As we get things underway here in the 1973 season I thought it might be good to see who the superstars of the WPK are currently.
With some of the greatest players of the early days of the WPK having retired or on the decline and not far from hanging up the spikes, which players have emerged, or remain, the top players in the game?
Looking at overall current ratings, both those of the Brewers head scout Nick Meskill and those of the OSA, let's consider Superstar players to be those with 4 1/2 or 5 Star overall ratings. For Meskill that includes just 14 players in the WPK, while the OSA is a bit more generous with 18 earning this distinction. For the most part the two lists overlap with clearly a handful of players that Mr. Meskill does not rate as highly as the OSA and one, not surprisingly a Brewer, that he rates in this category while the OSA rates them slightly below the threshold for super-stardom.
Let's break it down by position:
Among Starting Pitchers, the OSA lists not a soul. Nick Meskill sees Brewers ace Cheol-han Lee as fitting the bill however. It should probably come as no surprise that the three top rated Starting Pitcher's according to the OSA, all just below the arbitrary line I've chosen to affix the superstar label to, are Jake Harris, Chris Hernandez, and Cheol-han.
Three relief pitchers make the cut, according to both the OSA and Meskill.
Will it surprise you that one of them is Jamel McNeil? Well, no, of course it won't. The other two both are in the Phoenix Speed Devils bullpen. First, 35-year old Pat Brooks, probably the most celebrated WPK reliever not named Jamel McNeil. Then 29-year old Taiwanese sidearmer Kee Han, who entered the league just a few years ago as an international free agent and has risen to the top of the profession as a key member of that fantastic Phoenix 'pen.
There is one superstar catcher in the WPK: San Antonio's 26-year old Erik Buonopane. On that the OSA and Meskill agree. And after Buonopane you have to work your way down the list quite a distance before you find another catcher. (L.A.'s Greg Foster according the OSA, while Meskill rates Foster and his own team's Kevin Curtis equally.)
According to the OSA, Los Angeles' veteran Travis Johnson (formerly a left fielder) is the lone superstar first baseman in the WPK. Meskill thinks that is one too many. Both the OSA and Meskill though agree that there are several first baseman, including Denver's Bobby Erbakan, who are at the rung just below super-stardom.
(Second part of this list in next post.)