Team records and the young core

[jaybird2001wi]

Since I see Prince Fielder with 40 home runs this season and if he keeps pushing the home runs, he MAY own the single-season team record in home runs by the end of the season and he already has 69 career home runs. I have wondered if any of you believe the current young core of this team is capable of wiping out the team record book by the time their careers with the Brewers are finished. Prince is at a phenomenal pace to break Yount's record of 251 home runs within the next 5 or 6 years.

I would envision Fielder as the record holder of most single-season home runs in Brewer history by the time his career with the Brewers is finished. If Ryan Braun sticks around for awhile, he could be something the Brewers don't often have in their history (a power hitter with an impressive batting average, I don't even think anyone in Brewer history comes close to that except Cecil Cooper with the 1982 Brewers).

Robin Yount has 31 career home runs by the time he reaches Fielder's age. Braun seems to be on pace with Yount in regards to career home runs at this point in time when it comes to age.

Even Ben Sheets could have a possible chance to become to sole record holder in team wins. He has 72 wins thus far and needs 45 more wins to tie Mike Caldwell with 117 career Brewer wins.

Sheets should be able to get to the top five next season, since Bill Wegman holds the fifth spot with 81 wins. Sheets will undoubtedly break the team strikeout record since he is already in second place all-time to Teddy Higuera. Sheets need 47 more strikeouts to tie Higuera for the all-time lead. What is more amazing is that, despite Sheets' injury history, he still has age on his side to possibly be the best pitcher in Brewer history by the time his career is finished. Sheets is 29 years old right now and Higuera's career ended when he was 36 years old in 1994. Sheets already has the best K/BB ratio in Brewer history with 4.05.

But then again, the problem Sheets will find with a team with the Brewers' history is that he could become the team record holder in losses as well since pitchers never really stuck around this team long enough to establish the record books.

In my opinion, by the time every young players' career (Fielder, Braun, Hardy, Sheets and even Rickie Weeks) ends in Milwaukee, I would not be surprised to see every one of them in the top 10 of each hitting/pitching category (Sheets is pretty much already there, and even Turnbow is in the top 10 in all-time saves along with closer Francisco Cordero).

The more I think about it, the young core we have will completely revolutionize our team records and wipe out everyone from the 1970's and 80's.

What is more amazing about Sheets is that although he could be in the top five in wins next season, he is nowhere to be found in the top 10 in games started in team history.

The team records the Brewers have right now are very breakable for the young guys on this team. Where does everyone project each of our young guys. I would have included Yo Gallardo, but his career is too young to be looked at, at this point in time and it is much harder for someone to project a rookie pitcher than a rookie or second year hitter.

Heck, Scott Podsednik is fifth all-time in career stolen bases with 113 and Jose Valentin is 10th all-time with 78. Corey Hart has 21 or so stolen bases this season.

You can either call it a sad state of affairs for Brewer history or you can call this new era of young players something that is much better that will set a new standard for Brewer All-Time records.

The only two All-Time Brewers that have a standard at this point are Yount and Molitor. Despite the fact that we haven't had a winning season in 15 years, this could likely change given the fact that we have a much more potent order of youngsters than we ever had in our history.

[adambr2]

Prince actually has 70 career homeruns, he had 2 in his "pre-rookie year" of 2005, including a walkoff.

 

He may be able to break Yount's number by the time he hits free agency. Problem is, I'm not sure how long he'll be around after that. Of all the young guys, he may be the toughest to keep, especially with Boras as his agent. Luckily, we don't have to worry about that until after 2011.

 

 

Definitely an exciting young core of players.

 

Braun and Prince are definitely cream of the crop. Hardy and Hart are just a notch below. I still think Weeks will be elite as well.

[flosses like fossas]

i don't think that the brewers' record book needs to be considered disappointing simply because the team hasn't been prodigiously successful within it's small sample size. comparatively, a team like the marlins who've won two world series in the time since the crew have even had a winning record don't have a very impressive all-time record book either. this is kind of like one of the turns the "jenkins a brewer in '08" threads took.

 

edit: clarification.

[pitchleague]

"and Higuera's career ended when he was 36 years old in 1994."

 

thanks for reminding me that we had that guy on our roster for so long. ugh. Man, that contract killed us for more than a few years.

 

Otherwise, very cool to see all those numbers. I had recently thought about those types of things while paging thru my media guide again. Thanks for taking the time to figure it out and share it.

[TooLiveBrew]

Don't forget the other HR for Fielder came against the Twins (first career homer) - a gigantic 426-ft. bomb to the L-C walkway with two men on to put the Crew ahead by one run (I believe it made the score 7-5). Very efficient year for Fielder! Plus, that game also featured Rickie Weeks's first career HR. I was actually in attendance that day with my father - we'd been a tad late; got there just in time to see Shannon Stewart's leadoff HR, followed by two more Twins runs in the first off Ohka. The comeback was sweet, and seeing the two future stars play major roles was good enough for goosebumps. My dad had seen Fielder (& others - he was then most impressed by J.J.) that season at Spring Training and told me something to the effect of, "You know those young players you were telling me about? They're better than the hype you you've mentioned. That Fielder kid is a beast!"

 

I hadn't had a chance to see any of them in person before that day (6/25/05), but I will never forget that special day!

 

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/sports/brew/img/jun05/rw625.jpg

 

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/sports/brew/img/jun05/pf625.jpg

 

JS game recap

 

Thanks for starting this thread, jaybird. Not only is it sweet to think about what this core may accomplish longer-term, but I'm sure it'll produce a bunch of great personal memories of, 'I was there when...' like mine. Although the only cloud to hover over the optimism is that who knows whether or not any of them will be around long enough post-arbitration to surpass any club records. The 80s was a different era, and the Molitor departure was a painful sign of the changing times. Here's to the now and to the future!

[igor67]

I think it's safe to say a number of the records will be rewritten. Prince breaking the career HR mark is a pretty tall order, unless we can extend him beyond those 6 years. Otherwise you have to assume a nearly 50 HR pace to beat out Yount. I'd be shocked if he doesn't get the single season HR mark for the Brewers. I think I'll be fairly disappointed if Rickie can't get on top of the career steals category. Pods has the record with two seasons, given 6 Rickie should be able to get atleast 150. His current pace has been underwhelming, but given a full season he's averaging about 30 for a season, and he should be capable of more than that. It's possible Corey could make some noise as a #5 hitter with steals which I would find exciting. In the end I think there are a number of season marks in danger given the offensive levels, but how free agency playsout will determine the career marks more than anything.