The Denver Brewers of the W.P. Kinsella League

[BirdWatcher]

SJL:





The El Paso Dawgs manager Pat Riggs was also the manager for the Jacksonville Wolf Pack back when they were a force to be reckoned with in the SJL, taking them two straight KCS series and winning the ring both times. Many around the league thought it was disgraceful when he was let go after his third season managing the team, when they fell to 3rd place but still won 94 games. He then served for 4 seasons as the bench coach for the San Francisco Velocity before joining El Paso in that same capacity. After watching the Dawgs struggle to losing seasons as their bench coach he finally took over as manager, and, lo and behold, they had their first winning season in over a decade under his guidance. And now he has taken them to the promised land. How much of this is about Riggs skills and how much about being in the right place at the right time is up for debate. But Dawgs ownership and fans have to be pretty pleased with the results.


MGL:



Well, obviously.

[BirdWatcher]

And now we get into the juiciest of the awards, starting with the SJL Pitcher of the Year.




As expected Columbus left-handed starter Luis Ramirez took the honors this season, the first Pitcher of the Year honor of his career.
And not surprisingly his primary rivals for the award were teammates Jim Norris (a 2-time Pitcher of the Year) and Jamar Clay (the Reliever of the Year).
No big surprises here although it is nice to see Jalen Cotton get some love in spite of his 14-18 record. Pitching for Chicago really hurts the talented lefty, who has nearly always had the disadvantage of playing for losing clubs (before the Fire it was mostly Charlotte) and has a career 118-123 record to show for it with a very respectable 3.48 career ERA and 1.26 career WHIP.
I was a bit surprised, I guess, that Philly's Bobby Martinez didn't get any support. He had a fine season (13-7, 2.74) and is a fan favorite.

[BirdWatcher]

Having mostly not made much of an impact this award season, after a record-setting 111-win regular season, the Brewers finally make a big splash as staff ace Sadahige Kawasaki narrowly beats out the great 3-time MGL Pitcher of the Year award winner Aaron McNally for this year's honor.




It is the first Pitcher of the Year award for Kawasaki and the third in Brewers franchise history (Harry Lyerly, 1970 and Cheol-han Lee, 1971- one could make an argument for Erik Sloan in 1972 but he pitched more games for Charlotte that year than for Denver).

Sekien Hamasaki finishes 5th in the voting.

(Editor's note: this one took me by surprise. I was sure that McNally, who finished the season with a 24-8 record and a 2.71 ERA and led pitchers in WAR with 9.1, was going to win this with Sadahige coming in second.)

[BirdWatcher]

As expected, San Antonio's superstar shortstop Bud Lindsay, probably the most admired and revered player in the game today, comes away with his third straight SJL MVP award.






Now if Lindsay can just continue to stay healthy, as he has these past three seasons, he should be well on his way to Hall of Fame induction after his playing days.

[BirdWatcher]

And finally, we have the MGL MVP, an award which goes to Denver first baseman Brett Taranto, the first of his career, and well deserved at that.






Baltimore rookie Robert Mustard finishes second and likely will be competing for this honor for years to come and L.A.'s future Hall of Fame third baseman Jesus Hernandez comes up a bit short in his bid for a second MVP award, finishing in third. Interestingly, Taranto got all of the first place votes in spite of some fine performances from his top competitors for this honor.

It is the third time a Brewer was named league MVP, with Jamison Bash having done so in his one full season with the club in 1971 and current center fielder Joe McPhillips having won it in 1974. McPhillips finished 7th in this year's voting with his fellow outfielder and 1967 draft mate Josh Schaeffer finishing 4th. Val Guzman also got a few votes to finish near the bottom among MVP candidates.

[BirdWatcher]

Veteran power hitting first baseman Luis Gonzales entered the free agency market a few weeks ago but in the end he will be returning to the same club he played for in 1978, the Washington Night Train. In fact, although Gonzales did spend the 1977 season as a member of the Philadelphia Mud Hens, Washington was his first big league club and the only other team he has ever played for in the WPK.



The 32-year old, who was the SJL Rookie of the Year in 1970, is now signed with the Night Train through the 1983 season and he will be making $465,000 per year.

[BirdWatcher]

Ryan Rodgers may be 40 years old but apparently the Philadelphia Mud Hens are willing to take a chance that he has found the secret to eternal youth and have signed him to a 3-year deal which will bring him just a bit below $440,000 annually.



