Harry Lyerly and the Denver Brewers of the WPK

[BirdWatcher]

In the least surprising announcement of the 1972 awards season, Charlotte Sting stopper Jamel McNeil was unanimous choice for MGL Reliever of the Year. This is the fifth time in his illustrious career that he has captured this honor.

[BirdWatcher]

Columbus young closer Alvaro Hernandez captures his first Reliever of the Year award.

[BirdWatcher]

No members of the Brewers earns a Silver Slugger this season.

Among MGL award winners in this category, L.A. first baseman Travis Johnson wins his 6th but this first at this position as all the others came as a left fielder. Brooklyn's fantastic Felix Lopez wins his 5th. Phoenix right fielder Ju-ao Ju wins his 4th. For L.A. third baseman Jesus Hernandez it is the 3rd time winning this award. Portland shortstop Chris Tobin earns his 2nd. All the other winners are first-timers.

[BirdWatcher]

Boston Berserkers' slugging first baseman Nate Bennett wins his 8th Silver Slugger award (he is also an 8-time All-Star).
Eduardo Amaro has now won 6 Silver Sluggers in his career as a starting pitcher. (This was probably his best offensive year yet with a slash line of .296/.345/.383.)
The great Jesus Casiano picks up his 5th Silver Slugger (4th as a third baseman.)
Seattle's Mike Robinette takes his 4th Silver Slugger.
25-year old Erik Buonopane, by far the most talented hitting catcher in the bigs, captures his 3rd Silver Slugger.
Center fielder Lazaro Lowndes wins his 2nd.
Three young players rapidly turning into superstars- the 26-year old Kyle Doss, 22-year old Joe Brodeur, and 21-year old Bud Lindsay- all get their first, but likely not last, Silver Slugger awards.

[BirdWatcher]

A Foster was named the ROY of the MGL for 1972 but it wasn't the Brewers Mike, but rather the L.A. Spinners catcher, Greg Foster.
Mike Foster did get a point in the voting to finish tied 4th in the voting with teammate Joe McPhillips.

[BirdWatcher]

It should come as no surprise that San Antonio shortstop Bud Lindsay was the unanimous pick for the SJL Rookie of the Year honors.
Teammate Joe Brodeur came in second, suggesting that good times may be on the way for the city of San Antonio.

[BirdWatcher]

Naturally the Managers of the Year are Charlotte's Greg Maye and Columbus' Aaron Toth.

[BirdWatcher]

For the third straight season, a member of the Denver Brewer's pitching staff wins the Pitcher of the Year award. In 1970 it was Harry Lyerly. In 1971 staff ace Cheol-han Lee won his 3rd Pitcher of the Year award.
This year it is Erik Sloan's turn. Of course, Sloan pitched half of the year with Charlotte but the two halves of his season were nearly identical. It is the first Pitcher of the Year award for the 29 year old.
Teammate Lee finished 4th.

[BirdWatcher]

Jake Harris gets his 3rd Pitcher of the Year award, while teammate Jaime Schardein, a 2-time winner, comes in second.

[BirdWatcher]

As was widely expected, Brooklyn superstar center fielder Felix Lopez wins the MGL MVP award, the first of his fantastic career.
No Brewers figured in the voting.

[BirdWatcher]

Washington's young center fielder Lazaro Lowndes captures his first, but very possibly not his last, MVP award for his fine performance this season.
21-year old San Antonio shortstop Bud Lindsay finishes an impressive second in the voting in spite of not garnering any first place votes.

[BirdWatcher]

The Denver Brewers are fully signalling their shift to a youth movement this off-season as they have bought out the option on the last year of veteran lefty starter Daniel Torres contract and have non-tendered arbitration eligible starter Abel Pennington. With 32-year old's Miguel Solis and Steve Herzog free agency eligible and the team showing no sign of tendering them contracts combined with the earlier trades of Antonio Puente and Eric Singer, the team will be decidedly younger in 1973.
At this point the only remaining 30-somethings expected to be on the 25-man roster come the start of the 1973 season are 35-year old reliever Jose de los Santos, 34-year old left fielder Ryan Rodgers, 31-year old ace starting pitcher Cheol-han Lee, and Pat Rondeau, who turns 30 in February. Although Erik Sloan also turns 30 mid-season 1973.

[BirdWatcher]

Brewers starting pitcher Eric Johnson is competing in the Arizona Fall League to get a little extra experience with the possibility that he will be spending at least part of the time in the Brewers rotation in 1973.
And so far the Trinidad, Colorado native is dominating, going 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA.

[BirdWatcher]

Today was the filing date for all players eligible for Free Agency. Among those who filed were, as mentioned above, Daniel Torres, Miguel Solis, and Abel Pennington. Brewers minor league prospects Dave Harder and Ramon Lopez also became free agents, among some others in the Brewers organization.
Former Brewers Ruben Souffront, Tanner Yurek, Ben Malzone, Steve Alonso, and Kyle Green are also now free agents. (Just to name a handful.)

Among the most high profile free agents are Jamel McNeil, Nate Bennett, Cody Kane, and Larry Glinski.
Some former league MVP's, very much in the twilight of their careers, are also hoping to catch on with new teams for some late-career glory, including 37-year old Andy Wilson (a 2-time MVP) and his former teammate, 38-year old Frank Hernandez.
It is not a great year to get a starting pitcher through free agency as probably the top available starter is 27-year old Devin Washburn, who has been at times one of the best pitchers in the league, including going 19-5 with a 2.48 ERA in 1971, but who pitched for 3 teams last season and finished with a 12-11 record and an ERA of 3.42. As an extreme flyball pitcher with just slightly above average movement and stuff (and average control), plus not a great deal of stamina, Washburn is a risky proposition.

