Sunday Notes: Jared Koenig Took a Meandering Route To Milwaukee
Jared Koenig’s path to big-league success was anything but smooth. The southpaw didn’t throw his first pitch in affiliated baseball until he was 27 years old, that coming in the Oakland Athletics organization after three seasons on the indie-ball circuit. And while he made his MLB debut the following year, he appeared in just 10 games, logging a 5.72 ERA and losing three of four decision. That was in 2022. Subsequently signed by San Diego, he put up nothing-special numbers in Triple-A and was cut loose by the Padres midway through the 2023 campaign.
The Brewers gave him another opportunity. Milwaukee inked the 6-foot-5 left-hander to a contract prior to last season, and they’re certainly glad they did. Working primarily out of the bullpen — he served as an opener on six occasions — Koenig made 55 appearances for the NL Central champs, putting up a 2.47 ERA and a 3.28 FIP over 62 frames. Moreover, he was credited with nine wins and one save. Seemingly out of the blue, he’d come into his own as a 30-year-old rookie.
How he go from relative obscurity to providing quality innings for a playoff team?
“A lot of stubbornness and perseverance,” Koenig told me toward the tail end of the regular season. “With support from the family, I was able to keep the dream alive; I was able to play while not making a lot of money in the indie-ball scene. The goal was always striving to get better, and I was able to do that.
“I met my trainer, Matt Rossignol, who runs Rossy’s Training in Scotts Valley [California],” continued Koenig. “My head coach with the San Rafael Pacifics — that was my third indie-ball team — Matt Kavanaugh, set me up with Matt in the winter of 2018. I’ve been training with him ever since.”
Koenig has gained velocity in recent years, and he’s also both tweaked and added to his arsenal. A “true cutter” has become a big pitch for him, as has a curveball — “the goal had been a sweeper” — that now gets more side-to-side movement. He considers his sinker his best pitch, even though “metrics-wise it’s not going to look all that great.” A changeup and sporadically-thrown four-seamer round out his repertoire.
Which brings us back to how he got his first shot at affiliated baseball. The story involves a team he never played for, a disappointing phone call, and toeing the rubber on another continent.
“I had a good year in 2018 with San Rafael, then signed with the Milwaukee Milkmen that winter,” Koenig said. “They traded me before spring training 2019, to the Lake Erie Crushers. I had another good year there, and was considering going to Australia or New Zealand to play in the ABL. One of my teammates was talking with D.J. Carrasco, who was the pitching coach for [the Auckland Tuatara], but he decided to go to a different ABL team. I said, ‘Hey, give me his contact information.’ I talked to him, and ended up going over.”
The break he’d long been waiting for came while he was down under.
“A scout out there — he was an Aussie scout — saw me,” Koenig explained. “It was Dan Betreen, with the A’s. He told me, ‘Hey, I like you; I’m going to submit your name.’ I was like, ‘Cool, great.’ The next week, he called me back and said, ‘We don’t have room for you. Sorry.’ Two days later, I had another good outing and he called back to say, ‘Hey, we are going to sign you.’ The teams worked out the details, and I signed. Then COVID hit. Luckily, I’d signed a minor league deal, not a free agent deal, so I didn’t get axed.
“In 2021, I went to spring training, expecting to go to High-A. My first bullpen, the High-A pitching coach said, ‘Why am I watching you?’ I think he recommended… he didn’t tell me this, but at the end of camp I was going to Double-A. Then I just pitched. I did my job, trying to get better every day. Come 2022, I got to debut with the A’s. Now here we are.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Mark Koenig went 22 for 58 against Dizzy Dean.
Mark Kotsay went 21 for 36 against Jamie Moyer.
Kevin Kouzmanoff went 11 for 19 against Bronson Arroyo.
Paul Konerko went 10 for 20 against Roger Clemens.
Corey Koskie went 10 for 21 against James Baldwin.
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Creed Willems is one of the more intriguing prospects in the Baltimore Orioles organization. An eighth-round pick in the 2021 draft out of Aledo (TX) High School, the 21-year-old catcher has plus raw power, but also rough edges to smooth out. Unpolished behind the plate — Eric Longenhagen has cited blocking and receiving as areas in need of improvement — he likewise needs to fine-tune his left-handed stroke. As our lead prospect analyst wrote back in June, Willems “takes a big uppercut hack” that produces high exit velocities, but he is prone to striking due to “chase and the in-zone holes in his swing.”
