The Denver Brewers of the W.P. Kinsella League

[BirdWatcher]

Chris Tobin was the 1973 MGL MVP as a member of the Portland Wild Things, the team with which he played his entire career (starting in 1969) until leaving to join the Baltimore Lords this past season as a free agent. Tobin, not one of the best liked players in the league but a very hard worker and talented hitter, had an unimpressive 1976 campaign and many wondered if at age 30 he might be heading into decline. He certainly isn't the defensive shortstop he once was in spite of his still great arm and ability to turn two.




But Baltimore took a chance on him and signed him to a 5-year contract worth more than 2 million dollars over its course. And thus far this season they are getting their money's worth. Tobin trails only Phoenix's Devin Schwisow in all of the WPK in home runs with 17, is first in RBI at 54, 2nd in OPS behind only his teammate Chia-ch'ing Chou, and is 3rd in WAR in the MGL behind Denver's Bobby Erbakan and Chou.
Tobin's single-season high in homers is 25 and he might be approaching that total by All-Star break this season. Along with Chou he is a big reason why the Lords offense is so feared this year (they are 1st in runs scored in the MGL and 2nd in HR's) and why they are still very capable of contending for the pennant.

It might be wise at some point for his club to move him to third base but for now at least any shortcomings he has at shortstop are being more than made up for with his potent bat.

[BirdWatcher]

Although the Brewers ran into the buzz saw that is the Baltimore Lords offense on Sunday, at least they got to see their star second baseman, Bobby Erbakan, extend his consecutive game hit streak to 33 games.
Erbakan is now 1 game shy of tying the longest such streak in WPK history.

[BirdWatcher]

It isn't often Seattle Alligator fans have much to celebrate as the team finds themselves mired in last place in the SJL.




But yesterday their rookie starting pitcher Eduardo Carrillo gave themselves something to smile about. In just his 8th big league start, the 24-year old righty out of Havana, Cuba, who was a second round draft pick in 1974, didn't allow the first place Washington Night Train (now in a virtual tie with Columbus) a single hit, while striking out 4 and walking 4. It is the first no-hitter of the 1977 season and Seattle fans hope just a taste of what might be to come from the hard-working groundball specialist.

[BirdWatcher]

So yesterday, while Bobby Erbakan extended his hitting streak to get to within one of tying the WPK record and the first no-hitter of the season was hurled, WPK teams were also entertaining visions of the potential future as they picked players in the annual amateur player draft.

Many experts considered it a weak draft class but other cautioned that such a determination really can't be made for at least another 10-15 years.

Here were the first five players chosen, picked by (in this order) Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh.

(Note: this is how these players look to the Denver scouting staff. The OSA, and almost surely the teams that chose these players, see them a bit more optimistically.)

[BirdWatcher]

The Denver Brewers have a bit of a reputation of drafting a lot of speedy, good glove outfielders in the amateur draft, and hoping that their athleticism and toolsiness will help them to exceed current projections of their hit tool. Sometimes it has worked, often it hasn't. Though it should be noted that four of the current Brewers outfielders- Joe McPhillips, Josh Schaeffer, Val Guzman, and Jon Williams- were Brewers draft picks who basically fit this description. And they are all having fine seasons in 1977. So it didn't come as a surprise when 3 of the first 5 players the Brewers chose in this year's draft were speedy center fielders.

First round pick Matt Catlett has by far the best hit tool of the three and is most likely to have the potential to be a starter in the WPK someday. The slightly built product of Madison College isn't expected to develop much over-the-fence power but with his plus plus speed and very advanced base running skills, he is expected to produce a good deal of extra base hits. He won't likely walk much but at his prime he is projected to be very tough to strike out. While he is a plus defender he possesses just an average arm and may end up being more suited to left field in the long run. Catlett is considered an advanced prospect, even if not really an elite one, and though he will start his professional career in the Rookie League it is thought he might climb up the minor league ladder quickly.



More about the other center fielders taken in the first five rounds but before that, with their 2nd and 3rd round picks the Brewers grabbed a pair of left-handed multi-pitch starting pitchers.

Austin Bond, taken at the end of the 2nd round, has an impressive 6 pitches in his arsenal, though none of them project as elite and all are relatively undeveloped at this point. Bond is definitely a bit of a development project pick, but with his high intelligence and work ethic, along with indications of great adaptability, the Brewers are optimistic that he can exceed his current projections. His ground ball inducing tendencies fit in well with organizational philosophy and the organizational leaders are confident that as he fills out his velocity will improve. (Plus he has that great name, mixing Austin Powers with James Bond.)



