All-Time great Brewers 25 man roster

[phxMILWfan]

Just finished watching the Yankees edition of 30 teams in 30 days on MLB Network. They did a All-Time great Yankees roster. Made a batting order and picked a starting pitcher as well as a bench. I thought it would be really cool to see peoples opinions of an All-Time great Brewers roster. I'm 25 and I don't remember the early years of the team from first hand knowledge, just from hearing about, reading, and watching old footage. Looking forward to everyones opinions. I think the lineup should be made with a DH. Heres my limited memory version.

3B Molitor
SS Yount
LF Braun
CF Thomas
DH Fielder
1B Cooper
RF Vaughn
C Simmons
2B Gantner
SP Sutton

BE Lee
BE Hardy
BE Sexson
BE Oglivie
BE Sheffield
BE Surhoff

SP Higuera
SP Vuckovich
SP Sheets
SP Sabathia
BP Slaton
BP Plesac
BP Fetters
BP Cordero
CL Fingers

[Never Outhustled]

I like your lineup. The only change I'd put Molitor at 2B, to make room for Cirillo at 3B. Cirillo was better than Gantner.

 

When you try to fill out an all-time pitching staff, you quickly realize why the Brewers have such a sad history.

[diener34]

Here's mine:

 

CF- Alex Sanchez

RF- John Vander Wal

LF- Tony Gywnn Jr.

SS- Pat Listach

2B- Kieth Ginter

3B- Russell Branyan

1B- Kevin Barker

C - Raul Casanova

________________

IF- Tyler Houston

IF- Chris Barnwell

OF-Ben Grieve

OF-Devon White

DH-Bob Hamelin

OF- Brady Clark

 

SP-Jamey Wright

SP-Dave Burba

SP-Rueben Quevedo

SP-Glendon Rusch

SP-Wes Obermueller

RP-Eric Plunk

RP-Julian Tavarez

RP-Rick Helling

SU-Jose Cappellan

SU-Rocky Coppenger

CL-Derrick Turnbow

 

Manager Ned Yost

Hitting Coach- Jerry Royster

3rd Base Coach- Davey Lopes

1st Base Coach- Rich Donelly

[BrewCrewForever]

I'm pretty sure diener34's team would lose the most games in MLB history.

[zachlaka]

If this was a real game diener34 would so win by like 8 runs http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[DougJones43]

How did Branyan get lumped in with those bums? Also, I kind of liked Ben Grieve. Replace those two with Antone Williamson and David Hulse, and find a spot in the starting rotation for Rafael Roque (he did start an opening day game for the Brewers afterall). Then you'll really be onto something...

[Buckethead Brigade]

Put Jeffrey Hammonds out in Left instead of Gwynn, and then we have a great lineup

[GormanHarvey]

I'd like to see Victor "The Vampire" Santos find his way onto diener34's team - either in the rotation or the pen for day games. Ben Grieve was a joke!!

[Sundown Kid]

Paul Molitor, 3B

Robin Yount, CF

Cecil Cooper, 1B

Ted Simmons, C

Prince Fielder, DH

Ryan Braun, LF

Jeromy Burnitz, RF

J.J. Hardy, SS

Jim Gantner, 2B

Teddy Higuera, P

 

Starters:

Pete Vuckovich

Mike Caldwell

Ben Sheets

Yovanni Gallardo (a hopeful pick)

 

Bullpen:

Rollie Fingers

Dan Plesac

Mike Fetters

Bob Wickman

Jim Slaton (also a valuable spot-starter because 3 of my starters are injury-prone)

 

Bench:

B.J. Surhoff

Don Money

Jeff Cirillo

Ben Oglivie

Gorman Thomas

Darryl Hamilton

[BrewCrewForever]

Yeah Branyan should not have been on that roster. He is actually good.

[Bikeage77]

Starting Lineup

Paul Molitor 2B

Robin Yount SS

Cecil Cooper 1B

Ryan Braun LF

Greg Vaughn DH

Jeromy Burnitz RF

Gorman Thomas CF

Jeff Cirillo 3B

Ted Simmons C

 

Starting Staff:

CC Sabathia SP

Teddy Higuera SP

Don Sutton SP

Pete Vuckovich SP

Mike Caldwell SP

 

Bench:

George Scott

Don Money

BJ Surhoff

Scott Podsednik

 

Bullpen:

Moose Haas - LR

Jim Slaton - RP

Bill Castro - RP

Carlos Villanueva - RP

Dan Pleasac - SU

Rollie Fingers - CL

 

When you put the DH in there, it makes things a little tougher. Probably should have one more bullpen guy. At any given time, Ben Sheets is on the DL so he didn't make the list.

[JimH5]

This is a great thread!

 

My list skews old, as I established rules that the guy had to have 500 games played to be considered as a position player, which eliminates younger guys. I used the baseball-reference team data, and I'm assuming it's accurate. I wanted to combine quantity (games) and quality (OPS+, ERA+).