The stocky backstop — Willems carries 230 pounds on his just under six-foot frame — answered in the affirmative when I asked if he has an aggressive high-effort swing.
“I definitely do,” Willems said during the Arizona Fall League season. “That’s one thing I’ve been trying to control. I’ve talked with some of our hitting coordinators, and they’ve been like, ‘You can swing it. Your 70% is going to produce the same speeds that other guys’ 100% would produce.’ There are definitely times where I go 100% swing, but there are also times that I try to tone it back and just control the barrel through the zone.”
He has been doing a better job of putting the bat on the ball. After fanning at a 26.7% clip in 2023, he improved to 20.5% this past season. Moreover, his contact rate rose from 65.3% to 72.4%. Luis Arraez he’s not, but that isn’t what his game is all about. Willems goes up to the plate looking to do damage, not set tables with singles.
One of the 17 home runs he hit in 2024 is especially memorable.
“I hit it 116 [mph] with a 21 [launch angle],” recalled Willems, who logged a 121 wRC+ between High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie. “It was on a slider on the inside part of the plate. It was one of those that just kept carrying and carrying. How far, I couldn’t tell you, but it was in Aberdeen. We have our bullpen, and then a shed, and it was a little bit to the right of the shed. It probably would have ended up hitting the shed, but it went just inside the foul pole. There is a street probably 20-30 feet behind the wall, and I think it hit that and bounced down the hill.”
In other words, he can juice a baseball.
“I try to,” Willems said in reply to that observation. “I consider myself a power hitter, but at the same time, I don’t sell out for power. I just try to hit the ball hard.”
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A quiz:
Sammy Sosa (four times) and Hack Wilson (once) are the only players in Chicago Cubs franchise history to hit 50 or more home runs in a single season. Another player just missed that mark, finishing with 49. Who was it?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
The Tacoma Rainiers (Triple-A Seattle Mariners) have hired Rylee Pay as their new lead broadcaster. Pay, who had been doing play-by-play for the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs, replaces Mike Curto, who announced his retirement in November after three decades behind the mic. Pay becomes the first female lead broadcaster in Triple-A.
Bruce Bochy, Ivan Rodríguez, and Chris Young will be among the speakers when SABR holds its annual convention in Dallas-Fort Worth from June 25-29. More information can be found here.
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The answer to the quiz is Andre Dawson, who went deep 49 times for the Cubs in his 1987 MVP season. Next on the list are Dave Kingman (48 in 1979) and Ernie Banks (47 in 1958).
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Kyle Teel went from being Boston’s catcher of the future to Chicago’s, the White Sox having acquired the 22-year-old, left-handed-hitting backstop from the Red Sox in the multi-player Garrett Crochet deal. Count Bubba Chandler among those who have been impressed by the 2023 first-rounder.
“I faced him in the Futures Game this year,” said Chandler, who ranks among baseball’s top pitching prospects. “I’d faced him for two at-bats earlier, and made two great pitches. I threw a changeup that, if he hadn’t swung, would have spiked into the dirt. He literally got down on a knee and hit a double down the left field line. I’m like, ‘OK, well, that’s unbelievable.’ In the other at-bat, I threw him a back-foot slider and, again, if he hadn’t swung… I mean, it would have hit him in the back foot. He hooked it down the right field line for a double.”
The two-hit game the high-profile Pittsburgh Pirates prospect referred to was in August 2023, when both player were in High-A. Teel’s only hit against Chandler this past summer came in the Future’s Game.
“I threw a changeup, front-hipped him,” Chandler said of their 2024 matchup. “Perfect. That set up a back-foot slider, which he swung and missed. I was like, ‘Now we can go inside with a heater.’ I threw a heater, top of the zone, inside, and if he’d have swung and missed, it probably would have broke his wrist. Instead, the dude hits it, breaks his bat. and it’s a double down the left field line. If I face him in the big leagues and there’s a man on third, I might as well just walk him. He kind of has my number.”
A full interview with Chandler will run later this month during our annual Prospect Week.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Canberra Cavalry captured this year’s Australian Baseball League title, beating the Perth Heat in the best-of-three championship series. Canberra won the opener 10-8, then secured the Claxton Shield with a 5-0 win in Game Two. Colten Davis, a 25-year-old right-hander who has spent the past two seasons with the Atlantic League’s Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, allowed five hits over eight-and-two innings in the clincher.
Alex Wells was honored as the ABL’s Most Valuable Player. The 27-year-old former Baltimore Orioles left-hander went 6-1 with a 1.55 ERA for the Sydney Blue Sox.
