The "We Couldn't Have Done It Without..." Thread

[TheCrew07]

To me this thread about moments in time or players who played above my expectations.

 

I would have to say McClung, Kapler, Branyan (very difficult choice for me personally), Torres, and Kendell.

 

Sabathia deserves special mention because even though he was a CY Young winner, and I knew he was a stud, he outpitched my wildest fantasies.

 

There were too many moments in the to even mention them all, especially with all the late inning heroics. I know I've been critical of MA because he's starting to meddle some, but I don't think season happens without him.

[TooLiveBrew]

Jack Zduriencik

 

Doug Melvin

 

CC Sabathia, who has reminded us both what a dominant pitcher looks like today, and also what one looked like 30 years ago

 

J.J. Hardy, whose steady play all season long provided a textbook example of how to run the MLB season as a marathon & not a sprint.

 

Prince Fielder, who produced like the beast he is over the final two weeks of the season -- .388/.455/.776/1.230, and didn't have too bad a September, either (.998 OPS)

 

Rickie Weeks's pinch-hit, 3-R HR on September 26th v. Chicago in the bottom of the 7th inning

 

Ryan Braun, with a walkoff grand slam & playoffs-sealing 2-R shot last night

 

 

Sabathia deserves special mention because even though he was a CY Young winner, and I knew he was a stud, he outpitched my wildest fantasies.

 

Amen, Crew07!

[sweepscc]

Aside from the obvious CC choice: The Pirates and Russell Branyan. Branyan gave us an offensive surge around the time we got wally-whomped by Boston. Gave us some confidence back....

[hawing]

Position player: Jason Kendall, our bulldog. I even made Jason my pre-season "unsung hero" choice.

 

Pitcher: Ultimately it's impossible for it to be anyone but CC, but one of my first thoughts upon reading the thread topic was Big Seth's important outing Friday night.

 

Outside the organization: I'm going to be cocky, for one post in my tenure here, and say "me." The Brewers were 22-11 in games I attended. I still can't believe I saw so many regular-season wins; and enough of them were close that I believe I occasionally willed the Brewers to a win. (And in the end, one more win was the difference.)

[Darnell Junior]

As bad as he pitched for a huge chunk of the year, Guillermo Mota had a few stretches where he essentially held a struggling bullpen together.

[jjfanec]

With how streaky our lineup is everyone seemed to earn their due. Braun's May and July were outstanding. Hardy had a really nice June, July and August. Hart had a nice start. Fielder had a steady year outside April and August and held this offense together the last couple weeks. Cameron carried us in August. Branyan was solid for a month as well. Ray Durham and Rickie Weeks had clutch at bats down the stretch.

If I had to go with one person though it would be Torres oddly enough. With Gagne struggling, Riske hurt and/or struggling, and then Mota not able to close Torres came in a did a good job at a time when we had few options. He coughed up some games for sure but he did what we would expect out of a guy we really got for two not that great prospects.

[bigredrobbo]

Woogie's IGTs!

[fondybrewfan]

The St. Louis Cardinal Bullpen. You treated us well.

[bucks2281]

Each and every player has probably been the reason for at least one of our 90 wins. When all was said and done, the difference was a single win. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

Guillermo Mota: Yes, he had a few terrible stretches, but he's had a few remarkable outings. Namely, inheriting a bases-loaded jam with no outs in extra innings on August 24 and escaping with no damage.

 

Dave Bush: I've always believed he'd be capable of throwing a no-hitter. When he's on, he's an incredible pitcher. Don't forget about his two overly-amazing outings this season: June 19 (no-hitter into the 9th) and July 10 (13 K).

 

Seth McClung: He bridged the gap between the end of Carlos Villanueva's stint in the rotation after the Red Sox series until CC Sabathia arrived. He did a fine job of holding down the fort. I also enjoyed his multi-hit game against Randy Johnson.

 

Rickie Weeks: I hate his defense. I hate the way he botched the DP against the Cubs. I hate the fact that he hasn't lived up to his potential. But I was so happy for him on Friday night. That HR was an important piece of Brewers history. We might be playing tonight in NYC if not for his homer.

[rluzinski]

You can use fangraph.com's WPA to see what player's performance had the largest net addition to the team's chance of winning over the whole year:

 

Sabathia 3.50

Braun 3.34

Fielder 2.78

Sheets 2.70

 

No surpises there. The worst positional hitters:

 

Counsell -.88

Hart -1.87

Kendall -3.0

 

Sad to see Hart down there with those two.

 

There are a heck of a lot of Brewer relievers that have really bad WPA's

[dadofandrew]

Weeks hit a game winning single early in the season as well...they lose if he gets out, but scored 2 on the single to win.

 

Rickie's numbers almost matched his career norms. Sadly, some folks pay attention to BA, so they missed it.

[dannyjnoonan]

McClung. We've thrown him into just about every possible scenario and he's come out on top. He's done everything asked of him. That big red man had the surprise great performance of the season.

 

Torres. Was a dependable closer for a big chunk of the season when we didn't think we had a dependable closer.

 

3TO. Was a huge spark during our most productive moth or so of the season.

[zzzmanwitz]

Pitching.