Of the 5 international free agents available on the market this year, Japanese right fielder Tadahiko Goto is probably the most promising. (Four of the five international free agents this year are out of Japan while one is from South Korea.)

The thought among those close to Brewers management is that the team is not planning to be active in the free agency market this off-season, in spite of being in very good financial position to do so.

[BirdWatcher]

The WPK champion Charlotte Sting made it clear today that they intend to do what is needed to retain their crown as they came to terms with free agent left fielder Cody Kane, who was an integral part of their championship team this season.
Kane is under contract now with the Sting through 1976, which would take him through his age 30 season.

[BirdWatcher]

Fresh off a World Series defeat that highlighted the deficiencies of the Whalers lineup, Columbus signed free agent right fielder David Beane. At age 36 Beane is no longer the defender he once was (he won a Gold Glove in 1965) but remains a good hitter. He is tentatively scheduled to hit clean-up in the Whalers lineup this coming season.

[BirdWatcher]

Every once in a while a trade offer comes along that stops you dead in your tracks because it is almost good enough as it stands that in spite of your earlier intentions and plans you can't quite bring yourself to dismiss it summarily.

With the winter meetings having begun, the Brewers received just such a trade offer from the Charlotte Sting today.
The Sting have offered to send us 28-year old second baseman Matt Sisk in exchange for pitching prospect Justin Peacock and 21-year old center field prospect Roberto Perez.

Sisk is a premiere defensive player who won a Gold Glove in 1970 as a shortstop. He doesn't have much experience at third base but he has the skills needed to play there and is already a plus defender at either position in the middle infield. He is an above average contact hitter who rarely strikes out (though also rarely walks) and though his speed is well below average he is a skilled base stealer and an average base runner. He has a reasonable contract and three years of team control/arbitration eligibility left. With Jonathan Koch still developing, Sisk could be a valuable addition to the 1973 Brewers infield.

And while Justin Peacock remains a viable option for a back-end of the rotation role, he is 25 years old and unlikely to experience much more development. Perez has the potential to be a viable big league center fielder but has plenty of more talented players ahead of him on the Brewers depth chart, most especially Joe McPhillips, who is expected to be the team's center fielder for years to come.

I will likely reject this trade if for no other reason then the desire to maintain some depth in the starting pitching options the team has. And because I am committed to giving Koch every opportunity to succeed as the starting second baseman and we do have other solid options to help out in case he isn't ready.

But, still. This is a tempting offer.

[BirdWatcher]

After having played his entire career for the Boston Berserker's, veteran slugging right fielder Nate Bennett is now officially a Philadelphia Mud Hen.

Bennett, who alternated between right field and first base for Boston in 1972, has limited range in the field but rarely makes a mistake and has a rifle for an arm. The 8-time All-Star and 8-time Silver Slugger remains a prodigious offensive talent.

[BirdWatcher]

Having played for four teams over the past three seasons, Gold Glove award winning second baseman Larry Glinski may have once again found a stable home (he was a member of the Phoenix Speed Devils from 1965 through the middle of the 1970 season).
Glinski had a breakout season in 1972, leading the league in doubles, finishing second in batting average and hits, and seventh in WAR (6.6, by far the best of his career, with previous high being 2.3, achieved twice).
The Night Train inked him to an 8-year contract.

[BirdWatcher]

The El Paso Dawgs are arguably the worst franchise in the history of the WPK, especially now that the Charlotte Sting have lifted themselves up to a WPK championship.

And given a pair of trades they have made in the past week I'm not convinced that under the current management they are likely to get better.

First they traded away veteran reliever Ron Dippold to Philadelphia for 22-year old minor league third baseman Dan Needham. Now on the surface this trade makes sense. Dippold is 33 years old after all and what does a team in perpetual rebuilding mode need with an aging reliever. But the fact is that not only is Dippold still talented, and as an extreme ground baller with great movement and with El Paso's Arsenal Stadium being a pretty good HR hitters park those are very valuable traits, but he also has a club-friendly contract which doesn't expire until the end of the 1974 season (and which was front-loaded and 10K cheaper in 1974). And Needham, in spite of his great work ethic (the same of which can be said for Dippold, by the way) and solid defensive skills, is a borderline prospect at best.

Then they sent another talented veteran reliever, Jeremy Jankowski, to the Phoenix Speed Devils. Okay, this part was probably smart. Jankowski, at age 30, isn't as talented as Dippold and he has a bad reputation as being a very selfish player. And they got a very good hitting shortstop in exchange- Humberto Rivera. So what's the problem? Well, first of all, Rivera only has experience at shortstop and is an adequate but far from great fielder at a premium defensive position. And he's considered fragile and has a fairly extensive injury history. His bat makes him likely an acceptable big league player but his glove keeps his ceiling likely at average big leaguer at best. And here's the real catch: the Dawgs sent Phoenix 24-year old Marty O'Brien in the package. O'Brien, the 21st pick overall in the 1969 draft, is probably not an ace in the making. But he's a high quality guy with a strong chance to become a solid mid-rotation starter in the WPK. And El Paso not only has a shallow rotation now but they also lack starting pitching prospects, with the best (now that they have traded away O'Brien)- Dan Bottom- profiling as a fragile pitcher.

It just seems to me that if El Paso wishes to become the next Charlotte, they are going to have to do a lot better than this.