The Dominican Republic has won each of its first two games in the Caribbean Series, beating Venezuela 2-0 on Friday, and Japan 12-1 on Saturday. Brooks Hall and Johnny Cueto were the pitchers of record for the Albert Pujols-managed squad. Mexico has also won its first two games, beating Puerto Rico 8-1, and Venezuela 2-1.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Paul Noce has the rare distinction of having been caught stealing twice in the same inning. In the third inning of a June 26, 1987 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Cubs rookie infielder was charged with a CS trying to swipe second base, a play on which he reached safely thanks to an E-6. Noce then attempted to steal third and was tagged out before reaching the bag — this time with no error to save him. His playing career was otherwise unremarkable. Noce batted .228 over 192 plate appearances that year, then appeared in one game for the Cincinnati Reds the following season. Somewhat ironically, he went on to become a roving base-running instructor for the Pirates in 1992 and 1993. Noce later spent 20 years as the head baseball coach at Hillsdale (MI) College.
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A great piece of trivia courtesy of reader Kyle McGivney:
Mark Buehrle pitched three complete games in which he faced just 27 batters. One was his perfect game on July 23, 2009. Another was his April 18, 2007 no-hitter, in which he walked one batter, then promptly picked him off. The other was on July 21, 2004, when he surrendered a pair of singles, with both runners erased on double plays.
Per McGivney, Buehrle is the only pitcher in MLB history with as many as three 27-batter complete games. Sandy Koufax had two.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
The Score’s Travis Sawchik wrote about the ever-increasing number of foul balls.
MLB.com’s David Adler wrote about how three Dodgers have cornered the market on baseball’s nastiest pitch.
At The Guardian, Leander Schaerlaeckens wrote about how the high of sports gambling has ensnared young men.
At Bless You Boys, Brandon Day delved into the present and future of 24-year-old Detroit Tigers shortstop Trey Sweeney.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Shota Imanaga went 4-0 with a 0.51 ERA over 35 innings with the Canberra Cavalry in the 2018-2019 Australian Baseball League season.
The last triple-header in MLB history was played on October 2, 1920 with the Cincinnati Reds winning two of three from the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field. The third game, which was won by the home team, was called due to darkness after six innings.
Babe Ruth had 2,174 runs scored and 2,214 runs batted in.
Henry Aaron had 2,174 runs scored and 2,297 runs batted in.
The Detroit Tigers signed Ivan Rodriguez as a free agent on today’s date in 2004. The Hall of Fame backstop made four All-Star teams and was awarded three Gold Gloves in his four-plus seasons as a Tiger.
The San Diego Padres signed Mickey Lolich as a free agent on today’s date in 1978. The 37-year-old, erstwhile Tigers workhorse — he tossed 376 innings and threw 29 complete games in 1971 — went on to log a 3.43 ERA over 84 innings in two San Diego seasons.
Players born on today’s date include Wes Ferrell, who logged 50.1 WAR — 38.2 on the mound and 11.9 WAR at the plate — while playing for six teams, primarily the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, from 1927-1941. One of the best hitting pitchers in MLB history, Ferrell had a .797 OPS and 38 home runs to go with a 193-128 won-lost record and a 116 ERA+. Moreover, he had 20 or more wins six times, including 25 on two occasions. Unlike his brother, Rick Ferrell, a catcher who logged a .741 OPS, 28 home runs, and 27.7 WAR, the right-hander isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
Also born on today’s date was Mutz Ens (his given name was Anton), whose big-league career comprised three games and six hitless at-bats for the Chicago White Sox in 1912. His younger brother, Jewel Winklemeyer Ens, played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1922-1925, then went on to manage the team from 1929-1931.
Bill Kennedy went 28-3 with a 1.03 ERA and 456 strikeouts in 280 innings for the Coastal Plain League’s Rocky Mount Rocks in 1946. The southpaw went on to play for five MLB teams from 1948-1957, going 15-28 with a 4.73 ERA.
David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.
A little easier trivia of my favorite type today- 1980’s trivia.
Didn’t even have to consider anyone else. That Dawson season is so famous, mostly because of the “blank check & then he won MVP, though he wasn’t deserving at all. Low OBP, poor D.
I got that one too. Dale Murphy got robbed!
I remember that one because the number of homers was so different than what came before or after. He was a 20-25 homer guy before and after and then there was one year where he just hit twice as many.
