All-Time Worst Single Season Lineup in Brewer History

[reillymcshane]

I love history. And I was thinking about some of the bad players that have come through Milwaukee (kind of sad when you think about it). So I used WAR from Fangraphs to put together the worst lineup in Brewer history. I used the worst season at each position. I kept it so that the players started at least 1/2 the season - so around 300 ABs.

 

C - Chad Moeller (2004), -1.0 WAR - .265 OBP, mediocre defense.

1B - Sean Berry (1999), -2.2 WAR - our 1B had a .582 OPS. Berry classifies as the worst all-time Brewer hitter with a -2.7 WAR lifetime.

2B - Ronnie Belliard (2002), -2.2 WAR - .257 OBP - Sucked at 2B and 3B.

SS - Tim Johnson (1973), -1.7 WAR - .213 BA. Never hit an HR in over 1,200 ABs in his career.

3B - Wes Helms (2004) -1.4 WAR - The -16.6 UZR rating killed him.

LF - Jim Wolford (1977), -1.4 WAR - Our LF had a .605 OPS. And he wasn't a very good defender.

CF - Von Joshua (1977), -2.1 WAR - Dude had a -22 UZR. Ouch. The .286 OBP didn't help.

RF - Dick Davis (1980), -0.6 WAR - Did nothing well. Did everything slightly below average.

DH - Ted Simmons (1984), -2.4 WAR - Worst WAR ever for a Brewer hitter. Hit .221 playing mostly DH, plus a little 1B and 3B. Brutal.

P - Doug Davis (2004), -0.9 WAR - This is just his hitting WAR. He had ONE hit in 71 ABs. That's a .016 BA and a .047 OPS.

 

I took a perverse joy in putting together this list.

 

Share your memories.

 

Enjoy!

[jjgott]

The lack of Yuni on this list at all positions of the infield makes it invalid

[dlk9s]

Ben Sheets never had a worse year than that one from Sharpie?

[Menotti80]

Replace wes helms with yuni b and you've got yourself a list!

[Invader3K]

Putting Simmons in seems a bit unfair. Clearly he was in the downside of his career by that point. It would be like looking at Hank Aaron's last season and putting him in there.

[bani1717]

I agree, it would also be interesting to see this list based on career WARs

[DHonks]

What about the seasons where we used out backups at dh? Didn't Jesse Levis DH a bunch one year?

[Patrick425]

If you factor in production per dollar spent (inflation adjusted) I would think that Jeffery Hammonds and Jamie Navarro would have to make this list.

 

Jamie Navarro signed a big contract with the Brewers before the 93 season and went on to post 5.33 and 6.62 ERAs in 93 and 94. Left the Brewers and then was brought back in 2000, started 5 games that year and posted a 14.95 ERA.

 

Jeffery Hammonds...the Big FA splash by the Brewers a year before Miller Park construction was completed. Had a total of 660 ABs in 3 seasons, earning around $7.5 mil/yr (big money at the time...especially for the Brewers), never hitting greater than .257 in either of those seasons.

[JohnBriggs12]

I take exception to Dick Davis being on that list. First, Davis was never really a starter. He was a 4th OF, DH and he handled that role very well. He played more in 1980 because Lezcano broke a bone in his hand late in the year. I recall him getting many big hits for very good Brewer teams from 78 to 80. The year he is listed, he had 26 doubles in under 400 AB.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I realize Simmons had a really bad year in '84, but his inclusion in a Brewers 'worst ever' list really seems wrong.

[gregmag]

Guys, it isn't an opinionated list. As I understand reillymcshane, he just took the lowest seasonal WAR for a player at each position. You can't criticize his judgment or "fairness" in including a particular player; he just used the numbers. If you want to argue subjectively about who was the worst, that's fine, but that isn't what he did.

[RockCoCougars]

Simmons with a very low OBP in '84, and I assume that's strongly correlated with WAR. What an awful year that was, seems like a lot of guys aged 5 years overnight.

[reillymcshane]

Guys, it isn't an opinionated list. As I understand reillymcshane, he just took the lowest seasonal WAR for a player at each position. You can't criticize his judgment or "fairness" in including a particular player; he just used the numbers. If you want to argue subjectively about who was the worst, that's fine, but that isn't what he did.

Precisely. It's based strictly on WAR from Fangraphs. It's one way (but not the only way) to look at a player. But it does allow you to place a strict value on a player's entire value for a year.

 

I'd have loved to put Yuni in here, but some other guys just managed to beat him (both at SS and 1B). I hate having Simmons on the list because he's a near HOFer, but honestly, his 1984 season was awful. He had a .569 OPS playing mostly DH.

[1992casey]

reillymcshane, do you happen to have data showing where Yuni's 2011 season ranked vs. Tim Johnson?

[DuWayne Steurer]

Guys, it isn't an opinionated list. As I understand reillymcshane, he just took the lowest seasonal WAR for a player at each position. You can't criticize his judgment or "fairness" in including a particular player; he just used the numbers. If you want to argue subjectively about who was the worst, that's fine, but that isn't what he did.