Third round pick Steve Reid, out of Memphis College, is a similar pitcher though with a more developed 5-pitch repertoire but perhaps a bit of a lower potential ceiling than Bond. Where Reid does have an advantage is in his stamina, where he profiles as a potential workhorse. On the other hand, he doesn't profile as being quite as durable as Bond. The good news is that of the four rather mild injuries he suffered during his collegiate career only one was arm related and that was a tired arm that sidelined him for just one week in 1974.



As mentioned earlier, the Brewers then returned to picking toolsy outfielders. With their 4th round pick it was the Phoenix, Arizona native Angelo Rivas. Rivas is a high energy guy with great leadership potential. He has great speed but needs to develop a bit more savvy on the base paths. His speed does allow him to have the range to remain a true center fielder, though his arm is average and he is prone to gaffes a bit more often than would be hoped for. His hit tool is adequate at best and may likely mean that any big league future for him will be as a backup outfielder. Though it should be noted that he has strong infield defensive skills as well and could likely play both first and second and could end up being a super-sub.



With their 5th round pick the Brewers chose L.A. native Chris Kaplan. Kaplan has the best raw speed of the three center fielders the team chose early in the draft. His top-of-the-scale speed also gives him the potential to be an elite defender in center. Like his counterparts chosen earlier in the draft, Kaplan has a great work ethic and this should serve him well. But the big question with Kaplan is whether he will ever develop enough of a hit tool to make it to the bigs. On the plus side, it is felt that he will develop enough plate discipline to be a tough guy to strikeout, though it isn't expected that he will ever draw many walks. His ceiling is probably slap-hitting back-up outfielder/defensive replacement/pinch-runner. But with his weak bat his floor is pretty low and he may never hit enough to get out of the minors.

[BirdWatcher]

In yesterday's game in Baltimore, Bobby Erbakan got the tension about whether he could extend his consecutive game hitting streak to 34- tying the all-time best streak in WPK history- out of the way very early when he lined a single up the middle in the first to drive in the first run of the game.

With that RBI single Erbakan equaled Nick Haran's 34-game stretch in 1969.

[BirdWatcher]

And Bobby has done it! With a double in the 5th inning of Wednesday's win over Charlotte, the Brewers' Bobby Erbakan sets the new WPK consecutive game hitting streak record by hitting safely in 35 straight games.

[BirdWatcher]

Bobby Erbakan has seen his batting average on the decline lately but he continues to manage at least one hit per game. In an ugly loss against Charlotte on Thursday, the only real suspense was whether Bobby could keep the streak alive and heading into the late innings it was starting to look like he wouldn't. But when he came up in the 7th with one out and Josh Schaeffer at first, he showed why he is such a great hitter, working a 3-2 count on 9 pitches (fouling off 5 pitches) before drilling the 10th pitch on a line drive to the opposite field to score Schaeffer.

[BirdWatcher]

Devin Schwisow, the 30-year old Phoenix Speed Devils' slugging first baseman, is knocking baseballs out of the park at record rates, and yesterday collected three dingers against the Portland Wild Things. Unfortunately, the last place Speed Devils continue to have the worst pitching (an unbelievable 7.37 team ERA!) and worst fielding (-16.0 team ZR) in baseball, and lost 11-8. Schwisow, the 1970 MGL Rookie of the Year and 4-time All-Star, drove in 7 runs himself.




In a year in which the long ball is once again a thing (after the Great Power Outage of 1976), Schwisow is easily the leading producer of them, as his nearest competitor in all of the WPK is Baltimore's Chris Tobin at 17. At his current pace, Schwisow would finish the season with 67 home runs. The most ever hit by a player in a single WPK season is 50, which was done once by Jamison Bash (1966) and once by Eric Brakeall (1969).

(Okay, let's ponder that a bit. The guys who are tied for the most HR's in a season are named Bash and Brakeall. How wonderful is that! )

[BirdWatcher]

Yesterday Bobby Erbakan's eye almost cost him his hitting streak, as he walked twice after having hit into a ground out in his first inning at-bat. But when he led off the bottom of the 8th inning by cracking the second pitch he saw for a screaming line drive single through the hole on the right side of the infield, Brewers fans erupted from their seats with joyful cheers.
Those cheers would be even greater when Rich White doubled to lead off the bottom of the 9th, moved to third on a ground ball out to first base off the bat of Joe Willemse, and scored on a seeing-eye ground ball up the middle for a single by Kirk Patnode.

[BirdWatcher]

Bobby Erbakan's lone hit in yesterday's 1-0 victory over the Wild Things in Portland was also surely the biggest hit of the game, an 8th inning 2-out double that led to him scoring when Joe McPhillips followed with a double of his own. Having scored the lone run of the game, the fact that Erbakan's hit gave him 38 straight games with at least one hit was almost secondary.



Once again the Brewers failed to give ace Sadahige Kawasaki much run support, but fortunately he only allowed 3 hits with 6 strikeouts and no walks in shutting out the Wild Things for 8 innings. Eric Marino and Tim Shore combined to preserve the narrowest of margins in the bottom of the 9th.

