RANK Top 12 Brewers Starting Pitchers of All-Time

[A Swing and A Drive]

Did you know that Wily Peralta's current 47 wins ranks 16th all-time for the Brewers franchise?

 

We all love the Brewers, but that's just pathetic.

 

And quick, without looking it up, who's the Brewers All-Time leader in Wins? I'd bet most Brewers fans wouldn't guess correctly.

 

And can you guess how many career wins 1982 AL CY Young winner Pete Vuckovich had with the Brew Crew? Hint: It's less than Peralta!

 

Got me to thinking on how we'd rank top 12 Brewers Starting Pitchers of All-Time:

 

Obviously, guys like CC and Greinke probably had some of the highest talent, but let's rank based off their entire Brewers career/impact.

 

Here's mine, with a surprising #1...

RANK Name Wins Losses ERA IP BB SO Notes

1. LHP Mike Caldwell 102 80 3.74 1604 353 540 Yankee killer, #2 starter on '82 AL Champs

2. LHP Teddy Higuera 94 64 3.61 1380 443 1081 Great prime, 20 game winner in 1986.

3. RHP Ben Sheets 86 83 3.72 1428 313 1206 Great command, 18-K in one game Brewers record

4. RHP Yovani Gallardo 89 64 3.69 1289 474 1226 Brewers all-time leader in strikeouts

5. LHP CC Sabathia 11 2 1.65 130 25 128 2008 Brewers ride him to first playoffs in 26 years

6. RHP Jim Slaton 117 121 3.86 2025 760 929 Brewers all-time leader in Wins

7. RHP Zack Greinke 25 9 3.67 294 73 323 ACE of 2011 NL Central Champs

8. RHP Pete Vuckovich 40 26 3.88 533 228 266 1982 AL CY YOUNG Award Winner

9. RHP Moose Haas 91 79 4.03 1542 308 800 #3 starter on 1982 AL Champs

10. RHP Jim Colburn 57 60 3.65 1118 309 495 20 Wins and 3.18 ERA for early 1972 Brew Crew

11. RHP Don Sutton 26 26 3.86 487 123 313 HOFer and key '82 stretch run acquisition

12. RHP Cal Eldred 64 65 4.51 1078 448 686 Magical '92 rookie season: 11-2 with a 1.79 ERA

 

Decided I couldn't stretch this list to 20 SP without crying in my soup. lol

[tmwiese55]

Wow this is pretty pathetic to look at, think it's the worst in MLB?

 

ETA: Probably Colorado would be worse. But understandable due to being new and their obvious issues there.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Bill Wegman was decent for a long time, and even had a couple nice years. Didn't have big K totals, but he was very average (Career ERA+ of 102), so just for being average, and having the longevity, he'd make the top 12 for me.

 

Chris Bosio was likewise steady and unspectacular, but had seasons of 16, 15, and 14 wins, with an ERA+ of 107 while he was a Brewer, and 67 career wins as a Brewer.

 

I guess it's hard for me to even consider Sabathia, when he was with the Brewers for barely half of one season. I mean, that was super fun, and something most Brewer fans will never forget, but .... eh.

[Oxy]

Wow this is pretty pathetic to look at, think it's the worst in MLB?

 

I would have to think yes. Even if you limit the timeframe to 1970-present, we probably only have the Rockies beat.

[Ennder]

By WAR here is a list from baseball reference. I assume this only includes seasons with the team.

 

1. Teddy Higuera - 30

2. Ben Sheets - 22

3. Chris Bosio - 18

4. Yovanni Gallardo - 18

5. Bill Wegman - 18

6. Mike Caldwell - 17

7. Moose Haas - 15

[topper09er]

Higuera is definitely #1, his peak was amazing. He was the best pitcher in MLB in 1986, and although his peak of 86-88 was very short, he was the #2 pitcher in MLB behind All-Time great Roger Clemens.

 

Also, if you are going to include Sabathia you have to include Rollie Fingers, he won the '81 MVP and Cy Young and his number is retired

[A Swing and A Drive]

Higuera is definitely #1, his peak was amazing. He was the best pitcher in MLB in 1986, and although his peak of 86-88 was very short, he was the #2 pitcher in MLB behind All-Time great Roger Clemens.

 

Also, if you are going to include Sabathia you have to include Rollie Fingers, he won the '81 MVP and Cy Young and his number is retired

 

Fingers doesn't qualify. This ranking is for Starting Pitchers.

 

Higuera only had 3-4 good seasons as a Brewer and none of them were as dominant as Sabathia's 2008 season with the Crew. Higuera also never led the Brewers to the postseason.

 

The more I look at the numbers, the more I believe that Ben Sheets may have actually been the best Brewers SP. He had more IP and K, a similar ERA and superior command. (Sheets 3.8/1 SO/BB ratio, Higuera 2.4/1 SO/BB ratio)

 

Hard to believe how low of a SO rate Caldwell had, yet was still effective.

