Teen Mom 2: MBBA Edition

[agrudez]

The deadline for high school and college prospects filing for next year's amateur draft has come and passed. Now, as every baseball geek out there begins to siphon through the feeder leagues to salivate at whom they may be able to call their own come next June, they may find three rather familiar names amongst the list: David Klopp, Ryan Savaikie and Bill Burkholder - all Jrs, of course.

The first Jr., the son of the recently retired Phoneix SP David Klopp, is seen by many as a clone of his father, with a big, powerful fastball highlighting his arsenal - but a penchant for giving up the long ball that will likely never allow him to reach the potential that his stuff projects him to have. This right-hander hurler is now in his senior year of high school, meaning that his now 39 year old father was 21 years old at the time of his birth. At 21 years old, Klopp, Sr. was just getting his first taste of the majors and finding it rather bitter - to the tune of a 59 ERA+ across 5 GS in 1997 (and a 74 ERA+ across 2 GS and 2 relief appearances in 1996). In the season immediately following the birth of his son; however, Klopp settled in with a respectable 2.1 WAR which served to set the tone for the rest of his solid career. By the age of 26, in November of 2002, right around his son's 5th birthday, Klopp cashed his first big check of 26M from the Talons.

"I remember that day, *laughs*, dad came home with an all-white Christmas tree - said it was the best one they had at the store. My mom was so mad at first, but that didn't last long."

The second Jr., son of former infielder Ryan Savikie, whom spent the majority of his career in Buffalo, is said by scouts to be as much like his father as he is different. While his father was never one to really wow with the glove (with a career +3.8 ZR in 1349 career games at SS), Savaikie Jr. is said to have vastly superior range and projects to be considerably better at picking the hole. As one may expect due to the improved range, Jr. is also a faster version of his father; however, also a less powerful one – though his reported + plate discipline could make up the difference in that regard. For his part, Jr. is in his senior season of high school ball with a 43 year old father, meaning that Sr. was 25 years old at the time of his birth in 1997 – which also, coincidentally, happened to be one of the best seasons of his career (the overall best offensively with a 131 OPS+, but also the worst defensively with a -6.9 ZR) in his 2nd full season in the league. He followed that up with a maddeningly inconsistent season in 1998 (0 WAR) which we’d like to blame on late night diaper changes, but, alas, inconsistency seemed to be a hallmark for Savaikie’s career overall.

“Of course I look up to my father, I am what I am today because of him, but I’d be lying if I said I was trying to emulate his career – I’m looking to surpass him, for sure.”

The last Jr., son of former Moonshiner, Bill Burkholder is a bit of enigma atm as he hasn’t been heavily scouted. When asked, a respected scout in the industry had just this to say, “Burkholder Jr. decided to follow his pop's footstep and decided to play baseball in college”. When pressed for just a teency tiny bit more, the scout finally started telling us about how hot his girlfriend was – which probably meant he had good plate discipline, or something… maybe. Anyway, now in his junior year of college, Jr. is 21 years old, with a 37 year old father, meaning that Sr. was a mere 16 years old at the time of his son’s birth. Who could possibly forget the vision of the 18 year old Burkholder sitting with his 2 year old son at the 1995 draft? Or the emotional visage as the TV camera panned over to a 6 year old in the stands cheering his 22 year old father on in his ML debut in 2000 (and not caring one iota at the end when he put in a -2.1 WAR on the year).

“I have to admit, it was really hard growing up. I was already in school by the time my father made his ML debut… I was old enough to remember living in poverty as he toiled through finishing HS and then the minor leagues. That draft day bonus didn’t stretch very far with a toddler in tow, I’m sure. That is why I doubt I’ll ever respect anyone more than my father. Sure, he really probably should’ve kept it in his pants *laughs* , but the way he handled himself while trying to achieve his ML dream despite having to take care of a family all the while is inspirational. *pause* And no, that doesn’t mean I have a 4 year of my own in tow *laughs*.

[aaronweiner]

I guess there isn't much to do in Quebec when you're not playing ball or going to strip clubs. Any chance his mom is a stripper?

[Greeney03]

Good read, Kyle! Who signed Burkholder Jr?

[trmmilwwi]

Awesome feature... Burkholder was quite the enigma!

[crobillard]

Awesome read Kyle. Loved this. Very cool.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[agrudez]

In honor of Easter coming up, I placed 2 movie references in this article. Whomever finds and identifies them both gets their choice of Guillermo Rodriguez or Alex Middleton for free!

[aaronweiner]

In honor of Easter coming up, I placed 2 movie references in this article. Whomever finds and identifies them both gets their choice of Guillermo Rodriguez or Alex Middleton for free!

Don't everyone volunteer at once.

[agrudez]

Don't everyone volunteer at once.