[BirdWatcher]

Steve Green, Bryant Cox, and the Brewers 1979 projected rotation:

Steve Green was the Denver Brewers first round draft pick in 1968 (8th overall) after a distinguished collegiate career at St. Louis College. And while Green has never seriously contended for a Pitcher of the Year award and has only been an All-Star one season, he has been an important member of the Brewers starting rotation since his first full WPK season in 1971 and has earned 3 championship rings (granted, the first came in 1970, when he only pitched 3 games for the team as a September call-up.)
He has been in double digits in wins in seven of his eight full seasons as a Brewer (cheating a bit by including this unfinished season) and contributed at least 4.5 WAR in 4 of those seasons, and is on pace for a 5.5 WAR season in 1978.
But in spite of no indications of declining talent, Green struggled a bit in 1977, going 13-7 but with an uncharacteristically high 4.56 ERA. There were underlying indications though that this number was inflated due more to bad luck than bad performance, as his BABIP against was a career high .312, his FIP was a respectable 3.65 with a FIP- of 76, one of the best of his career, and his WHIP of 1.25, while not tremendous, was well within normal standards for him. The sense in the front office was that he would see a return to more typical back of the baseball card numbers in 1978.
As the 1978 season headed towards the All-Star break though that wasn't happening. Green got off to a horrible 1-5 start by May 20th, with an ERA of 6.04. And while things started to get a bit better after that he still had an ERA of 5.04 as late as July 4th. With his 32nd birthday approaching later in the month of July, those with inside knowledge were aware that the front office was seriously considering making use of the buy-out option they had on the last year of his contract at the end of this season.
Pitching prospect Bryant Cox was continuing his strong development at AAA and the thought was that he would likely be given the chance to earn a spot at the back end of the rotation in 1979, taking Green's spot on the active roster. The thought was that Cox would surely be a September 1st call-up and could get his feet wet at the big league level in the final month of this season before being thrown into the rotation in '79.

It was a solid theory and a reasonable plan.
But then a few things happened to throw it into doubt.
First of all, and this is the good news, Steve Green found his old rhythm after the All-Star break and started racking up wins, even pitching a few gems and seeing his ERA drop to 3.95 at present, with a 3.16 FIP, 77 FIP-, and still a slightly high BABIP against of .308 (career BABIP against of .284).
Then, and this is the bad news, Bryant Cox went down with a hamstring pull a little over a week ago and is expected to need at least another month to recover, meaning that any September call-up to the Brewers, if it happens at all, would be pushed back to the last week or two of the WPK season and offer very little chance for any significant innings in a Brewer uniform.

So while Cox will still almost surely be a member of the active roster starting the 1979 season, it will likely be as a member of the bullpen, pitching long relief and getting some spot starts, as he gets a first taste of WPK life and first look at WPK hitters while the veteran Green pitches at least one more season for the only WPK team he has ever put on a uniform for.

The 20/20 club and the Denver Brewers:

In the short history of the WPK thus far, 37 times a player has combined at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season, with only 3 seasons where both of those numbers reached at least 30 for a single player.
And among the members of that club only one was wearing a Denver Brewer uniform in the season he accomplished this and that was the soon to be retired Tanner Yurek, who hit 20 home runs while stealing 23 bases in the inaugural season of 1965.

But there is a pretty good chance that at least a few more Brewers will join the 20/20 club at the end of this season.
Brett Taranto is currently on pace to finish with 20 homers and 23 stolen bases, to match Yurek's 1965 numbers.
Joe McPhillips is currently on pace to collect 22 home runs and to steal the same number of bases.
And Josh Schaeffer is on target for 20 home runs and 18 stolen bases, so he could certainly get there also.
Val Guzman is another Brewer who certainly has the skills to join this club, but he would have to go on quite a homer tear as he is only projected to hit 11 this season, while being on pace for 22 stolen bases.
And if Antonio Acuna starts getting starter playing time at some point he is almost a shoe-in to join the club (maybe next season?). He is on pace this year to finish with 9 home runs and 11 stolen bases in just 188 plate appearances.
And finally, if veteran second baseman Bobby Erbakan could just stay healthy a full season, he would still have a shot at this. He is on pace for 11 home runs and 12 stolen bases this season, and that is in a projected 100 games played.

Will a Brewer join the 30/30 club anytime soon?
It says here that if there is a player on the current team who combines the power/speed combination of skills to do this it would have to be Antonio Acuna. The biggest roadblock in his way is getting enough playing time in the ultra-talented Brewer outfield.