[rwa12]

If Sabathia can be considered, I nominate Chris Saenz. THE most dominant Brewers starter I've ever witnessed. Also, Guerra should be considered given the parameters.

[tmwiese55]

As much as many of us probably just viewed Gallardo as just a good pitcher and not a star/ace. He should definitely be right near the top of this list due to how weak it is, and he's probably currently a bit underrated/under appreciated among our fans. I was surprised to see he's MKE's #1 for K/9, thought that would be Sheets for sure.

 

Top 4 of Teddy, Sheets, Caldwell, Gallardo in some order is probably fairly clear imo. Then there's a big gap.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Bill Wegman was decent for a long time, and even had a couple nice years. Didn't have big K totals, but he was very average (Career ERA+ of 102), so just for being average, and having the longevity, he'd make the top 12 for me.

 

Chris Bosio was likewise steady and unspectacular, but had seasons of 16, 15, and 14 wins, with an ERA+ of 107 while he was a Brewer, and 67 career wins as a Brewer.

 

I guess it's hard for me to even consider Sabathia, when he was with the Brewers for barely half of one season. I mean, that was super fun, and something most Brewer fans will never forget, but .... eh.

 

These guys just missed my Top 12. Wegman was just too average of a SP, IMO. Bosio was a bit better but I kinda left off for being such a jerk, actually. You could argue Bosio could slot in anywhere after the top half of the list I suppose.

 

Since NO Brewers SP has had a long, dominant run with the Brewers, I gave more weight to the guys who had a short, but significant impact on Brewers postseason success (i.e. CC, Sutton, Greinke, and even Eldred as the Crew had exciting near-miss of playoffs in 1992 and he was a huge part)

 

Would love to see Brewers draft/develop a SP in the next few years that is sitting on Top of this List in 15 years. Wouldn't be asking too much. lol

[MrTPlush]

Would love to see Brewers draft/develop a SP in the next few years that is sitting on Top of this List in 15 years. Wouldn't be asking too much. lol

 

Jeez 15 years? Multiple sub-4 ERA seasons and you are flirting with Top 10 status.

[And That]

If Sabathia can be considered, I nominate Chris Saenz. THE most dominant Brewers starter I've ever witnessed. Also, Guerra should be considered given the parameters.

This wins.

[CheezWizHed]

If Sabathia can be considered, I nominate Chris Saenz. THE most dominant Brewers starter I've ever witnessed. Also, Guerra should be considered given the parameters.

This wins.

Career ERA of 0.00, 10.5k/9IP, WHIP of 0.8: It doesn't get any better than that.

 

I'll vote for WEGs too. But Bosio should be excluded simply based on his pitching coach career with the Cubs. He was a jerk has a player, but doubled down as a coach for the Cubs. Especially recently.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Would love to see others Top 12 Brewers SP rankings.

 

And for those of you that disagree with CC being on the list, I think it just demonstrates how the Brewers have ZERO Top of the Rotation pitchers that have had any sustained success with the franchise.

 

Considering our only former CY Young starter (Pete V) won all of 40 career games for us.

 

And a player like Jeff D'Amico won all of 29 career games for us.

 

So as silly as it seems for a franchise nearing 50 years, the magnitude of CC's 11 dominant wins in 2008 start to seem relevant in this discussion, IMO.

[nate82]

You are forgetting Chris Capuano the real ace of the Brewers pitching staff!

[MKEguy]

Does anyone see anyone in our system that has a good chance of cracking this extensive and star-studded list?

 

If Hader figures it out, maybe he has the best shot.

 

Woodruff and Burnes allegedly don't have the ceiling.

 

Ace Chanderson, if he continues at this year's pace.

[JimH5]

I would rank them like this:

 

1. Higuera

2. Caldwell

3. Sheets

4. Bosio

5. Gallardo

6. Slaton

7. Haas

8. Wegman

9. Eldred

10. Vuckovich

[homer]

Señor Smoke

[JosephC]

1. Teddy Higuera

I think Higuera was the most talented pitcher to ever wear the Brewer uniform, and I haven't forgotten some of the elite rentals the Brewers have acquired over the years. Combine that with his #1 WAR ranking makes him an easy choice for #1.

 

2. Mike Caldwell

Vuckovich gets classified as the ace of the 1982 staff, but I don't think there is any question that Caldwell was the anchor. Ranked #2 in wins, #5 in winning percentage, #8 in ERA, #10 in WHIP and #5 in WAR. Sheets trumps him in many of these categories, but Caldwell's role on the 1982 team gets him this spot.

 

3. Ben Sheets

It's too bad Sheets started to break-down so early in his career and played on some truly bad baseball teams. Was a 4-time All-Star and would probably rank much higher in many categories had he not missed the equivalent of a full season over his last four years in Milwaukee.

 

4. Jim Slaton

Franchise leader in wins and another key cog on the 1982 team, although he was mainly a reliever that year.

 

5. Moose Haas

Have to admit I'm quite fond of that 1982 team and the bias shows here. That said, Haas is #4 in franchise wins and #7 in WAR.

