The Brooklyn Aces got bad news yesterday as they learned that 29-year old left-hander Shannon Petrik will miss the rest of the season due to a serious case of shoulder inflammation. Petrik led the league in WAR among pitchers in 1976 and while he didn't have a great first half of '77, he is a very talented five-pitch pitcher with an elite change-up. (His biggest issue, when healthy, is that he doesn't have great stamina.)
Now of course the Aces have a strong and deep rotation, led by 2-time Pitcher of the Year award winner and Triple Crown winner Aaron McNally, but for a team that had been recently mounting a challenge to the top two MGL teams- Denver and Los Angeles- only to see things start to slide backwards again, it is not welcome news. Brooklyn, as has been the case for the past several years, appears to be the WPK team that tends to under-achieve to the greatest extent (they are tops in the WPK in run differential and have won 7 fewer games than their pythagorean win expectation.)