20 Greatest Brewer Seasons Ever (according to WAR)

[reillymcshane]

According to Fangraphs WAR calculations, here are the top 20 seasons by a Brewer.

 

I don't think anyone realized at the time (or even now) how great Sheeters pitched in 2004.

 

The 1980 team had three players with a WAR of 6.6 or higher. Wow.

 

I thought this was kind of fun to share:

 

Robin Yount - 1982 - 10.2 WAR

Ben Sheets - 2004 - 8.0

Ryan Braun - 2011 - 7.8

Teddy Higuera - 1987 - 7.4

Tommy Harper - 1970 - 7.3

Cecil Cooper - 1980 - 7.1

Ben Oglivie - 1980 - 7.0

Mike Caldwell - 1978 - 6.9

Robin Yount - 1983 - 6.9

Jeff Cirillo - 1998 - 6.8

Robin Yount - 1980 - 6.6

Rickie Weeks - 2010 - 6.5

Prince Fielder - 2009 - 6.4

Paul Molitor - 1982 - 6.3

Paul Molitor - 1987 - 6.3

George Scott - 1973 - 6.3

Chris Bosio - 1989 - 6.2

Robin Yount - 1984 - 6.1

Paul Molitor - 1988 - 5.9

Sal Bando - 1978 - 5.9

[JimH5]

B-R shows Sheets at 6.3 for 2004. Are the two WARs that different?

 

It also shows Yount at 11.5 in 1982. Weird that they would be so off.

 

Still, a great post.

 

Tommy Harper rocked.

[thebruce44]

Yea, B-R basically just came up with their own method for calcing WAR, but continued to call it WAR. Its pretty confusing.

[sveumrules]

For pitchers especially I like to add the two (Fangraphs and Bref) and divide it since Fangraphs gives a pitcher virtually no credit for balls in play in their methodology and Bref gives them pretty much all the credit and the truth is obviously somewhere inbetween.

[thumperden]

I wish they'd convert the statistic to Wins Above Average, but that's just me. To me, it's an easier statistic to wrap myself around. I don't care about the production of a replacement player. I base judgments as compared to what a league average player would do. Does anyone have a formula to calculate?

[thumperden]

It amazes me to see three players from 1980 make the top 20 list though...impressive.

[brettac1]

Chris Bosio. Wow.

[topper09er]

I wish they'd convert the statistic to Wins Above Average, but that's just me. To me, it's an easier statistic to wrap myself around. I don't care about the production of a replacement player. I base judgments as compared to what a league average player would do. Does anyone have a formula to calculate?

The reason they don't do this is because it would say an average player provides 0 wins to a team, which is not correct. You can easily find this value on your own however, at least on bb-ref. They break out all the components of WAR, and each one is compared to average. Only in the final step do they convert from runs above average to runs above replacement, and then convert from runs above replacement to wins above replacement.

 

Looking at Yount 1982:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	PA	Rbat	Rbaser	Rroe	Rdp	Rfield	Rpos	Rrep	RAR	WAR	oRAR	oWAR	dWAR
1982	26	MIL	AL	704	65	8	3	-1	8	9	20	112	11.5	104	10.7	0.8

Offense = Runs above average (RAA) from batting (Rbat) + RAA from baserunning (Rbaser) + RAA from reaching on errors (Rroe) + RAA on doubleplayed grounded into (Rdp) + RAA from position (Rpos).

 

Defense = RAA from fielding (Rfield)

 

Rrep = runs above a replacement player (a function of playing time and league strength). WAR is a counting stat also remember.

 

If you total all columns except for Rrep you will get the RAA for the player, in this case 92. Converting from runs to wins is a function of the scoring environment in the park and era of the player. You can easily back calculate it using the RAR and WAR, for Yount '82 = 112/11.5 = 9.74 runs/win.

 

so 92 runs above average / 9.74 runs/win = ~ 9.5 Wins above average.

 

This is, by the way, a historically huge season, especially for a SS. It is says Yount alone could transform and average team (81 wins) to a 90 win team.

