Ruben "Streak" Souffront and the Denver Brewers

[BirdWatcher]

Team's looking gutsy right now and get 6th win in a row on a walk-off in the 10th inning.
Youngster Bobby Erbakan continues to impress and hopes are high for his future.

[stevem810]

Looks like a team that is 'turning the corner'. Keep it going!!

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by stevem810

Looks like a team that is 'turning the corner'. Keep it going!!

I can only hope.
Haven't reported end of June yet but we are now at July 1st in the schedule and after a bit of a rough series against L.A. the Brewers stand at one game under .500.
Which, given the disastrous May, isn't horrible.
Antonio Puente just came back off the disabled list and I'm hoping that he starts hitting soon as we really need his bat to come back to life in the middle of the lineup. As result of Puente's return, Andrew Kennedy was sent back down to the minors, this time to AAA Chester. Kennedy did not look completely over-matched at the major league level and will likely be back later in the season (after September 1st, at least) to provide a decent bat off the bench. But in the meantime, his leadership may be missed. Since his demotion the bench coach is indicating that while morale is still in the contented range, he needs to monitor things a bit to see how it sorts out. A losing streak to start July could lead to bad clubhouse mojo, for sure. Puente is not a bad influence in the clubhouse, but he isn't the great positive that Kennedy is.

Meanwhile, our most talented starting pitcher, Diego Ramirez, remains on the disabled list with elbow inflammation and his return date is unknown at this time. Unfortunately, he is proving to be a bit more injury prone then we could have foreseen. It would be a big boost if we could get him healthy and keep him healthy for the rest of the season.

In the good news department, Bobby Erbakan was named MGL Rookie-of-the-Month for June.

[BirdWatcher]

Okay, I have to confess, when the Brewers closed out their second narrow victory in a row over Charlotte, I didn't even realize until I went to the game story/boxscore that we had been no-hit. That's right. The Brewers were no-hit AND won the game 1-0.
So. If we're going to get no-hit, we'll take this result.

[BirdWatcher]

It has now been nearly exactly a year that I have been playing OOTP (I purchased OOTP18 during the World Series sale last year.)
And this is really just my second save that I have played very extensively. The first was an historical save where I took over the 1993 expansion Colorado Rockies ("my" team).

So I definitely feel like I'm learning all the time with this game (and hopefully will be for many years to come) and especially given the different challenges with fictional play as opposed to historic play.
My goal with my Rockies save was to challenge myself and turn the Rockies into a dynasty. Thirteen seasons in- with two championships and winning records in all but the first two seasons, including a three-year stretch with 116, 125, and 116 wins- mission accomplished.

My goal in this save is a bit different. Or perhaps I should say that I approached it hoping that dynasty building would not be so easy in fictional play. And so far it certainly hasn't been.

And I'm loving every minute of it.

So, what's my point today? Well, just to stop a moment and reflect upon what I've been learning through this save and what I am still trying to figure out.
For instance, my newly acquired (in the off-season) starting pitcher, who is in many ways our most talented starting pitcher, has just come off the disabled list and is now officially categorized as a fragile player. What I feel like I am learning, the hard way, is to even more prioritize durability in pitchers. Up to now I have mostly been trying to avoid fragile pitchers but I haven't made a huge distinction between those with normal injury proneness and those who are durable or better. Sure, all other things being equal, I will choose the durable (or Iron Man) guy over the normal. But all other things are rarely completely equal. And perhaps especially when there isn't a body of evidence built up yet (or not much of one anyway), all the more reason to err on the side of caution. This aforementioned starting pitcher, for instance, was a FA out of Cuba. His injury proneness was listed as normal but there wasn't a lot to go on beyond that. (I will not let myself peek behind the curtains at the editor in this save.) Similarly, one of our best young starting pitcher prospects in the minors (Rob Ibarra, if you are following along at home), while still listed as normal in terms of injury proneness, has been racking up a lot of DL time in the past season or so. And with our most recent first round draft pick, starting pitcher Steve Green, also considered normal in this area I have to hold my breath that he doesn't turn out to be vulnerable to arm injuries as well. Miguel Campos, one of our most talented young starters taken during the inaugural draft, has also gone from originally being normal to now being fragile and while he still has some talent it appears he is destined for bullpen action primarily and that the career-ending injury may always be just around the corner.

