Ruben "Streak" Souffront and the Denver Brewers

[BirdWatcher]

And the kid did it! With very little help.
Harry Lyerly pitches the complete game shutout- his WPK best 8th of the 1970 season- giving up just 3 hits while striking out 7 and walking 2.
The Brewers score only 2 runs but that would be 1 more than Lyerly would need. Lyerly finishes the season with an 18-9 record and an ERA of 2.44. He finishes tied for the 2nd most wins in the MGL and finishes with the 4th best ERA. Along with easily the most strikeouts, by far the best K/9, the best K/BB, the second best WHIP and opponents batting average, the third best FIP and rWAR, and complete games total, the fourth best WAR among pitchers, and 4th best ERA+, 4th best winning percentage, and the 6th best quality starts total.
The kid was, in short, amazing.

As it turned out, Phoenix lost their final game so the Brewers would have won the MGL anyway, but so much better to finish on a high note and earn the title.

Thoughts will quickly turn to the upcoming World Series against the 2-time WPK champs, the Jacksonville Wolf Pack, but for today Brewers fans and players alike are celebrating a hard fought second straight MGL title.

The team is also celebrating a couple of individual accomplishments on the season as Daniel Torres wins the MGL ERA title and Ryan Rodgers easily takes the MGL batting average title.

[BirdWatcher]

Before we move on to the 1970 WPK World Series lets wrap up a few things regarding the 1970 regular season.

For instance, Jesus Casiano of the Jacksonville Wolf Pack had a tremendous year at the age of 28, winning the SJL hitting Triple Crown. A look at some of the final leader board numbers for SJL hitters gives you some idea of what a dominant year the Jacksonville third sacker had and indicate why he is almost sure to be named league MVP.

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The rest of the SJL offensive leader boards for 1970:

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Among SJL pitchers, the ever controversial Jamel McNeil, who briefly pitched for the Brewers and will be facing them soon in the World Series, continued his brilliance out of the pen, leading the league in ERA as a reliever and finishing among the leaders in wins with 18.
Veteran starter Jake Harris of Columbus continued his consistently brilliant career and tied for the league lead in wins with 19 while finishing just behind McNeil for the ERA title (2.35 for McNeil, 2.36 for Harris.)

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The rest of the SJL pitching leader boards:

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In the MGL, San Francisco's Jesse Cibula was the best power hitter in the league and likely is the primary challenger to the Brewers own Ryan Rodgers for MGL MVP.

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The rest of the MGL offensive leader boards:

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The Baltimore Lords veteran ace Jose Santos, who is one of the more well respected players in the league, had another very fine season in spite of playing for a team that barely finished over .500, and should be in contention with the Brewers Cheol-han Lee for Pitcher of the Year in the MGL.
Likely Brewers Daniel Torres and Harry Lyerly will also earn some votes for the honor.

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The rest of the MGL pitching leader boards:

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Looking at an overview of what the Brewers did this year it is clear that they are a sub-par offensive team with great pitching and defense.

Even in the area of team speed, the Brewers weren't as good this season. They did finish second in stolen bases but with a success rate that was just over 63%. The teams top base stealer- Pat Rondeau- was caught stealing (21 times) more than he was successful (19 SB's.) The next two- Chad Brown, who stole 16 bases and had a 67% success rate, and Bobby Erbakan, whole stole 11 with a 92% success rate- helped balance out the rate a bit. But overall the team would have been better off running less. (In fact, I kept adjusting the strategies for the team to encourage a more conservative approach in this area.)

Interestingly the team played better on the road than at home. Given that Jacksonville will have the home field advantage in the WS, this might not be bad news for the Brewers. (Although, as you will see below, the Wolf Pack were a very good home team.)
The Brewers also fared much better against right-handed pitching. And this could be a real factor in the WS as Jacksonville has only 1 left-handed pitcher on their post-season roster, and he is probably the worst pitcher they have.

You will see below that Jacksonville was a very good team in a mostly well-rounded way. They have a dynamic offense and also were very good at preventing runs with a great bullpen and great defense. Their starting staff is not terribly good and this is an area where the Brewers should have a distinct advantage.

If the Brewers hope to win this series they will need to find a way to score runs early against the Wolf Pack's mediocre starting pitching and their pitching staff will need to continue to do what they did all season against a very potent offense.

I would have to say that the Brewers are the distinct under-dog in this series. And, in fact, the SJL has been the dominant league so far in the WPK's short history, having won every championship in league history.
But, I can see a way that the Brewers could pull this off. If the Brewers do manage to win it will probably be in a long, low-scoring series. Otherwise they might find themselves being blown out quickly again as they were against the Columbus Whalers in last year's WPK World Series.

[BirdWatcher]

It should come as no surprise that the Brewers top prospect, centerfielder Joe McPhillips, was named the Player of the League for the AA Sub-League 2.