 

I understand that. I get that. I'm just saying........any list of 'worst ever' Brewers that includes Ted Simmons 'seems' wrong. That's why I explicitly used the word 'seems'.

 

The title 'all time worst line up' however, would sort of imply that Ted Simmons was the worst DH in Brewers history, not just the guy who had the single worst season of WAR.

[reillymcshane]

reillymcshane, do you happen to have data showing where Yuni's 2011 season ranked vs. Tim Johnson?

 

Tim Johnson (1973)

Games: 136

Plate Appearances: 510

HR: 0

RBI: 32

SB: 6

BB%: 5.7%

K%: 18.2 %

Average: .213

OB%: .259

SLG: .243

OPS: .502

WAR Fielding: -6.0

WAR Baserunning: 0.2

WAR: -1.7

 

Yuni (2011)

Games: 152

Plate Appearances: 584

HR: 13

RBI: 68

SB: 4

BB%: 2.7%

K%: 10.8 %

Average: .252

OB%: .271

SLG: .381

OPS: .652

WAR Fielding: -6.7

WAR Baserunning: 1.3

WAR: 0.1

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=ss&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=1969&ind=1&team=23&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0

 

Scroll down and you'll see the rankings. For all of Yuni's failings, he still provided some decent power for the position. He's actually the fourth worst season with a positive 0.1 WAR rating.

 

These are only guys who qualified for the batting title. You can filter it so you add guys with less ABs. More guys will show up.

 

You just have to be careful as some guys might show up under the SS category, but they didn't play many games there.

 

For all the players at all the position, I didn't slot them into a position unless they played at least 50 or so games there.

[Outlander]

The title 'all time worst line up' however, would sort of imply that Ted Simmons was the worst DH in Brewers history, not just the guy who had the single worst season of WAR.

I actually agree with you, part of the problem is Ted Simmons would not be in the all time worst lineup. However if you take the worst season like the original poster did then he belongs. I'm not a big fan of taking an all time anything using one season unless that was the only season he was with the Brewers.

[Outlander]

You can't criticize his judgment or "fairness" in including a particular player; he just used the numbers.

I absolutely can, when you are making an all time list and reducing it to one season I consider it flawed. I'm not going to do the research right now but I'm sure there are hall of famers that would end up on many of these same lists if this was done for every team.

[reillymcshane]

How about we just change the title. Does that work?

[kalle8]

too bad there is no Ben Sheets. Hate to "Sharpie" for that fluke season!

 

i love the fact that Chad Moeller was Sheets' personal catcher, it would have been great having that hard hitting battery reunited again!

[logan82]

too bad there is no Ben Sheets. Hate to "Sharpie" for that fluke season!

 

i love the fact that Chad Moeller was Sheets' personal catcher, it would have been great having that hard hitting battery reunited again!

It wasn't really a fluke season. He was just a terrible hitter even for a pitcher.

[1992casey]

I took RoCoBrewfan's post the way he meant it to be taken, partly because of the word "seems" and partly because of what he's posted during his long history on the board.

 

You can't really "take exception" to a result of research. It is what it is. You can, however, question the value of the research or the methodology involved. And you certainly comment on the results. But commenting stops short of "taking exception."

 

Statheads will tell you that one season doesn't mean much in the broad scheme of things. However, stats like this make for some good trivia and some good discussion, and that's always fun.

[monty57]

When I saw this thread title, I thought it was saying that the 2013 Brewers were the worst lineup in team history, and I thought it couldn't be that bad. So, I looked:

 

As a team, the Brewers have a .711 OPS, which puts them in line with the .711 OPS posted in the 106-loss 2002 season, slightly ahead of the .708 OPS in 2004, but ahead of all but two of the teams from 1984 through 1993 (including a .705 OPS for the near-playoff 1992 team) as well as most of the 1970's teams.

 

As far as runs scored, the 2013 Brewers are on pace for around 640 runs. We had some bad run scoring years at the onset of the franchise, but this year is on pace to be the 3rd worst run-scoring year since 1978 (not including shortened seasons). Again, we're right there with 2002 (627 runs) and 2004 (634 runs).

[DuWayne Steurer]

I took RoCoBrewfan's post the way he meant it to be taken, partly because of the word "seems" and partly because of what he's posted during his long history on the board.

 

You can't really "take exception" to a result of research. It is what it is. You can, however, question the value of the research or the methodology involved. And you certainly comment on the results. But commenting stops short of "taking exception."

 

Statheads will tell you that one season doesn't mean much in the broad scheme of things. However, stats like this make for some good trivia and some good discussion, and that's always fun.

 

Thanks Casey (I think?!?) :D

 

Anywhoo.....that's really all my post was. When someone says "worst lineup ever", and I see Ted Simmons in there, right away my initial reaction is ........"whhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?"

 

And, I certainly count myself amongst the statheads, absolutely. You don't even have to BE a stathead to say "wow, Simmons sucked the fat one in '84." I guess the entirity of intent of my initial post, based on thread title (since corrected) was seeing Ted Simmons in ANY kind of "worst ever" gave me cause to say "how in the world......?" because he was very good, bordering on great for most of his career, and was still very good during much of his time as a Brewer. (And even bounced back a bit in 85.)