(Hopefully you aren't getting too sick of seeing Bobby's face yet. I'd love him to keep this up a bit longer. Especially with 40 so close in sight.)

[BirdWatcher]

Brewers record: 4-2 (week), 38-19, 1st place, MGL (season)

June 5-6, at Baltimore: 3-10, 6-3.

June 8-10, versus Charlotte: 8-5, 8-14, 5-4.

June 11, at Portland: 1-0.

Given Bobby Erbakan's hitting streak this week's games have been pretty well documented already, but let's at least look a bit at some of the significant moments for other players on the team this week.

The week started with a loss to Baltimore which was a tough, and again, unlucky, start for Sadahige Kawasaki. Kawasaki (6-5, 2.04), gave up 6 runs on 7 hits over 6 innings pitched, but not a single run allowed was earned. The Brewers only committed 2 errors- 1 of them by Kawasaki himself- but they were very poorly timed and the Lords took advantage. Val Guzman went 3 for 3 in the loss.

In the second game of the series against Baltimore things didn't look very good for the Brewers when starter Erik Sloan had to leave having retired just two batters and have given up a single. Sloan, who started the season on the IL with an oblique strain, is suffering from back spasms. With a not very fresh bullpen, the pressure was on Cheol-han Lee (2-4, 9.08), who has had a disastrous 1977 season. He got off to a shaky start, giving up a double to the first batter he faced (inherited runner scored) and then a single to plate a second run. But in the end, Cheol-han lasted 6 1/3rd innings, throwing 49 pitches in relief, and allowing just 1 run on 3 hits for the victory. Tim Shore closed out the game for his 10th save. Joe Willemse went 3 for 5 and drove in 3 runs.
Game 3 was rained out and scheduled for later in the season.

In the opening game against Charlotte, Steve Green (6-1, 3.87) also had to leave early with back issues (tightness), but lasted long enough to get the win, allowing zero runs on 3 hits in 5 innings pitched. Ben Flynn pitched the 9th for his 6th save. Brett Taranto went 2 for 4 with 4 RBI and hit his 4th HR of the season.

Tough start for Matt Helm (3-2, 3.99) in game 2, as he gave up 9 runs (4 earned) on 10 hits over 6 1/3rd innings and he team got blasted by the Sting. Brett Taranto homers again, his 5th, and Joe McPhillips gets his 6th home run of the season.

Brewers get a walk-off in game 3 to take the series, thanks to Kirk Patnode's (.385/.432/.415) 1-out single to score Rich White, who had led off the inning with a double. Sekien Hamasaki does not get the win but does stay undefeated. He gave up 4 runs on 6 hits over 8 innings pitched. Tim Shore (4-1, 2.45) pitches the 9th and does pick up the victory.

The week ends with a great pitching duel in Portland. Sadahige Kawasaki (7-5, 1.86) again gets little run support but shuts down the Wild Things on 3 hits over his 8 innings pitched for the win. Tim Shore finishes it for his 11th save. Jon Williams (.313/.364/.465) went with a walk and a stolen base (though also a caught stealing) in the win.

[BirdWatcher]

SJL:



You would think that a no-hitter might be the game of the week, no? Okay, maybe it should have been but we've already discussed that and really it wasn't that impressive a game outside of the obvious.
So let's give some love to two teams without much of a winning history- the former doormats of the SJL, El Paso, who finally broke a 10-season stretch of losing records with a 2nd place finish in 1976, and the expansion Houston Cavaliers, who went from a 103-loss season in their first season (1975) to a 76-86 season last year. While El Paso has fallen back a bit this season they are sticking around in the top half of the league thus far in 1977 while Houston continues to improve, sitting at 1 game over .500 at the end of the week.
On Tuesday, El Paso got the better of Houston in a 13-inning marathon when they got a lead-off walk-off solo home run from this unlikely source to win the game:



Because, that's what's great about baseball- on any given day you have no idea what you might witness.


MGL:



The day before, to start the week off, the Brooklyn Aces claimed a 10-inning win over Oklahoma City, by a score of 2-1.
It is a tale of a team on the rise- Brooklyn- versus a team that might have peaked a bit too early in the season- Oklahoma City. By the end of the week, the Aces, who have won 8 of their last 10 games, had climbed to 4th place, 6 1/2 games behind the Denver Brewers. The Diamond Kings rallied a bit at the end of the week and still are in a tie for 2nd place but have gone 4-6 in their last 10 and with L.A. and Brooklyn both advancing on them it will be interesting to see if they can maintain their position for much longer.
Our old friend Ryan Rodgers played a key role in the Brooklyn victory, as he went 3 for 5 in the game with his final hit being what turned out to be the game-winning RBI single in the top of the 10th inning.

