This week Brad Tesh, of the Columbus Whalers, became the 6th member of the WPK 300 home run club.
Tesh, at age 32 looked like a very strong candidate for the WPK Hall of Fame in Dubuque, Iowa, and now at 34 he looks like his career has possibly run out of gas. Having moved from center field to left field he remains a plus defender and while he's lost a step or two in terms of pure speed he is a terrific base stealer and runner. At the plate Tesh is still a player with a good eye and approach and with above average power but he just doesn't possess the bat-to-ball skills needed anymore to get a lot of playing time.
Having won the SJL MVP award in 1968, having been named an All-Star 7 times, owning two championship rings, and with a career WAR of 77.6, he remains a possible HOF candidate. In fact, the player he is most similar to in WPK history is Jesus Hernandez (887 score with Bill James similarity tool, a bit shy of the truly similar range), and Hernandez looks like a strong Hall candidate. Also in the top 10: Antonio Sosa (861), Jason Janes (854), Cody Kane (835), Jesus Casiano (795), and Jamison Bash (794)- all players with at least some chance of enshrinement. But unlike Hernandez and Casiano, who remain productive starters, and especially the 31-year old Kane, who is a superstar still, Tesh's career has dwindled down to include minor bench roles in the bigs interspersed with minor league stints. (Jason Janes is somewhere in-between, still a starter, but no longer a star.)
But this week, in a rare start for the first place Whalers (only his 5th game started this season), Tesh finally got #300, putting him in elite company. And even if this is the last great achievement of his WPK career, it will have been an impressive career nevertheless.
(He is 67 hits shy of the 2000 hit club, so he could still get there in the end. And it should be noted that he is the only member of the 300-300 club as he has stolen 358 bases in his career. Among 300 homer guys, the only other player anywhere close is Jesus Hernandez, with 90 career stolen bases.)