Same for Hack Wilson!
Sadtrombone – I would have bet $100 Dawson averaged 30 home runs for [some random four year span]. Wow. That was the easiest quiz question, about my favorite player growing up, but until your comment…
You are of course correct, he only hit 30 home runs two other times – four years earlier and four years after. And those were low-30s – 32 and 31. It explains why he didn’t reach 500, which always surprised me – //he was not that much of a slugger// !!!
The 1980s did not have a ton of home run power. Mike Schmidt was still an elite hitter and Darryl Strawberry and Dale Murphy were consistent home run hitters. Dave Kingman was still around for a bit of the 80s. But there wasn’t a single 50 home run hitter for over a decade before Cecil Fielder broke that barrier in the early 90s. Guys like Dawson and Dave Winfield were considered power hitters in a way that they wouldn’t have been if they had played in the 90s, or 00s, or 10s…even the 70s. Hank Aaron was still mashing 35 homers a year at the beginning of the decade, among other big home run hitters.
There were a few others- Reggie Jackson was still going strong in the early-mid 80’s. Jim Rice was another. Gorman Thomas for 4-5 years.
Still many years the HR leader would be in the high 30’s or just over 40 HR’s. Only Reggie & Schmidt cleared 500 HR’s.
You had a lot of big parks, esp in the NL (Astrodome, Busch, Dodger, Jack Murphy, Candlestick, Three Rivers, etc..only Wrigley & Fulton County were real HR friendly in the NL) & a lot of Astroturf. Tough for big slow sluggers to succeed in that environment.
I looked it up because I thought I might remember it wrong, Jim Rice was not a huge power threat in the 80s the way he was in the 70s. He hit 39 or more homers four times in his career and three of those years came in the 1970s despite playing more of his career in the 1980s. And then aside from those four years his yearly high was 27.
But Reggie Jackson did have a couple of monster years in the early 1980s, at least from the perspective of hitting homers. His best power year though was 1969.
Also it’s funny to think that Wrigley was considered home run friendly back then. Now it is considered pitching friendly! I remember Candlestick though, that stadium had crazy wind.
Wrigley didn’t get any bigger. All the new parks got smaller. It had a lot less foul territory than most parks back then too. It mostly has short power alleys. The bumpouts in the corners makes it play very big straight down the lines.
Also, Wrigley has always been weather dependent with the single deck bleachers and the Cubs play fewer day games now, which affects the wind.
Tony Armas had a few high HR seasons. The early 80’s Brewers were a power hitting team. Schmidt might have hit 50 in ‘81. But there was also Whiteyball. AL had some low HR years in the 70’s. Craig Nettles and Bill Melton led the league with 32-33 homers in a couple seasons.
Tony Armas..there’s a guy I totally forgot about & yes, Brewers were a power team- Not only Thomas, but, Ben Ogilvie, Cecil Cooper, etc.
It was a fun era because you had so many different styles of play & teams would build their team around their stadium. Artificial turf sucks, but, it was fun having teams built around speed, teams built around power, etc.
Update: I remember that season as Dale Murphy’s all-time great year, but looking at the leaderboards that was also all-time great years for Eric Davis and Tony Gwynn. I was a huge Eric Davis fan so I can’t believe I didn’t remember that, and Gwynn batted .370 that year and you’d think I would have remembered that too.
Dawson won out over one hall of famer and two hall-of-very-good players having their literal best years. And it was also the second-best year for two other Hall of Famers (Tim Raines, Ozzie Smith). I understand him finishing ahead of other players with better years like Strawberry, Jack Clark, and Mike Schmidt because 49 homers is a lot and it can blind you. But behind a guy who batted .370, a guy who hit 37 homers and stole 50 bases, and a guy who was coming off five consecutive gold gloves in CF and hit 44 homers and batted .295? Really?
I think Dawson won as much for the narrative of the owner’s colluding & nobody would sign him, so he gave The Cubs a “blank check” & I think they paid him $500K. & then he went out a hit 49 HR’s.
That was the same year Tim Raines missed the 1st 3 weeks of the season because he was unsigned, too, didn’t sign until 5/1. He may have won MVP with those add’l 20+ games
Even easier for me: 1980’s *Chicago* trivia. Even though I am a White Sox fan, I remember Dawson falling just short of 50 in his MVP year with the Cubs.
I got the quiz because of RBI Baseball.
The first right answer I’ve had in a long while. Dawson certainly was not worthy of being MVP.