Another lesson I am learning the hard way is the importance of power hitting. With my Rockies save it was a given that I would focus on power hitters, along with getting good infield defense, pitchers who induced ground balls, outfielders with good to great range, and a deep and talented bullpen. Those things didn't always work out the way I planned every year, but overall this approach yielded great results.
With this team I have focused more on team speed and defense and even traded away some of my best power hitters in the first season or two largely due to them aging and starting to see defensive skills erode. (It turned out I jumped too soon in trading OF/1B Mark Compton, who remains a solid defender in rightfield and has been one of the league's finest power hitters thus far.) And the team does have great defenders and top of the line speed. And can't seem to score runs. Even in seasons where we have a team batting average and OBP in the top half of the league, we are invariably near the bottom of the league in runs scored. And this season, with our one consistent power source (Antonio Puente) having only 4 HR's at the half-way point, this is a major problem. Our leading HR hitters this season are sitting at only 5 HR's (Tanner Yurek, Ruben Souffront). Granted, this years offensive numbers are down across the board in the league, but even by league standards for this season this is ridiculous.
Our starting pitching has been pretty good in spite of injury issues, our bullpen has been mostly tremendous, our team defense remains a real strength, and while our stolen bases are down a bit the team has even more speed spread out through the lineup than in the past. But with so little power, we just can't score enough runs to contend.
And I haven't been able to figure out what to do about this either. I don't have any bonafide sluggers coming up through the ranks. We do need to upgrade at thirdbase in a serious way and if somehow we could find and be able to afford a free agent thirdbaseman with good power in the off-season that would be fantastic. Probably isn't going to happen. The guy who best fits this description is Detroit's slugger, Jamison Bash. But he is locked up for at least a few more seasons.

So the learning curve continues and sometimes it seems steep. I'm loving it, and I'm very fond of my team and this league, but sometimes it can be pretty frustrating too.

Currently the team is playing better, largely on the strength of great pitching and some timely hitting. (Or, in the case of the game featured above where we won in spite of being no-hit, a timely error by the opponent, a timely stolen base, a timely productive out, etc.)
It is possible that our recent complete shake-up in the catcher position is paying off. Not sure yet how much to read into it, but the pitching staff does appear to be faring better with the Brett Wood/Joey Townsend catching duo rather than the Sam Rogers/Tony Silmon combo. And, in spite of Townsend not appearing to have that much potential and having the rep of being unmotivated, he's provided us with some big hits including a few HR's already in his very limited time. So there's that.

Still, if we hope to continue this winning trend and finish at least over .500 (2 games over at the moment), we will need Puente to get hot at the plate and at least get to 20 HR's for the season, we will need Yurek to approach that, we will need Souffront to keep developing a bit more power and Erbakan to keep showing that he has power potential (3 HR's thus far), and we will need a few others who have some raw HR-hitting ability to at least get a handful more along the way (Willie Chavez, Townsend, Arturo Baca.)

Either way, I'm going to have fun with it.
And thank goodness I discovered OOTP a year ago. I'm loving it!

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers enter the All-Star break in a decidedly more optimistic mood.
The team has gone 6-1 so far in the month of July and has now won 13 of their last 18 contests.

Also good news for the Brewers is how competitive the MGL is thus far, with no teams dominating at this point of the season. The surprising Detroit Falcons, normally a doormat in the MGL, are currently in first with a fine .588 winning percentage, but the Brewers, at 4 games over .500 and tied for fourth place are a mere 5 1/2 games behind the Falcons and with nearly a half a season left have no reason to rule out the possibility of contention for the league title.