A pair of his teammates, Josh Schaeffer and Jonathan Koch, both of whom are considered decent major league prospects, also finished in the top 5 in the voting.

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Brewers affiliate club Nashville also featured the AA Sub-league 2's Pitcher of the Year for 1970, Jimmy Daniels.
Daniels is considered a possible prospect for a back-end of the rotation spot if he develops a bit more in the next few years.

As a sign of how dominant this Nashville club was, especially in terms of starting pitching, the top 4 vote getters were all Red Wings starters as was the pitcher who placed 6th.

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In rather convincing fashion, the Brewers win Game 1 of the 1970 World Series, getting the team's first ever WS game victory in their second try.

An early first inning error by Jacksonville superstar thirdbaseman Jesus Casiano helped get the Brewers off on the right foot and led to the initial run. The Brewers would capitalize not only on that miscue but also on the fact that Brewers hitters were more patient than Jacksonville starter Eddie Osorio, who normally has such good control, was prepared for as he walked 7 batters in his 6 innings of work.

The Brewers also out-homered the Wolf Pack 2-0, as they got a 2-run 4th inning HR from Tanner Yurek and a solo shot in the 9th by Antonio Puente.

It's a good start but there is still a long ways to go before the Brewers can relax and feel like they have accomplished their goal.

[BirdWatcher]

Brewers hitters seem to like hitting at Wolf Pack Stadium.

The Brewers take Game 2, 10-5. Denver took an early lead with a single run in the 2nd inning, a pair of runs in the 3rd, and another run in the 4th as Cheol-han Lee was pretty easily shutting down the Wolf Pack hitters. The Brewers 4-0 lead threatened to be erased in the bottom of the 6th when the Wolf Pack got to Lee for 3 runs on 4 hits, including 2 HR's but David Brown was able to come in and put out the fire.
That was as close as Jacksonville would get as the Brewers erupted for 6 runs in the top of the 8th inning, including defensive replacement Oscar Vargas hitting a 3-run homerun.
Although the Wolf Pack would rally in the bottom of the 9th and threaten to catch up, that rally fell short as the Brewers bullpen bent but did not break.

The Brewers head home for 3 games up 2-0 with a chance to win a championship in front of the home crowd. But the team is well aware of their own struggles at home and that the Wolf Pack could break out offensively at any time (and showed hints of that late in this game) so the Brewers will need to keep grinding it out, at-bat by at-bat, out by out.

[BirdWatcher]

As the series shifts to Denver, the focus is on 22-year old phenom Harry Lyerly who takes the hill to start for Denver with his team up two games to none.

And Lyerly pitches a pretty good game, giving up 3 runs, only 2 earned, on 9 hits over 6 2/3rds innings, while striking out 9 and walking none. Unfortunately, the Brewers bats go quiet at home and the Wolf Pack win 4-1.

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In Game 4 of the World Series the Brewers were bound and determined to not let the Wolf Pack back into the series and to keep their advantage.

And while the offense remained very quiet, they managed to do just that. With a 1-0 shutout of the best offense in the WPK.

Abel Pennington got the start for Denver and while he didn't pitch deep into the game, he did provide a gutsy 4 2/3rds innings, allowing 4 hits while striking out 3 and walking 1. Liann-wei Hua and Eric Singer combined to go the rest of the way in preserving the shutout.

The Brewers scored the lone run of the game in the bottom of the 4th when Ryan Rodgers hit a 1-out triple and scored on an Antonio Puente single.

The Brewers are now 1 win away from there first WPK Championship- which would also make them the first Moonlight Graham League team to earn this title.

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And once again that old adage that pitching and defense wins championships proves true.

With Daniel Torres leading the way on the mound and that requisite dramatic clutch homerun from an unexpected source- in this case light hitting catcher Kevin Curtis- the Brewers once get a 1-0 shutout victory and this time it clinches a WPK Championship for the boys from the Mile High City.

Antonio Puente, who hit .389 for the series, with 2 HR's and 5 RBI while playing excellent defense in centerfield, is named the series MVP.

[BirdWatcher]

Oh, what a roller-coaster ride this season was!

I really didn't even think we would win the MGL mid-way through the season. And right up until the end I didn't think we could take the World Series title.

I guess the owner is going to have to come up with some new goals. Check, check, and check.

Can't wait for 1971.

[BirdWatcher]

World Champs!

[BirdWatcher]

Okay, I did not see this coming. (And I had nothing to do with it- no behind the scenes manipulation.)
I thought there was a good chance a Brewer pitcher would win this award, but I assumed it would be the veteran Cheol-han Lee.

Wow!

(Edit: should probably have included the voting totals showing that Lee and Torres, as expected, were also in the running.)