season in his early 20's and Yurek, during the same period, generally hit just under 20 a season.) This could go a long ways towards balancing out the offense a bit and taking some pressure of the pitching and defense.

The starting pitching, which was very good for the first 10 games or so, has really scuffled lately and has the 3rd best ERA in the league. Now, 3rd best is pretty good, but disappointing by the standards of this team. Big name acquisition Cheol-Han Lee was very good his first few starts but didn't get much run support and then he was horrible in his most recent start. Daniel Torres is once again the best pitcher on the starting staff thus far, but is currently on the disabled list with tendinitis and his return has been delayed. Abel Pennington and Will Smart have been pretty darn bad. Harry Lyerly pitched a gem- the best start for a Brewer this season- in his first game, had a mediocre second game, and pretty much stunk in his third start. Steve Alonso has been pretty good in his two starts.

The biggest surprise: The Brewers, who are accustomed to having the best defense in the league, by far, are near the bottom of the league this season in defensive efficiency. Now, some of this is probably a reflection of the recent starting pitching struggles. But the big question in the Brewers front office is how much this might be about the decision to shift Ryan Rodgers to left and play Antonio Puente in centerfield.
The thought in spring training was that at his age and with his speed and underlying defensive skills (he is near gold glove caliber at both corner OF positions), Puente was capable of pretty quickly getting up to a high level of competency in center. And he did clearly make progress during the exhibition season. But even with Ryan Rodgers showing some signs of losing a step at age 31, it is clear that he is still a better centerfielder than Puente. But Rodgers is off to such a great start in left and Puente is hitting very well and as a hedge against future decline by Rodgers the thought has been to stick with Puente to allow him to grow into the position. But given the results so far not everyone on the management team is in agreement with this. One idea, given the really slow start that Ruben Souffront is off to (and the fact that he is generally the weak link defensively in the Brewers outfield) is to play Pat Rondeau a bit more in center and give Puente more games in rightfield while Rodgers stays in left and Souffront comes off the bench for pinch-hitting and pinch-running duties. But hopefully Souffront will come out of his slump and earn more playing time, so this is really just a short term fix.
Plus, with the way Joe McPhillips is playing in the minors (though the belief is that he still needs a few seasons of development) it might not be long before he takes over in centerfield at which time the Brewers will have a big decision on their hands with too many quality outfielders for the available slots. It should be interesting to see how it all sorts out.

[BirdWatcher]

And that kid Joe McPhillips just keeps racking up the accolades at AA Nashville, once again winning Player of the Week honors. (He's been in the news so much, I didn't even post earlier when he was named AA Player of the Month for April. But yes, that happened too.)
Brewers management is particularly pleased that he keeps displaying good power as he is currently on pace for by far his best HR total as a professional. (Yes, it's early. But the trends have been encouraging.)
The biggest question mark at this stage of his development is whether McPhillips can cut down on his strikeouts as this is the primary obstacle standing between the young man and major league stardom at this point.

[BirdWatcher]

Another rough start for last year's phenom, Harry Lyerly, but this time the offense takes him off the hook.
Lyerly's biggest challenge this year is his control as he is giving up far more bases on balls (4.9/9 IP) then he did in his rookie season. His strikeout totals remain largely unchanged (9.5/9 IP). And even though the biggest concern about him has always been his propensity to allow the opposition a good number of HR's, thus far he is maintaining at the same level as last season (1.0/9 IP). The scouting staff still maintains that Lyerly's control will develop more over time so nobody is hitting the panic button just yet.

On the other hand, the Brewers offense has been impressive of late. Ryan Rodgers (.404/.507/.544) is off to a torrid start. Antonio Puente has been very productive (.311/.400/.590) and appears to be adjusting to playing centerfield pretty well. Tanner Yurek (.333/.469/.608) is looking good again this year. And in the past few games both Ruben Souffront (.228/.262/.351) and Chad Brown (.266/.284/.375) are showing signs of life at the plate.

[BirdWatcher]

Youngster Adam Getchell is given the opportunity of his first start this season in a Brewers uniform (Getchell came up from AAA earlier when Daniel Torres went on the DL) and this kid takes full advantage of the chance to display his talent, picking up the complete game victory. It would have been a shutout if not for one bad pitch to pinch-hitter William Lara with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th, which the power hitting Lara crushed into the leftfield stands.
Other than that, Getchell quietly put together a masterpiece, allowing just 2 hits while striking out 3 and walking 2.
Chad Brown, who has been swinging a hot bat lately, picked up 2 triples to take his season total to 4 (3 in the past 2 games.) Antonio Puente and Tanner Yurek also continue their hot hitting.

[BirdWatcher]

Captain Abel Pennington hurls a masterpiece (I think this is the first time I've seen Throw a Maddux achievement in one of my games), as the Brewers get their second straight 2-hit complete game victory- this time a shutout over San Francisco to take over sole possession of 1st place in the MGL.
Chad Brown (.306/.329/.472) goes 3 for 4 with a double (4) to continue his hot streak.

[BirdWatcher]

It was a bit sloppier but the Brewers manage to get the 2 game sweep of San Francisco when they score 6 runs in the 6th inning- the big blow being a Jared Stephenson Grand Slam- and although they tried to cough up the lead they managed to hold on with a few more timely hits and 2 strong innings (in spite of 3 walks) from Eric Singer.
The Brewers are officially off to a good start for the 1970 season.