 

At times, we have a great lineup, but pitching is what wins games. Throw the sink at CC.

 

NL Teams by Team ERA

 

1. LA - 3.68

2. MIL - 3.85

3. CHC - 3.87

4. PHI - 3.88

5. ARI - 3.98

6. NYM - 4.07

7. STL - 4.19

8. HOU - 4.36

9. SF - 4.38

10. SD - 4.41

11. FLA - 4.43

12. ATL - 4.46

13. CIN - 4.55

14. WAS - 4.66

15. COL - 4.77

16. PIT - 5.08

 

The top 4 teams in ERA made the playoffs. The top 8 were all contenders until the end. 9-16 were basically out before September. (AL Ranks: TB #2, LAA #3, BOS #4, CWS #6, MIN #7)

[Gobias Industries]

Russ Branyan was amazing when he was healthy. You could argue he held the team together in June.

 

Counsell took a lot of heat for starting, but at the end of the day, he provided excellent defense and a really nice OBP.

 

The platoon at 2nd base gave us excellent production in the second half: Durham = .369/.477 & Weeks = .378/.451. That went way under the radar.

 

Sheets' 1-0 gem against the Padres. Awesome defensive plays in the game by Kapler, Counsell, and Weeks (run-saving).

[BrewerTerp]

Bob Webb

[twobrewers]

Russ Branyan was amazing when he was healthy. You could argue he held the team together in June.

Abso-freaking-lutely!

 

Without Russell Branyan, this team never goes on the June tear that puts them close enough to acquire CC Sabathia. Russell Branyan's June saved the season. No doubt.

[rudimen19]

Out of the box candidate: Derrick Turnbow for his one save. Seriously. He came up big (albeit for one outing) after Yost had abused Gagne and delivered, which I never thought would/could happen. Doesn't that seem like last year?

 

Real candidate: Seth McClung. I tried making the case in August that McClung was the unsung hero of this team for holding a spot in the rotation when the season seemed to be falling apart. His recent heroics just cement his value to this team.

 

p.s. After regularly reading BF.net since first hearing Jim Powell mentioned it in 2004, yesterday's events finally propelled me to start posting. It's about time.

[brewerjamie15]

It couldn't have been done any other way.

No matter how slight the contribution by a player.

Don't count out Brian Shouse though.

[brewerjamie15]

Welcome aboard rudimen.

[dlk9s]

That Turnbow mention is great. Think about it - he got that one save and we won by one game.

[TooLiveBrew]

Welcome rudimen! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

 

Rickie Weeks: I hate his defense. I hate the way he botched the DP against the Cubs. I hate the fact that he hasn't lived up to his potential. But I was so happy for him on Friday night. That HR was an important piece of Brewers history. We might be playing tonight in NYC if not for his homer.

 

You've got exactly my sentiments mixed in there, bucks2281. I just felt a flood of joy for Rickie when he turned that pitch around... absolutely destroyed it. Now, if we can just see a few more of those patented laser-beam homers from Rickie heading forward. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

 

The platoon at 2nd base gave us excellent production in the second half: Durham = .369/.477 & Weeks = .378/.451. That went way under the radar

 

Agreed. I'll continue to back Weeks, but I ahve to acknowledge that Ray Durham was far better for us than I had hoped he could be. Excellent complimentary pickup by Melvin.

[ELCABALLO45]

Ned Yost... Yes he is the one noticed Kendall's flaw when throwing. Without that Kendall doesn't become lights out in throwing out baserunners.

 

Mike Maddux - for getting McClung to change the way he pitches.

 

Seth McClung - Big Red has been huge for us.

 

Tony Gwynn Jr. - Opening series against Chicago he played well. And had a huge sac fly.

 

Counsell - In a line up of free swingers, its nice to have a guy who takes pitches.

 

Branyan - Enough said.

 

Boston Red Sox - For waking us up.

 

Mike Lamb - He had some real nice at bats to set up a couple rallys.

[Hate those Rodents]

Gallardo getting injured. If he doesn't get hurt, we likely don't need to get CC because we have a solid rotation and Doug would not have wanted to give up LaPorta. If this trade doesn't happen, I believe we don't quite make the wild card, as CC was that big of a difference maker.

 

Now, you never want to say that good comes from a young player getting injured, but I truly believe we don't get CC without Gallardo going down.

[TooLiveBrew]

But don't forget all the time Yo missed prior to us getting CC. I think, on balance, that the net effect of not losing Yo would have been roughly equal to the net effect of adding Sabathia for ~ 1/2 the season.

[jjfanec]

Gallardo getting injured. If he doesn't get hurt, we likely don't need to get CC because we have a solid rotation and Doug would not have wanted to give up LaPorta. If this trade doesn't happen, I believe we don't quite make the wild card, as CC was that big of a difference maker.

 

Now, you never want to say that good comes from a young player getting injured, but I truly believe we don't get CC without Gallardo going down.

Gallardo got hurt May 1st and C.C. did not pitch for us until July 8th. That is over 2 months worth of starts so I think a healthy Yo could have done some pretty good things with an extra two months. I understand your point but I am just not sure 10 more starts for Yo than C.C. would not have made up for C.C.'s brilliance.