Now if Rodgers can perform anywhere near the level his did this past season, in which he won his 4th Gold Glove award and put up 5.6 WAR while playing for Brooklyn, for just a few more seasons this will look like a very good gamble indeed. Rodgers is a real fan favorite with his hustle and confidence and will certainly not hurt at the box office.

[BirdWatcher]

It is still early in the off-season as we have only just reached the Winter Meetings but the Houston Cavaliers have already been very active and at least at one position they have surely advanced themselves.

Last year's veteran starting catcher, Orlando Sandoval, is a free agent and in his stead the Cavaliers have not only traded to get veteran Erik Buonopane, formerly the best catcher in the game, a 6-time All-Star and 7-time Gold Glove winner. While Buonopane is no longer in the peak of his career he remains a solid option as a backup and put together a 2.9 WAR season in 1978. And now the Cavaliers have announced that they have signed the top catcher among this year's free agent class, Carlos Lopez, who had a 5.0 WAR 1978 and is a fine defensive player with a decent power bat.




Houston also took a step towards solidifying their poor defense when they traded for Barry Owens, a poor hitter but a tremendous defensive backup shortstop who should be able to become proficient at other infield positions readily.




It will be interesting to see what else the Cavaliers have in mind this off-season to rise out of the cellar of the SJL.

[Andrej72]

I am not surprised that Houston is active in the off-season after having by far the worst record in the league. :-) Are they strong enough financially to improve their team significantly?

As for the Brewers, Taranto had a really solid season, and he still has plenty of years remaning in his career hopefully.

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by Andrej72

I am not surprised that Houston is active in the off-season after having by far the worst record in the league. :-) Are they strong enough financially to improve their team significantly?

As for the Brewers, Taranto had a really solid season, and he still has plenty of years remaning in his career hopefully.

I should probably start with a little history in case this is something you aren't familiar with yet for the WPK: the Houston Cavaliers entered the league as one of two expansion clubs (along with the Chicago Fire) prior to the 1975 season and as is expected of expansion clubs they haven't been very good in their first several seasons (though they did have a little run at respectability in 1976 when they finished 76-86).
They made a big move in the offseason between 1976 and 1977 when they signed the foremost free agent that winter, superstar center fielder Lazaro Lowndes. It was perhaps a bit of a premature step as even though Lowndes had a wonderful season in 1977 the team fell back to 67-95 and then in 1978 Lowndes had one of the poorest seasons of his career and is very unhappy playing on this losing team.
As for finances, well, no they don't have a lot of extra money and their owner is rather stingy. On the other hand, early indications in terms of season ticket sales are optimistic and they should have increased revenues this upcoming season.





It should also be noted that a few years ago the rules in the league were changed (through the League Evolution process) and it now requires more years of WPK service for a player to become a free agent and teams have more years of control of players and therefore the free agent market tends to be a bit older than it used to be and not quite as attractive a way for a team to build a contender. This has the effect of providing really good teams with a chance to stay good longer but it also means that teams with a lot of money have slightly less of an advantage over poorer teams in that at least it is harder to buy a winning team through free agency. So there is more emphasis on building a strong farm system and developing players, on making smart trades, on using alternative approaches like the Rule 5 draft, etc.

And this is where we have to offer some praise and hope for the Houston Cavaliers. They currently have the 3rd best farm system in the WPK, with third baseman Steve Whitehead looking like he will be a top candidate for the SJL Rookie of the Year honors in 1979 (only weakness might be that he is injury prone), a great defensive center field prospect in Chris Heisler who should also develop a potent bat and is probably a year or two away from joining the big club, and a side-arming left-handed starting pitcher Jacob Whittemore, who has a lot of development needed yet as he is only 18 years old, but is already considered the 4th best prospect in all of the WPK. They also have a 23-year old third base prospect named Roberto Lira who may never gain enough contact hitting skills to be a useful starting player but has tremendous power potential and strong defensive skills.



And in addition to the moves already outlined here earlier, they were able to get the most developed and most promising player available in this year's Rule 5 draft, potential future dominant closer Ricky Marroquin.



So while the Cavaliers will probably have a few more lean years ahead, the future is looking promising for them. And certainly more so than for their fellow expansion mates the Chicago Fire, but that is a story for another time.