[BirdWatcher]

In fairly atypical fashion, Harry Lyerly picked up his second CG shutout victory of the 1970 season. Lyerly only struck out 6 batters but also walked just 3 and scattered 7 hits- all singles- to improve to 3-1 (3.96) on the season.
He got a little help from his defense in preserving the shutout, with leftfielder Ryan Rodgers rifling a throw to home plate to keep a runner from scoring in the 8th inning with one out. Still, Lyerly needed to get a very dangerous hitter- Cody Kane- to fly out to center, stranding a runner at second, to end the potential rally.
Lyerly also got into some trouble in the 9th, allowing a pair of singles and a walk, but he once again proved what a gutsy young player he is by wriggling out of it and wrapping up the easy victory.

With the win the Brewers take a 1 1/2 game lead over second place Baltimore.
Meanwhile, the Phoenix Speed Devils, who were once again the favorites to win the MGL, are off to sluggish 10-11 start and currently occupy sixth place.

[BirdWatcher]

Another really nice start by 25-year old Adam Getchell, but unfortunately the Brewers cannot give him enough run support as they lose 2-1 to Baltimore.
Getchell gave up a 2-run HR in the bottom of the 2nd inning and was otherwise pretty much flawless in his 7 innings of work (6 hits, 4 K, O BB).
23-year old backup OF/1B Andrew Kennedy came up with 2 on and 2 outs in the top of 9th and unfortunately was unable to get a groundball past the secondbaseman.
Still, I am past due mentioning the great season Kennedy has had thus far. In this game, in fact, he went 2 for 4 and hit his 1st big league HR. For the season Kennedy has a slash line of .353/.395/.471 and the team has not regretted choosing to keep him on the major league roster at the end of Spring Training instead of James Jackson, who is admittedly hitting the cover off the ball at AAA but who is not as good defensively at firstbase as Kennedy (and Kennedy is nearly as good a defender in the OF as Jackson) and who doesn't have nearly the contact hitting skills that the young Kennedy does. (Kennedy also is considered a leader in the clubhouse, adding intangible value to his profile.)

[BirdWatcher]

Cheol-han Lee finally gets his first win in a Brewers uniform and with the team once again not giving him much run support he had to be nearly perfect to do it.
And he was nearly perfect- allowing just 2 hits, both singles off the bat of Detroit's light-hitting catcher, Jurobei Hiraga, while striking out 9 and walking not a soul.
Ryan Rodgers (.379/.486/.483) continues to have a remarkable season and went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI (14) in the win. Rodgers seems to be rejuvenated by the position change to leftfield.

[BirdWatcher]

As he did so often down the stretch in his rookie season, Harry Lyerly comes in a throws a gem when the Brewers need it most- having lost 3 straight coming into the final game of a series with the Phoenix Speed Devils.
Lyerly tossed 8 innings of 6-hit ball, allowing just 1 run while striking out 8 and walking 2. Amazingly enough, with his reputation of allowing the long ball, he allowed no HR's to the top HR hitting team in the league. (In fact, thus far Lyerly's HR/9 IP rate is a respectable 0.7.) Lyerly also walked his first time up and singled up the middle in his second plate appearance (he would score the go-ahead run, which proved to be the game winner.)

[BirdWatcher]

Then there are those times in a season when it seems nothing can go right. Having lost 5 of the last 7 games, the Brewers jump out to an early 3-0 lead against Oklahoma City with our best pitcher of the last several years- Daniel Torres- on the mound.
But Torres isn't sharp and gives up 4 runs in 6 innings pitched.
No matter- the team comes up with 4 big runs in the top of the 7th inning.
And then when youngster Jaden Francis starts to get in trouble in the bottom of the inning Liann-Wei Hua comes in to bail him out.
In the 8th inning things get handed over to Eric Singer, who has been our best reliever this year. With a 3 run lead Brewers fans everywhere are breathing a bit of a sigh of a relief that it looks like maybe we can steal a win here on the road.
Nope.
Singer is horrible. Clearly doesn't have it. Walks 3 and gives up 2 hits and leaves the game after recording just 1 out in the 8th. Singer leaves the game with the bases loaded.
On comes 4-time All-Star Miguel Solis, the rock of the Brewers bullpen for the past several years.
Solis gets the first batter he faces to hit a harmless flyball to centerfield. Second out recorded, runners stay put.
Maybe we can get out of this jam after all.
Nope.
Next batter is light hitting centerfielder Tony Flores. Flores hit 6 HR's in 1969 and had yet to hit one in 1970. But now he has. Grand Slam.
Brewers relinquish the hard-earned lead. And lose again.
And with that, we drop out of first place and we are looking like a very mediocre team at the moment.
It's a long season. Which could cut both ways. But we are going to have to do a lot better than this if we hope to get back to the post-season.

(Aaargh. Stretches like this absolutely drive me crazy. When we get good pitching, we can't hit. When we hit, the pitching falls apart. When we get on base, we get caught trying to steal or trying to take an extra base. When a pitcher is trying to work out of a jam or preserve a small lead our defense starts to boot the ball all over the yard, or throw it into the dugout. Sometimes it feels like it doesn't matter what you do, the team is destined to lose.)