The best single seasons at each position in Brewers history. Some close calls here — take a look and tell me where I messed up. https://t.co/S8FRRJYMh5
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) January 5, 2021
List is invalid without Rob Deer and Russell Branyan.
Molitor is my favorite Brewer of all time, followed by Rickie Weeks, so I am OK with 2nd base. Not putting Cirillo in for '96 is a mistake (remember '96? Peak Kevin Seitzer to top it off). 2013 Gomez is not your CF?
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It’s amazing, that ‘04 Ben Sheets season. So unheralded, so under appreciated. But wow, friggin dominant.
I always like Pete Vuckovich's 1982 season. 18-6 with a 3.34 ERA.
Higuera's run through the late '80s was outstanding, but Sheets has the best single season pitching. If only Sheets was an athlete
@ammo posted:I always like Pete Vuckovich's 1982 season. 18-6 with a 3.34 ERA.
His 1982 season Cy Young award would not happen nowadays. His advanced stat metrics were not very good. Not only did he have a 3.34 ERA, his WHIP was 1.50 and his WAR was 2.8. He went 18-6, but the run support he received was extraordinary. It also helped that no one else in the AL had a great standard statistical year that year. Dave Stieb had a much, much higher WAR but went 17-14 because he played for the Blue Jays.
That Brewer offense is Top 10 in history in terms of personnel and would look even better in the Moneyball age (since a guy like Gorman Thomas would be much more appreciated these days with all the walks he drew in addition to the home runs).
His 3.34 ERA was the lowest of all Brewer starters.
His 9.8 mustache also lead the team
@ammo posted:His 3.34 ERA was the lowest of all Brewer starters.
The starters were not very good. That's why they went out and got Sutton. He went 4-1 and had a 3.24 ERA (and went 8 innings and gave up 2 runs in the 162nd game to get them in).
They also got Doc Medich for 10 starts to eat up some innings.
John Axford in 2011 and Josh Hader in 2018 stand out to me from a pitching standpoint. Hard to ignore the CC run the second half of 2008.
Hader in particular was dominant in the way he made really good hitters just appear totally overmatched. And the fact he practically struck out 2 out of every 3 batters per inning he faced.
In terms of dominance, Hader’s 2018 season has to rank up there. In 81.1 IP, he gave up 36 hits and struck out 143 batters...
If I had a pen of Danny Kolb, Derrick Turnbow, Doug Jones, and Dan Pleasac, the Killer D's would still concede high leverage innings to Chuck Crim.
@Music City posted:In terms of dominance, Hader’s 2018 season has to rank up there. In 81.1 IP, he gave up 36 hits and struck out 143 batters...
Agree, but he almost identical to that in 2019. And it's not like he was bad in 2020.
2019. In 75.2 innings, he struck out 138 and walked 20. He gave up 5 more hits but walked 10 less guys.
His 2020 stats weren't as good, but he three awful outings. In his other 18 outings, he was lights out.
3 bad outings: 2 innings, 6 hits, 5 walks, 2 strikeouts, 7 runs.
18 other outings: 17 innings, 4 hits, 5 walks, 29 strikeouts, 1 run.
@Tschmack posted:John Axford in 2011 and Josh Hader in 2018 stand out to me from a pitching standpoint. Hard to ignore the CC run the second half of 2008.
Hader in particular was dominant in the way he made really good hitters just appear totally overmatched. And the fact he practically struck out 2 out of every 3 batters per inning he faced.
Rollie Fingers in 1981 was almost as dominant as Hader has been in 2018-19 without being overpowering.
@"We"-Ka-Bong posted:Higuera's run through the late '80s was outstanding, but Sheets has the best single season pitching. If only Sheets was an athlete
The guy that kind of gets forgotten in these discussions is Mike Caldwell. That 1978 season was outstanding, especially for a guy that didn't strike out a ton of guys. 22-9, 2.34 ERA, 1.06 WHIP. 23 complete games in 34 starts and he even got a save in relief. 293 innings.
His not backing down from Reggie Jackson the following year in that brawl was iconic.