 

I was most surprised by the stats on Johnny Briggs & Don Money on offense, and Doug Davis and Ray King as pitchers.

 

 

 

1-Paul Molitor 2B 1856 Games 125 OPS+

2-Sixto Lezcano RF 785 Games 125 OPS+

3-Robin Yount SS 2856 Games 115 OPS+

4-Richie Sexson 1B 534 Games 133 OPS+

5-Gorman Thomas CF 1102 Games 119 OPS+

6-Don Money 3B 1196 Games 114 OPS+

7-Johnny Briggs LF 584 Games 131 OPS+

8-Dave Nilsson C 837 Games 110 OPS+

9-Ted Higuera P

 

Bench:

Darrell Porter C 537 Games 105 OPS+

George Scott 1B 782 Games 131 OPS+

Jeff Cirillo IF 978 Games 113 OPS+

Mark Loretta IF 796 Games 92 OPS+

Ben Oglivie OF 1149 Games 124 OPS+

Jeromy Burnitz OF 782 Games 122 OPS+

 

Rotation:

Teddy Higuera 205 starts 117 ERA+

Ben Sheets 221 starts 116 ERA+

Chris Bosio 163 starts 107 ERA+

Mike Caldwell 217 starts 103 ERA+

Doug Davis 111 starts 112 ERA+

 

Bullpen:

Dan Plesac 133 saves

Rollie Fingers 97 saves 149 ERA+ 259 IP 196 K

Ken Sanders 61 saves 154 ERA+ 321 IP 195 K

Mike Fetters 79 saves 155 ERA+ 334.1 IP 245 K

Bob Wickman 79 saves 142 ERA+ 315 IP 267 K

Ray King 1 save 141 ERA+ 154.2 IP 125 K

 

King is there as a LOOGY, as the rest of the setup guys are righty.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

George Scott needs to be on list somewhere. Not only could he hit...HR Title, but he had 5 Gold Gloves with the Brewers.

[hurricane3184]

http://sullybaseball.blogspot.com/2009/02/milwaukee-brewers-all-time-home-grown.html

[Scooter1027]

I'd like to see Victor "The Vampire" De Los Santos find his way onto diener34's team - either in the rotation or the pen for day games. Ben Grieve was a joke!!

I actually didn't think Ben Grieve was all that bad for us. He had a .364 OBP and a .779 OPS. Not spectacular, but far from "a joke".

[ILuvDaBush]

Where's Rickie Weeks?? And Brett Lawrie? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Yeti73]

I don't think Simmons should be on. During his time in Milwaukee he was really limited and on the way down. That said, we haven't had many good catchers. Surhoff would probably be the best ever, which is sort of scary.

 

For some reason I don't remember Mike Fetters being as good as a 155+ while with the Brewers.

[JimH5]

FYI-- Fetters with the Crew had ERAs as follows:

 

1992 1.87 in 62.2 IP

1993 3.34 in 59.1 IP

1994 2.54 in 46 IP

1995 3.38 in 34.2 IP

1996 3.38 in 61.1 IP

1997 3.45 in 70.1 IP

 

Admittedly, ERAs aren't the best measure of a closer, but he did snap off 6 straight years when he was under 3.50.

 

That's good enough for a spot in my all-time bullpen.

[CheezWizHed]

Mike Fetters gets on the team for "the stare-down" alone... http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Bikeage77]

George Scott needs to be on list somewhere. Not only could he hit...HR Title, but he had 5 Gold Gloves with the Brewers.

 

It's such a toss up between Cooper and Scott in my mind. Both could hit, and both could field. Is George Scott still active in baseball anywhere? I've known his name for years, but he was out of baseball when I was a few years old (if not sooner), so besides numbers, I don't much about him.

[Fatter than Joey]

Is George Scott still active in baseball anywhere?

 

He was managing a minor league team a couple of years ago.

 

Scott was a great fielding 1b.

 

He used to wear shark-teeth necklaces.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UOk3nQn2Pns/SBVepBYZjXI/AAAAAAAABSg/zfQ5bLp5ms0/s400/sc002a660a02.jpg

[JimH5]

Boomer Scott did a card show signing at Gonzaga Hall last year. Very nice guy, but he's very overweight and in poor health. I'm certain that he's not working in baseball.

[whizkid]

You can read a little about him in the description paragraph here. He was a loud, colorful, boastful kind of guy but it was all done in a jovial manner that the Brewers really needed in those bland early expansion years. Given that it was just shortly after the civil rights period of the 60s his personality did rub some the wrong way but screw them.

[joepepsi]

I'm a little stunned no one has mentioned Geoff Jenkins. He was a great corner outfielder for his first 6-7 seasons, had 3 .900+OPS seasons, one .888, and 4 others right around .800.

[phxMILWfan]

joepepsi, I thought about him but who do you take off that roster? Is he better then Braun, Burnitz, Oglivie, Vaughn? Deserves a mention though.