[RockCoCougars]

1980 had a great lineup particularly Coop and Oglivie. That team was pretty much destroyed by the bad pitching. Most of the starters were disappointments, and Reggie Cleveland, Augie and the boys from the bullpen gagged a lot of games away that year. I remember a horrible stretch in the summer.

[reillymcshane]

This is, by the way, a historically huge season, especially for a SS. It is says Yount alone could transform and average team (81 wins) to a 90 win team.

Yeah, this is so true. I was 18 in 1982, and I remember the season (even got to go to the 5th game of the world series). I wish, however, I'd have understood at the time just how amazing Robin and the team were. I friggin' 10 WAR season. Wow. You don't always appreciate it while in the moment.

[endaround]

Yeah Yount in 1982 had an ARod in his prime season while league wide offense was far below what it was in 2000.

[thumperden]

Thank you topper for taking the time and effort to s'plain that to me. I use those numbers in calculations I use too, but it's easier to wrap my head around explaining above and below average. I don't understand why replacement level is used as the break even point (0.0) and is the sabermetric of choice. Average should be interpreted as break even or (0.0) from a layperson's perspective.

[Patrick425]

Kind of interesting that Yount's 2nd MVP year of 1989 didn't have a WAR high enough to get him in the top 20.

[TheCrew07]

I personally prefer baseball-reference's way of doing it, I have a really hard time with FIP calculations being considered a "true" result.

 

I find it interesting that Cooper had the best 1B season in Brewer history, I didn't realize Rickie's 2010 was that good, and I'm glad I'm old enough to have watched Yount and Molitor in person.

[djoctagone]

I don't care about the production of a replacement player.

war! what is it good for? absolutely nothin'!

[BrewCrewForever]

Ben Sheets was incredible in 2004. Just incredible. If he had more wins, I am sure he would have won the Cy Young over Clemens that year.

[jjkoestler]

Which calculation of WAR (BR or Fangraphs) is most universally agreed upon? I typically use Fangraphs, but I didn't realize there was a difference between the two calculations.

[Baldkin]

Ben Sheets was incredible in 2004. Just incredible. If he had more wins, I am sure he would have won the Cy Young over Clemens that year.

The funny thing is, Randy Johnson had an even better year than Sheeter.... and didn't win the Cy Young because he only had 16 wins.

[logan82]

Which calculation of WAR (BR or Fangraphs) is most universally agreed upon? I typically use Fangraphs, but I didn't realize there was a difference between the two calculations.

BR uses Total Zone for defense on position players and I think ERA instead of FIP for pitchers.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Kind of interesting that Yount's 2nd MVP year of 1989 didn't have a WAR high enough to get him in the top 20.

 

That was the 1st thing I noticed.

[Funketown]

Between 1989 and 2004, Cirillo was the only 6+WAR player. That's surprising.

 

Even as a newb baseball fan in 2004 I never understood why Sheets' lack of wins should have precluded his Cy Young candidacy. Whatever metric you prefer, FIP, xFIP, ERA, all were between 2.65 and 2.80. Dude could pitch.

[DHonks]

in '04, Sheets had virtually identical stats to Santana, who I think won the AL Cy Young. Yet Sheets wasn't even in the voting in the NL. He was simply brilliant. We'll never see a K:BB like his

[Ennder]

Pitching WAR is very suspect in general, the defensive part of positional WAR is pretty shaky. Nice list, some names I didn't expect to see in there.

[bork]

Kind of interesting that Yount's 2nd MVP year of 1989 didn't have a WAR high enough to get him in the top 20.

 

Did the switch to center have anything to do with that? I notice that all 4 seasons on the list were at short.

 

I always appreciated Yount's longevity and hustle, but I guess I never appreciated how good he was in his prime.

[RockCoCougars]

If the Internet was in full swing back in '89, the 'Sierra was robbed' whiners would have been out in full force. Nothing like the Kemp whiners though.