 

6. Yovani Gallardo

#1 in strikeouts and top 5 in ERA and wins. Just doesn't have the magic of being on that 1982 team which is no fault of his own.

 

7. Pete Vuckovich

Another great one that had physical problems far too early. Cy Young winner and the franchise leader in winning percentage. Would have loved to rank him higher but only pitched in 85 regular season games for Milwaukee.

 

8. Chris Bosio

Top 10 in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

 

9. C.C. Sabathia

Only pitched in 17 regular season games but got the city of Milwaukee to believe again. And he wasn't half bad in those 17 games either.

 

10. Jim Colborn

20 game winner in 1973. The Brewers have only had 3 20-game winners and the other two are #1 and #2 on this list.

 

11. Zack Greinke

I have to admit that I thought Greinke was just a tad bit disappointing while he was in Milwaukee despite the excellent 2.79 FIP. I was really hoping he'd pitch at his 2009 level which was unrealistic on my part (although he did get back there and exceeded it in 2015). Still went 25-9 in 49 regular season games as a Brewer and that's pretty good.

 

12. Bill Wegman

This is where the pickings got really slim. Wegman does rank #4 in franchise WAR and #7 in wins. I guess longevity counts for something.

[3and2Fastball]

Sheets was the best. Would have had better stats if a) the Brewers had waited on bringing him up and b) Yost took him out of games earlier

[Patrick425]

For the most part I agree with the pitchers mentioned in this post and I'm not going to go through the exercise of trying to rank the top 12, but there seems to be a general agreement that Higuera and Caldwell were the top 2 (with a possible argument for Sheets as well). While I believe Higuera's top years were probably a bit better than Caldwell's, I'm going to go with my old-timers heart and give the overall nod to Caldwell. Not that Higuera did not have his fair share of complete games (I think somewhere around 25%), but Caldwell completed an amazing 32% of the games he started. Because of the number of complete games starters had back prior to about 1990, I think I'll always hold those pitchers in higher regard than the starting pitchers of today.

 

Another pitcher that I think definitely deserves consideration in the top 12 is Larry Sorensen. 52-46 in 4 years with the Brewers. 3.72 ERA, 854IP, 173BB, 252K, 12.3 War, All Star appearance in 1978 and he was part of the trade with the Cards that netted the Brewers Fingers, Simmons, and Vuckovich

[SoCalBrewfan]

Wegman was better than he's given credit for. His career ERA of 4.16 doesn't look like much, but it reflects to an extent the era in which he played. In 1987, he was 12-11, 4.24 ERA, which doesn't seem special...but the American League ERA that year was 4.46 and rumors of a lively ball were rampant. That was a 4.7 WAR season! Wegman lost two years out of his prime but still had three 4-win years and is listed as 4th on bb-ref pitching WAR for the Brewers, ahead of even Mike Caldwell and Yovanni Gallardo. (Caldwell was a fave of mine, too, and 1978 was an amazing year, to be sure. But, say, Caldwell's 13-11, 4.03 in 1979 was actually a worse year than Wegman's 1987, because runs were harder to come by, and the league ERA was also 4.03.)

 

Bosio suffers from some similar issues but was very consistently valuable and should be even higher on the list IMO.

 

I'd probably include some subjectivity and rank the top 6 as Higuera, Sheets, Caldwell, Bosio, Gallardo, Wegman, but I think you could make a case for Bosio and Wegman as 3 and 4.

[pacopete4]

This thread I try to stay away from reading because it is flat out depressing the lack of quality that we have had as a franchise.

[3and2Fastball]

All we need is for Hunter Greene to punch a nun on live TV and he'll slide to #9 and we'll get our franchise pitcher in the June Draft. If only we coulda been worse last year. The irony of wishing Ken Macha was our 2016 manager and not Craig Counsell. Dammmit Craig! You did too good of a job. Astros plan deviated from. Woah Solv'd indeed

[gregmag]

1. Higuera

2. Sheets

3. Bosio

4. Gallardo

5. Haas

6. Caldwell

7. Navarro

8. Sabathia

9. Greinke

10. Sorensen

11. Slaton

12. Colborn

 

Wegman is next; he never had a year as good as Colborn's 1973, but he had a few years better than Colborn's second best. Sutton (as a Brewer, of course) and Vuckovich weren't good enough to crack that group. Vuke's Cy Young award is just offensive.

 

I'm a Caldwell-era guy, but he only had one great year and one other very good year. Sheets' 2004 was better than Caldwell's 1978. In fact, as I said in another thread, no Milwaukee Brave or Brewer pitcher has ever had a better season than Sheets in 2004.

 

Once you get past the top seven, the pickings are so grim that I think the short-tenure superstars, Greinke and Sabathia, look better than the longer-tenured guys. McDonald is like that only not as good, falls in right after the guys I listed.

 

It would have been really great if Phil Garner hadn't murdered Cal Eldred.