[BirdWatcher]

Ryan Lamb of the Houston Cavaliers is one of the unlikeliest heroes of the 1977 season thus far.



Granted he was a 1st round (supplemental) draft pick in 1970 (by the Philadelphia Mud Hens). But he had an undistinguished minor league career, which included being traded from Philly to Brooklyn for veteran lefty Chris Pollack in January of 1971 and then he was picked off the Brooklyn roster by the Chicago Fire in the expansion draft of November 1974. He did get off to a good start in 1976 and was named to the All-Star game to represent the Fire as the lone player from the team to be named.

But what he's doing this year couldn't have been predicted. Along with rookie Sandy Morales at the top of the Houston starting rotation, he is helping the team achieve respectability. It does help, of course, that the Cavaliers play their home games in one of the best pitching parks in the league, a field which especially depresses the long ball. Still, with his sub-par stuff and poor control, it is hard to imagine Lamb keeping up his current pace. (And certainly his .219 BABIP is a good sign that rougher times may be on the way.)

But you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the league who has had a better month-long stretch of starts than Lamb, and that is with 4 of the 7 games started being on the road. From May 7th to June 7th: 7 games started, 7 wins, 7 consecutive quality starts.

[BirdWatcher]

Bobby Erbakan's first triple of the 1977, in the 6th inning of Sunday's loss in Portland, extended his WPK-longest ever hitting streak to 39 games.



Unfortunately, Brewers starter Erik Sloan continued his struggles and the Brewers offense couldn't break out against Wild Things starter Kyle Bidwell or their veteran closer Ed Milia, who is having one of the best seasons of his career at age 30.
(It should be noted though that things could have been even worse for the Brewers if it were not for several spectacular plays made in left field by rookie Val Guzman, who continues to have a fine season.)

[BirdWatcher]

And he keeps going. Bobby Erbakan didn't let much suspense build at all in the final game of the series against the Wild Things in Portland on Monday as he singled in his first at-bat in the first inning, when he helped the Brewers plate 3 runs to take a lead they would never relinquish.



Meanwhile, another 30-year old star player- Pittsburgh's first baseman Bill Lechner- has reached 20 games in a row and last year's SJL MVP, Bud Lindsay, of San Antonio, has now hit in 25 straight.

[BirdWatcher]

He only got 1 hit in the Brewers victory on Wednesday evening against the Phoenix Speed Devils in Denver, but it was a big one- a 2-run, 2-out triple to the opposite field which put the Brewers on the board.



When you have a hitting streak going it probably isn't a bad thing to face the historically worst pitching staff in the league and do so at home.

Sekien Hamasaki improved to 8-0 with the victory. And the Brewers are now 40-20 to start the 1977 season.

[BirdWatcher]

That's right, with his line-drive single to left in the 3rd inning Bobby Erbakan extended his consecutive game hit streak to 42 games in the Brewers 12-1 trouncing of Phoenix Thursday night.



(This is where I admit that while, like any serious baseball fan, I am well aware of the DiMaggio streak and Rose's 44-game streak, I didn't really know just how rare the territory is that Bobby has entered, as compared to the long history of MLB. It wasn't really until I looked this up last night that the impressiveness of this hit me. With his 42nd game he now passes George Sisler (1922) and ties Bill Dahlen (1894). Only Rose, Wee Willie Keeler, and DiMaggio bettered Erbakan's streak in MLB history. And honestly I'm not sure comparing pre-1901 MLB stats to the WPK or the rest of MLB history makes sense, so really it seems to me that Erbakan is in a class with just Rose and DiMaggio. That's pretty exclusive company. And it ain't over yet.)

EDIT- oh, and I should have said that 1976 SJL MVP Bud Lindsey saw his streak end, at 26, yesterday. So he won't be challenging Bobby anytime soon in this category.

[BirdWatcher]

Bobby Erbakan got the tension out of the way early with a line-drive single to left in the first inning and then went on to have a terrific game, missing hitting for the cycle by not getting a triple (he walked twice in addition to his 3 hits), as the Brewers defeated Phoenix 10-6.




Erbakan hit his team leading 10th home run to drive in two runs.

[BirdWatcher]

Nearly lost in the excitement of Bobby Erbakan extending his hitting streak and the Brewers winning another game at home was the fact that Phoenix veteran right fielder Ju-ao Ju, with his 7th inning home run off Steve Green, reached 300 homers for his career. This makes him just the 5th player in WPK history to reach this mark, although Brad Tesh, who signed a minor league contract with Columbus in April and was recently brought up to the big league club- hitting 2 homers in his first 5 games- is just one homer shy of 300.



At the top of that list is Nate Bennett who should reach 400 very soon (he's at 398).