[BirdWatcher]

Speaking of the All-Star game, three players will represent the Brewers in this year's game, all voted in to the contest.
Ryan Rodgers easily was elected as the MGL starter in centerfield.
And two of the Brewers dominant relievers, Miguel Solis and Jamel McNeil, were one and two respectively in the voting for relief pitchers.

[BirdWatcher]

I alluded to it earlier, but congratulations are in order for the Brewers' rookie firstbaseman Bobby Erbakan, who was named the MGL Rookie-of-the-Month for June.
While the numbers may not look impressive, given the current pitching-rich context of the league, Erbakan has been one of the offensive bright spots for the team. He also provides excellent defense at first while also having the ability to provide creditable outfield coverage.

The team believes this is merely the tip of the iceberg and that as Erbakan matures he will likely turn into a major star in this league.

[BirdWatcher]

A few player personnel moves that I have failed to report on:
On June 25th the Brewers traded away erstwhile super-sub Jose Bravo, who had been languishing at AAA this season with the emergence of Arturo Baca, to the Philadelphia Mud Hens in exchange for former Brewers farmhand (now once again Brewers farmhand) Nate Cole.
This was considered mostly a move to give the well-liked Bravo a chance to get back to the WPK as it was clear there was no path for him to return to the Brewers at this time.
It is clear that everyone in the Brewers organization wishes Jose well, just not when playing us.

In a separate move, the Brewers brought veteran firstbaseman Sam Oakley up from AAA Chester on June 22nd. Oakley had been signed to a minor league contract by the team just about a week prior to that. Oakley was brought up to provide the team with a much needed right-handed power bat off the bench and a spark in the clubhouse. And thus far Oakley has indeed provided two very key HR's in his short time with the club.

[BirdWatcher]

Mid-season (well, virtually if not exactly) is a good time also to look at how things are going with prospects in the minors.

AAA Chester features mostly relief pitchers in terms of prospects, with several solid major-league quality arms currently awaiting call-up, including Kyle McTavish and Ben Malzone, both of whom have been Brewers at points during this season, and Kyle Green, who was briefly on the big-league club last season. Billy Tanner is also currently at Chester on a rehab assignment having recently come off the DL.
But of those who don't yet have major league experience the most intriguing is Denver native Dave Harder. Harder has put up good numbers this year at both AA Nashville and AAA Chester but indications are that he isn't quite WPK-ready yet. The Brewers scouting staff believe that Harder is destined to be a fine major league closer for the next half decade or so at the least and he will likely be a September call-up this year so that he can start to get his feet wet against major-league hitters.

The other Chester player with some potential for the bigs is catcher Kevin Curtis. Curtis appears to have limited potential with the bat at the major league level but as a defense first catcher could certainly compete for the back-up job for the Brewers in the next few seasons.

Of course, Andrew Kennedy is also down at AAA Chester and will surely be back on the Brewers squad before too long.

[BirdWatcher]

The AA Nashville club has a pretty solid clump of prospects who might not be far from having a role on the Brewers.
Two of the best are pitchers who are currently on the Disabled List: starter Rob Ibarra and reliever Jaden Francis.
Ibarra will need to make some improvements on his change-up before he will be a viable big leaguer, but if he does he has the potential to be a solid mid-rotation starter for the Brewers in the next few seasons. Unfortunately, while he has pitched well in 1968, his season has been interrupted by several relatively minor injuries and there is some concern about his future durability.
Francis, the Brewers first round draft pick in 1965, is developing very well and really just needs to get a bit more command of his pitches to become a valuable member of the Brewers bullpen.

[BirdWatcher]

Among position players at AA the two most intriguing are thirdbaseman Jose Careaga, whose star has diminished a bit this year but who still projects to be a solid starter at the major league level, and 23-year old shortstop Juan Lujan, who was acquired in a trade with L.A. in May of this year, and is off to an impressive start with the Nashville club.