Now, as for the Brewers and Taranto- well one of the best qualities about our friend Brett is that, unlike some of the other biggest position player stars on the Brewers (I'm looking at you Bobby Erbakan, and yes, you Rich White, and yes, even somewhat at you, Joe McPhillips), he has proven to be very durable, having yet to suffer an injury of any sort, even of the day-to-day variety, in his professional baseball career. He will only be making the league minimum salary again this upcoming season and then has 3 years of arbitration eligibility in which he will surely get a huge boost in his wages. Of course it is also very likely that the team will sign him to a long-term extension long before those arbitration years have ended.

[Andrej72]

When a player is eligible for arbitration in the next 3 years, and you want to keep him, do you usually offer him a one-year deal to avoid arbitration?

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by Andrej72

When a player is eligible for arbitration in the next 3 years, and you want to keep him, do you usually offer him a one-year deal to avoid arbitration?

I will rarely go to an arbitration hearing with a player. I do generally work to get them signed sometime in the season when they are arbitration eligible at the end of that season and depending upon what their preference is we might go year-to-year or if they are interested, and I really want to keep them, we might negotiate a more long-term deal, even when they have a few arbitration years left. I generally let them set the tone in that regard.

[BirdWatcher]

The Denver Brewers decided to buy out the last year of left-handed reliever Jason Gottula's contract, making him a free agent this offseason, and yesterday it was announced that his new club would be the Brewers rivals, the Los Angeles Spinners.



The Spinners also announced on the same day that they had signed probably the most talented of the international free agents available this year in South Korean relief pitcher Yoo-hyun Yon. Yon is only 22 years old and pairs an elite-level sinker with a slider of the same quality, having tremendous movement on his pitches, very good stuff, and well above average control. The biggest question mark about Yon though is his durability as many experts predict he will be injury prone. He is a side-arming extreme groundball specialist and is well-regarded when it comes to makeup, with a reputation for being very focused and intelligent.



The Spinners already had a solid bullpen in 1978 (4th in the MGL in bullpen ERA) and with these signings they have announced their intentions to be even better in that area in 1979.

[BirdWatcher]

As expected, none of the five candidates on this year's Hall of Fame ballot got enough votes to enter the Hall, although two- starting pitcher Art McMartin and right fielder Josh Ackland- did get enough votes to stay on the ballot for next year.
For McMartin, who mostly pitched for the Boston Berserkers in the late '60's and early '70's and led the league in wins in 1968 (19) and was a 3-time All-Star, it was his second ballot but while he stays on the ballot he got nearly the exact same number of votes this year as last year (actually he slipped from 6.0% of ballots to 5.9%) and his chances of ever actually making it are nearly non-existent.

Ackland led the league in home runs twice, first with San Antonio in 1965 and then with El Paso in 1968 and was a 5-time All-Star. Still, given that he was already 31 when the WPK was formed, he just didn't have enough time to put together a credible Hall of Fame career and just barely survived his first ballot.

The biggest what-if story on this ballot though is that of Frank Hernandez, who was the SJL MVP in the WPK inaugural season of 1965 and was one of the most dominant power hitters in the league for the first four years of its existence. But after that the big, slow first baseman's game just sort of fell apart. He too was 31 when the league started and it is not too hard to imagine that if the league had started about ten years earlier we would be talking about the Hall of Famer Frank Hernandez. But alas, it was not to be.



Mike Sayers was a fine pitcher, mostly for the Detroit Falcons and Baltimore Lords, and although he was a 5-time All-Star he really didn't have any reasonable expectation of being enshrined in Dubuque.



And finally, David Brown was an unheralded relief pitcher for four different teams during his career, including four really excellent seasons with the Denver Brewers- the best seasons of his career- but a Hall of Famer he was not and having received no votes any remote hopes he might have harbored (and I'm sure he harbored none) are now fully dashed.

[BirdWatcher]

The Los Angeles Spinners continue to stock up on pitchers with the recent signings of Adam Buhman and Jeremy Jankowski.

Both of these signings are not without controversy and question marks.

While Adam Buhman has proven himself to be a talented starting pitcher with pinpoint control, he has also struggled with injuries and is currently out with a ruptured UCL and not expected to be ready to pitch again until nearly mid-season of 1979. He also is basically a two-pitch pitcher at this point and it appears that the Spinners might be planning to use him out of their already packed bullpen. Granted, as a swing-man and emergency starter he would give their staff some quality depth, when healthy.



Part of the reason the bullpen is stacked is because they also recently signed 36-year old right-handed reliever Jeremy Jankowski. In spite of his advanced age Jankowski remains a valuable reliever especially on the strength of his wicked curveball. He is, however, also a flyball pitcher with not great movement. But far more controversial is his personality- he has a long-established reputation as a drama queen and a divisive force in the clubhouse. Given the strength of their bullpen already it is a bit hard to understand why they added Jankowski into the mix.

