Brewers All-Time Team v.2012



Today, we're taking a look at the Brewers All-Time team.

Last year's inaugural team can be seen here.

As part of our roster revamping process, we had to add a position player and two starting pitchers to last year's squad.

The Brewers have been around for 33 years with their roots tracing back to the Seattle Pilots in 1969.  However, their stay in Seattle proved to be short lived as the next season the franchise was bought by Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee.  They were an AL team for 29 years - up until 1998 when they joined the NL Central (because of that, we utilized the DH rule to keep Prince Fielder on this team).  The Brewers don't have a World Series trophy in their trophy case but there are some All-Time greats on this team (namely Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers).  Perhaps weaker than most, the All-Time Brewers team is one that we enjoyed taking a look at and we hope you will too.

For the additional starting pitchers, we went with Mike Caldwell and Ben Sheets who each spent 8 seasons in Milwaukee.  Sheets was a four-time all-star in Milwaukee and Caldwell ranks second all-time in wins as a Brewer.  Both were very good in Milwaukee and were deserving of the nod.  We also considered Pete Vukovich (and his Cy Young) and Jim Colborn but neither player had the tenure of Caldwell and Sheets and ultimately that was the different.  We also recognize that Yovani Gallardo is very close to cracking this rotation.  It could only be one more year (two at most) before he supplants Calwell or Sheets for a spot on the Brewers all-time team.

Picking the extra position player was very tough.  We had some flexibility because of the DH rule (and because, technically, we could have moved Prince Fielder into the infield, if need be) so we weren't constrained to an infielder or an outfielder.  Looking at the current roster, we considered Corey Hart for the spot, recognizing that he's one of the better all around players that the Brewers have had and he could probably make this team in the near future.  Besides Hart, there were many remaining candidates -  Jeromy Burnitz, Jeff Cirillo, Don Money, Richie Sexson and Gorman Thomas - so this was not an easy decision.  At the end of the day, it came down to George Scott, Jeff Cirillo and Don Money and ultimately, we went with Scott.  While he may not lead the franchise in any particular category, Scott was a five-time Gold Glove winner at third base and found his name on five MVP ballots while playing with the Brewers.  He ranks high enough among the leader boards in most offensive categories that we felt his five year stint warranted a selection.  You can see the comparison chart below to see why this was a tough one.



Check out the complete roster below and tell us what you think.

C - Dave Nilsson
1B - Cecil Cooper
2B - Jim Gantner
SS - Robin Yount
3B - Paul Molitor
IF - George Scott
OF - Ryan Braun
OF - Geoff Jenkins
OF - Ben Oglivie
DH - Prince Fielder
SP - Teddy Higuera
SP - Jim Slaton
SP - Mike Caldwell
SP - Ben Sheets
RP - Rollie Fingers

2 comments:

  1. Essentially just the 1982 AL championship team with a few others thrown in. Brewers haven't done much before or since.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like Don Money as the extra IF and George Scott as DH vs. Prince Fielder. Jonathan Lucroy at C. I like Chris Bosio and Bill Wegman over Caldwell and Slaton. I like Dan Plesac as the Closer.

    ReplyDelete

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