[BirdWatcher]

The Bainbridge Brawlers, Denver's class A team, is having a very poor season but there are a few relievers on the club who have a good chance to eventually land in the Brewers bullpen.
20-year old righty Justin Bismark, the Brewers 1966 first round draft pick, looks like he has a chance to be a dominant reliever if he can just harness his control a bit more. He has a potentially devastating change-up to go along with a potentially lethal fastball and could be nearly un-hittable on a regular basis.
19-year old lefty, a supplemental first round draft pick in 1967, will need to make improvements to his curve-ball in order to fashion a major league career, but has a solid sinker with great movement and should develop decent stuff. Control will be an issue but he could still be a useful bullpen piece once developed a bit more.

[BirdWatcher]

It is of course still pretty early in the season at short season A-ball Jersey City, but the Brewers are liking what they are seeing so far from several prospects there.
The top Brewers position player prospect (now that Erbakan is with the Brewers) is Jersey City centerfielder Joe McPhillips. And while he has cooled off a bit of late, McPhillips is mostly picking up where he left off after a torrid AFL campaign.
Top secondbase prospect Jonathan Koch continues to impress at the plate while showing the ability to be a solid defender at second.
And rightfielder Josh Schaeffer, whose work habits are considered questionable by many in the organization, has at least shown that his ability to put the bat on the ball and get good results is strong.

[BirdWatcher]

Also at Jersey City, the Brewers `1968 round 1 (#8 overall) pick Steve Green has had one rough start but mostly has looked good in his limited action so far in the rotation.
The other early round draft pick for the Brewers this year, reliever Ali Pressley, hasn't pitched enough to make any judgments about yet, but the scouting staff remains high on his potential.

[BirdWatcher]

There isn't much to report from the Brewers Rookie league club in Greensboro, but young centerfielder, and borderline prospect, Josiah Bridges is off to a nice start.
Also, Ian Dube, who previously was considered the Brewers top secondbase prospect, is showing signs of resurrecting his status as a legit prospect.

[BirdWatcher]

I had no idea the Viennese were such big baseball fans!

The SJL wins a tightly contested All-Star game.
In an unconventional move, MGL manager Harry Rabelais (Portland), had reliever Jamel McNeil on the mound to start the game. McNeil pitched a scoreless first in spite of allowing a hit and that was it for him.
Ryan Rodgers, starting in centerfield, walked his first time up and singled in his second plate appearance before being replaced.
And Brewers reliever Miguel Solis pitched the sixth inning, hitting the first batter he faced, but then striking out the next and getting the third to hit a groundball right back to the mound which Solis fielded cleanly, throwing to second base to get the lead runner to start the inning-ending double play.

So the Brewers players acquitted themselves well but the MGL was shut-out by the SJL.

[BirdWatcher]

During the All-Star break the Brewers negotiated a fairly big trade, sending five players- most significantly reliever Ben Malzone- to the Oklahoma City Diamond Kings for three players- most significantly veteran thirdbaseman Roy Hugo- and $30,000 in cash.

The feeling in the Mile High City is that this was a signal to the fans that Brewers leadership has far from given up on contending this season. Although Malzone has good potential in the bullpen and gave the Brewers very fine middle relief performance during the 1967 season, this is an area of surplus for the Brewers and sometimes you have to trade from strength.
Admittedly, Hugo is probably just a loaner for this season as he is a free agent at the end of the season and at his age it is unlikely the team would be interested in re-signing him.
But the team desperately needed an upgrade at third, and this is a priority the owner has made very clear as well, and while this isn't a big upgrade it could be a small bump that yields some bigger results in the second half. At the very least Hugo adds another right-handed bat lower in the lineup with extra base, and even homerun, potential (he doesn't have great power but has hit 9 doubles, 2 triples, and 3 HR's this season), and he has a good eye and doesn't strike out often. (For comparison sake- the combination of Hector Uribe and Willie Chavez had hit 7 doubles, 0 triples, and 0 HR's in the first half.)

[BirdWatcher]

Well, that's not good.

[BirdWatcher]

Great game for young Mr. Erbakan as the Brewers remain hot.
If Bobby Erbakan develops a decent amount of power, as it is thought he has potential to, this will be a huge boost for the team's offensive attack.