Brewers All-Time Team: Top 3 First Basemen

[clancyphile]

We'll move on from catcher to first base.

 

There are some great players and seasons to contend with here... and I wouldn't be surprise for some controversy, so here goes...

 

1. Prince Fielder - He put up two of the biggest seasons offensively in Brewers history. Posted 230 homers with the Crew, along with 656 RBI. Easily a dominant force in the lineup. Since his departure after 2011, the Brewers have had a revolving door at first.

 

2. Richie Sexson - He was the primary starter for three and a half years at first - and just dominated, twice tying the Crew's single-season home run record, and matching the then-single season RBI record Cecil Cooper set in 1980. When traded after 2003, the return included a starting rotation mainstay for a while (Capuano), a solid bench player and future manager (Counsell), a first baseman who later was flipped for another solid rotation piece (Overbay), and a pitcher flipped for a utility player (De LaRosa).

 

3. Cecil Cooper - He had very high marks over his career, and the longevity (10 seasons as the primary 1B) also cannot be ignored. He was steady for most but faded from 1984-1987.

 

Honorable mentions: Greg Brock had four seasons as the Crew's first baseman, and showed remarkable OBP skills, walking more than he struck out over his tenure as a Brewer... George Scott had five years at first, then was traded for Cooper... John Jaha had some great years, but also had trouble staying healthy... Lyle Overbay had two very good seasons in 2004 and 2005, then was traded because of Prince's arrival.

[sveumrules]

Cooper | 6492 PA | 123 OPS+ | 30.8 WAR

Scott | 3320 PA | 131 OPS+ | 22.5 WAR

Fielder | 4210 PA | 143 OPS+ | 16.8 WAR

Sexson | 2288 PA | 133 OPS+ | 11.3 WAR

 

Tough call between Scott (better hitter & fielder) & Cooper (longevity), but I'd probably go with Cecil as the starter & Prince as the backup/primary DH. Sorry, Boomer.

[Roderick]

Coop was always my favorite Brewer growing up. So my vote is Coop.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Cooper's 5 year run from 79 to 83 was definitely better than Fielder's 5 year peak for Milwaukee from '07 to 11. I would also put Coop at the top. Cooper's rate stats suffer a little bit because he stayed the primary starter a bit longer than he should have as there just wasn't a viable replacement when he started to decline.

 

But Cooper's 5 year peak as a Brewer matches anything anyone in the uniform has done in Milwaukee at the position and then some.

[PeaveyFury]

Didn't Scott also win 5 consecutive Gold Gloves with Milwaukee?

[DuWayne Steurer]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/scottge02.shtml

 

indeed he did.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Gotta believe that if those early to mid 70's Brewers teams weren't so bad that Boomer would have been garnering a lot more MVP support than he did in the voting.

[TURBO]

Tough call between Cooper, Scott, and Fielder.

 

I wouldn't put Sexson in this conversation myself.

 

I can't even begin to put them in order...

[JohnBriggs12]

Fielder and Cooper are 1 and 1A. I might give Coop the edge due to longer career, and while he fell off after 83, he still was reasonably productive for 3 and a half more seasons. Cooper was the best hitter on the best Brewer teams from 78-83. Had he not missed substantial portions of 78 due to injury and 81 due to strike, his numbers might have been even more impressive.

 

I'd take Sexson over Boomer for the 3rd spot. Boomer had two great years and 3 average ones in his 5 seasons as a Brewer. Sexson was never average in a Brewer uniform. with a .902 OPS as a Brewer compared with Scott's .798. Yeah the numbers were inflated in Sexson's days, but nobody ever hit them farther in a Brewer uniform and that includes Prince.

 

Honorable mention goes to John Jaha. When he was healthy he was right up there. I can't think of any Brewer RH hitter with more power to right and right center than Jaha. My gosh he was a terror in old Tiger Stadium: .383/.433/.748 with 10 home runs in 30 games. I'll bet all of them were in the RF upper deck too.

[sveumrules]

I'd take Sexson over Boomer for the 3rd spot. Boomer had two great years and 3 average ones in his 5 seasons as a Brewer. Sexson was never average in a Brewer uniform. with a .902 OPS as a Brewer compared with Scott's .798. Yeah the numbers were inflated in Sexson's days, but nobody ever hit them farther in a Brewer uniform and that includes Prince.

 

League average OPS during Scott's tenure from 1972-76 ranged from .664 to .704 compared to a league average OPS of .748 to .782 during Sexson's tenure from 2000-03, which is why their OPS+ marks of 131/133 are essentially identical.

 

Throw in that Scott has over 1,000 more PAs with the Brewers & was a far superior fielder (+42 vs -6), and it is hard for me to justifiably rank Sexson above him.

[Jimbo]

Does OPS+ include fielding stats? I don't think it does. Scott was an elite fielder (Black Beauty), was even mentioned during the just televised 1975 ASG on FSW.

[joepepsi]

To me Prince is the icon of the modern Brewers renaissance. He was the spirit and the soul of the team when he was a Brewer. I figured with his body he wasn't going to have a long a career and the Brewers were right to let him go, but they went for it in 2011 specifically because they knew they couldn't keep him another year. My favorite Brewer of all time. His inside the park HR in the Metrodome and many other moments bring a smile to my face to this day.

[clancyphile]

To me Prince is the icon of the modern Brewers renaissance. He was the spirit and the soul of the team when he was a Brewer. I figured with his body he wasn't going to have a long a career and the Brewers were right to let him go, but they went for it in 2011 specifically because they knew they couldn't keep him another year. My favorite Brewer of all time. His inside the park HR in the Metrodome and many other moments bring a smile to my face to this day.

 

Put it this way... not getting an extra 2-3 years was a killer, especially with the revolving door some years.

 

Yuni as the primary 1B? Mark Reynolds? Chris Carter?

[Baldkin]

To me Prince is the icon of the modern Brewers renaissance. He was the spirit and the soul of the team when he was a Brewer. I figured with his body he wasn't going to have a long a career and the Brewers were right to let him go, but they went for it in 2011 specifically because they knew they couldn't keep him another year. My favorite Brewer of all time. His inside the park HR in the Metrodome and many other moments bring a smile to my face to this day.

 

Put it this way... not getting an extra 2-3 years was a killer, especially with the revolving door some years.

 

Yuni as the primary 1B? Mark Reynolds? Chris Carter?

 

I really thought Hart moving to 1B would work.... then his knees didn't cooperate.

[NYChez]

Top 2 are Cecil, Fielder.