WILLIAM PENN RIGHT-HANDER STEPPING UP BIG IN 2023
By: Brad Krause | brad.krause@blueribbonsbaseball.org
It may sound strange to refer to a player in just his third season as a “veteran leader”, but ask any of Bret Whiffen’s Green Bay Blue Ribbons teammates about him, and the first things they’ll mention are his enthusiasm, optimism and the leadership role he’s taken on in 2023.
“Bret is just one of the most positive guys” said catcher Payton Danen. “He just has a great, team-leader attitude. When we’re down, he’s always there for us to pick us up, even if he’s not pitching. He’s a huge leader this year.”
Second-year assistant coach Haydon Price agreed, saying “Whiffen’s a big leader for our staff. He’s been on the team for three years now, and just his presence, the way he goes about things, he just sets an example for everybody else. He’s always in good spirits, always a very positive person, doesn’t let negativity get in his way, and I think that’s one of the key factors that he brings to this club and this organization.”
That leadership role may not be something that comes as naturally for Whiffen as it does for some of his more outspoken teammates, “He’s a very quiet guy. He’s more of a lead-by-example guy rather than a vocal leader” said Price, but the William Penn right-hander has made a conscious effort this season to break out of his shell in order to help his younger teammates. “I try to do that because I’m generally a quiet person” Whiffen said, “so I like to be a leader whenever I can and help out the younger guys. I’ve got that experience under my belt, so I’m just looking to help out those guys that are going into their freshman or sophomore year of college.”
A local product who played at Green Bay Southwest High School, where he made the varsity team as a freshman, Whiffen enrolled at William Penn University in Iowa in the fall of 2019, only to have his first season wiped out due to COVID-19. He took the lost season in stride however, using the time to continue to develop as a pitcher.
“William Penn is a real competitive program” said Whiffen, “so I wasn’t going to play my freshman year anyway. I didn’t even travel my freshman year, so it wasn’t too difficult. It was more just that I was getting an extra year to train, and I was lucky because I played for Rhino Baseball down in Appleton, so I had a facility that I could go to and it was a good place to get to work at.”
After making just one relief appearance during his collegiate season in 2021, Whiffen was looking to get some work in during the summer, leading to a return home to join the Blue Ribbons.
“I was aware of the Ribbons” Whiffen said, “and I saw that they were playing in 2021 and said ‘alright, I’m gonna jump on board’. With the De Pere Dodgers before I’d known about the Ribbons for a while. I knew Griffin (Summers). I played against him when he was at Preble. And (Tyler) Blum, I played against him when he was at De Pere, so I knew some of the guys.”
In his first season with the Ribbons, Whiffen tied for the team lead in starts and finished second in innings pitched. He returned to the ballclub in the summer of 2022, and again worked mainly as a starter, striking out more than a batter per inning over 28.2 innings of work.
After a strong junior season in 2023, in which he allowed just four earned runs over 18 innings, Whiffen made his way back to Green Bay to re-join the Blue Ribbons for his third year with the team, opening the season in the bullpen, as the club’s closer.
It would prove to be a role that Whiffen would thrive in.
“At William Penn I’m mainly a reliever so it’s not too difficult being a reliever at all” Whiffen said. “It’s what I’m most comfortable with. You’ve just gotta have all the confidence in the world. You can’t go out there being timid. You’ve just got to trust your stuff and you’ve gotta know that you can get the job done.”
“You just go back to him being a very positive person” added Price. “He doesn’t let negativity get in his way when he’s on the mound. It’s just him versus the hitter. Being in that closer role, we like that mentality.”
For Whiffen and the Blue Ribbons, one of the highlights of the season thus far came in a shutout win over Burlington on July 1st, when the righty came on in relief of starter Owen Deprez and worked a clean 1-2-3 inning, striking out the final batter to lock down another victory, as he broke both the Blue Ribbons’ single-season and career records for saves.
With a four-seam fastball, a slurvy breaking ball, and a developing changeup, Whiffen is a strike-thrower, who demonstrates terrific command of his pitches, and given his experience as both a starter and a reliever, the Ribbons’ coaching staff wanted to get him more opportunites, resulting in a move back to the starting rotation.
“We started him at the beginning of the year in a closer role” Price said, “but we realized shortly after that he wasn’t getting the appearances that he should, so we had a conversation about bumping him up to a starter. Being the leader that he is, he took on the role, and right now we’re working on ramping that pitch count up. He’s definitely somebody who’s probably more comfortable in a relief role, but given his past experience being a starter, I don’t think the transition’s been too difficult for him. It’s just really the process of ramping up his pitches, getting his arm ready to throw 50, 60, 70 pitches as opposed to 25-30.”
Whiffen quickly rewarded his coaches for their confidence in him, tossing four scoreless innings in his first start against Appleton, before following that up by pitching a gem in a game against a dominant Lombard squad in Illinois last weekend.
Facing a roster loaded with Division 1 talent, Whiffen went six innings, allowing just one run on 76 pitches, as the Blue Ribbons knocked off an Orioles team that has won 19 consecutive Wisconsin State League Championships.
“He goes out there and just has the best confidence I’ve ever seen” Danen said. “Even when he might not have his best stuff, he still goes out there and just shoves.”
With a 1.06 ERA through ten games this summer, Whiffen’s future keeps getting brighter, and his contributions have been huge for a team well on their way to setting a franchise record for victories in a single season.
“He’s been pretty lights out” Price said, “and I’m so happy for him because the results are starting to show and he deserves all the success he’s had this year.”
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