[Sevsdast]

Expansion soon?

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by Sevsdast

Expansion soon?

Nice to see a new "face" here. Welcome to the world of the WPK.

So, we did have expansion a few seasons ago and I would hope that we might again before too long to even out the leagues (and perhaps introduce division play) but at this stage of things I am not taking control of that but rather letting league evolution take care of such things.
We have crossed the threshold into a new year and no evolutionary changes for 1979.

[BirdWatcher]

The two best second basemen in the free agency market this offseason signed contracts within three days of each other with first Tony Knighton, who had his best season in the WPK this past year when he put up 6.4 WAR playing for the Charlotte Sting, inking a 5-year deal with Pittsburgh. Knighton takes his fine defense and line drive gap power hitting prowess to the already offensively gifted but defensively challenged Pittsburgh Roadrunners. He takes the place of last year's starter Bill Craig, who himself is a free agent. This should be a big upgrade as Craig had a WAR of just 1.0 last season and a -7.5 ZR compared to Knighton's fine +6.4.



A few days later the Charlotte Sting found their replacement for Knighton when they inked veteran star Randy Keisel to a 3-year deal. Keisel is trending in the wrong direction defensively but still has a pretty potent bat. He put together a 3.2 WAR season between two teams (his original club, the Baltimore Lords, and the Oklahoma City Diamond Kings after a mid-July trade). Charlotte hopes he regains some of the home run power he has at times shown in his career (he dropped from 25 HR's in 1977 to just 11 last season) and for now they have slotted him in the clean-up slot of their power-deprived lineup.



The big question now in Pittsburgh is what this means for their top prospect Nick Johnson, whose primary position is second base. Johnson played in AA last season and at age 23 is nearly big league ready and is the #5 prospect in all of the WPK. He is also durable and already a fan favorite so surely a spot must be found for him on the Roadrunners roster soon. He can also play first base but with 31-year old team captain Bill Lechner there and still very productive (and signed through 1981) it is hard to imagine that working out. Will Pittsburgh move their top prospect to improve their weak starting rotation and will the kid just need to claw his way into the lineup?

[BirdWatcher]

In what has been an active offseason for the Houston Cavaliers, they made yet another big move, this one perhaps a bit puzzling, when they signed 36-year old slugging right fielder Ju-ao Ju to a 3-year deal.



Granted, Ju is a definite offensive upgrade for the team in right field. They had traded away right field starter Doug Helmick mid-season in 1978 and his replacement, Adam Caruso, is probably best suited for a 4th outfielder role. And Ju did have a fine comeback season in 1978 after two straight disappointing and injury-marred seasons. The 1975 MGL MVP and 7-time All-Star remains a potent hitter and is expected to hit clean-up in the Houston lineup but he is also old, slow, injury-prone, and a poor fielder with a reputation for lax work habits and an unmotivated attitude.
Should Ju have a season similar to the one he had in 1978 he could help the Cavaliers to climb out of the cellar and into a more respectable area of the standings this coming season but he isn't a long-term answer and there is an element of gamble to this signing.

[BirdWatcher]

With their star right fielder Ju-ao Ju having left the club via free agency, the Phoenix Speed Devils sent veteran relief pitcher Tyler Thies and pitching prospect Chris Jordan to the Philadelphia Mud Hens for 30-year old right fielder Sean Cline.



Cline has a reputation as a hard worker and a real sparkplug for a club and he will certainly be a big defensive upgrade over Ju but there is little to suggest that he will add much offensive value.

While Thies, the 1973 SJL Reliever of the Year while with Seattle, hasn't produced much value the past several seasons, he remains a capable reliever who will induce groundball outs and rarely give up the long ball.
Whether the 23-year old Jordan will ever develop into a big league starter is questionable and while he has some talent his movement is sub-par and his control is still a work in progress. Given a seeming propensity for injury, the feeling is that he may just end up being organizational filler.

Still, for the Mud Hens, who came oh so close to taking the SJL pennant in 1978, adding a solid veteran arm like Thies to a bullpen that wasn't a strength can't be seen as a bad thing. With veteran Ryan Rodgers taking over in right field, Cline was expendable.

And for the Speed Devils, who have finished last in the MGL two years running, it is going to take a whole lot more than moves like this for them to hope to compete, let along rise out of the cellar, in 1979.