Stats the Fact, Jack: July 27, 2020
(A weekly look at several sports stats you may not know)
- The NBA has decided that voting for this year’s major awards (MVP, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, etc.) will not include games that are played at the end of July (and into August) which will complete the 2019-20 season. Instead, the league has stated that these awards will be based on performances from the start of the 2019-20 season through March 11, 2020, when the league shut down due to the pandemic. This may be good news for Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. The reigning league MVP was one of the favorites to take home the MVP this season until the halt in play. Should he win the MVP award again this season, he would become only the 12th player in NBA history to win back-to-back MVP awards. The other 11 are: Steph Curry, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Bird, Chamberlain and Russell are the only players to win the league’s MVP award in three consecutive seasons.
- In just two seasons with the Brewers, Christian Yelich has won a National League MVP Award and finished second the other year; he has amassed 80 home runs and 52 stolen bases with the Brewers in two seasons. In these two years, Yelich has accomplished what only 10 other Brewers players have… a career with the Brewers with 80 or more HRs and 50 or more stolen bases. The other Brewers players with 80 HR and 50 stolen bases in their Milwaukee careers: Ryan Braun (344 HR-215 steals), Robin Yount (251-271), Cecil Cooper 9201-77), Greg Vaughn (169-62), Paul Molitor (160-412), Corey Hart (154-83), Rickie Weeks (148-126), Don Money (134-66), Jose Valentin (90-75) and Carlos Gomez (87-152).
- Brandon Woodruff was the Brewers Opening Day starting pitcher for this season, becoming the seventh different pitcher to start the first game of the season for the Crew in the last seven seasons. The Opening Day Brewers pitchers over the past six seasons: 2020: Brandon Woodruff, 2019: Jhoulys Chacin, 2018: Chase Anderson, 2017: Junior Guerra, 2016: Wily Peralta, 2015: Kyle Lohse, 2014: Yovani Gallardo.
- Hall of Fame quarterbacks every once in a while have a bad game… a terrible game. Did you know that since 1966 (the start of the Super Bowl era) there have been seven Hall of Fame quarterbacks who had a game where they had no TD passes and five or more interceptions in that game? The seven: Terry Bradshaw, Dan Marino, Joe Namath (he did it twice!), Ken Stabler, Bart Starr, Fran Tarkenton and Johnny Unitas.
- Some of you may find this hard to believe, but Brewers manager Craig Counsell is the longest tenured manager in the National League. Counsell was hired to manage the Brewers on May 4, 2015. The second-longest tenured skipper in the N.L. is Miami’s Don Mattlingly; he was hired as the Marlins’ manager on November 2, 2015. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was also hired in 2015 (November 23, 2015) and is the third-highest tenured manager in the N.L. Over in the American League, Oakland’s Bob Melvin tops the list as not only the A.L.’s longest-tenured manager, but all of baseball. He was hired by the A’s on June 9, 2011. Following Melvin on the list in the A.L. are Terry Francona (Cleveland-October 6, 2012), Kevin Cash (Tampa Bay, December 5, 2014) and Scott Servais (Seattle-October 23, 2015).
- LeBron James is averaging 10.6 assists per game this season. If he ends the season averaging 10.0 or more assists per game, he will become only the second player age 35 or older to average 10 or more assists per game for a season. The other player? Steve Nash. He averaged 10.0 or more assists per game in a season when he was 35, 36 and 37 years of age.
- Here’s a really interesting trivia question for you to share with your friends, especially if you are all Brewers fans: Can you name the three players who played 1,000 or more games with the Brewers but never made an All-Star team as a member of the Brewers? The answer: Jim Gantner (1,801 games), Charlie Moore (1,283 games) and BJ Surhoff (1,102 games). Surhoff was an all-star with the Baltimore Orioles in 1999. He played for the Brewers from 1987-95.
- Last season in the NFL there were four quarterbacks who passed for 4,500 or more yards: Jameis Winston, Dak Prescott, Philip Rivers and Jared Goff. Since the AFL-NFL merger (1970), there have been 62 times when a QB has passed for 4,500 or more yards in a season. Five of those happened in the 1980s, three in the 1990s, 11 in the 2000s, and there were 43 times it happened from 2010-19. Of those 62 QBs, 26 of the 62 were age 22-29, 14 of the 62 were age 30-33, and 22 of the 62 were age 34 or older.
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Today’s Sportstat: May 18, 2020
Opening Day starters for the Brewers
Opening Day for baseball in 2020 is still a mystery. That shouldn’t, however, stop us from looking at some previous Opening Day lineups for the Brewers.
First, did you know that the last time the Brewers had the same player start at first base on Opening Day was all the way back in 2010 and 2011? Prince Fielder was the Opening Day first baseman in those two years for the Brewers; since then, the same player has not started at first in consecutive years.
(In case you were wondering, here are the Opening Day starters at first base for the Brewers since Fielder started at that position in 2010 and 2011: 2012-Mat Gamel, 2013-Alex Gonzalez, 2014-Lyle Overbay, 2015-Adam Lind, 2016-Chris Carter, 2017-Eric Thames, 2018-Ryan Braun, 2019-Jesus Aguilar.)
Here’s a breakdown for the last time a player started on Opening Day at the same position in consecutive seasons for the Brew Crew.
Catcher: Jonathan Lucroy, 2014-15
First Base: Prince Fielder, 2010-11
Second Base: Jonathan Villar, 2017-18
Shortstop: Orlando Arcia, 2018-19
Third Base: Travis Shaw, 2018-19
Left Field: Ryan Braun, 2016-17
Center Field: Lorenzo Cain, 2018-19
Right Field: Domingo Santana, 2017-18
Pitcher: Yovani Gallardo, 2013-14
Secondly, did you know that Jim Gantner has the most Opening Day starts at one position for the Brewers? Gantner was the Opening Day second baseman in 11 seasons. Second on the list is Robin Yount who had 10 Opening Day starts for the Brewers at shortstop. Yount tops the club with the most Opening Days starts at any position with 19 (he made 10 Opening Day starts at shortstop, eight in center field, and one in left field). In his 20-year career, the only year he did not make an Opening Day start for the Brewers was in 1978.
Here are the players with the most Opening Day starts at each position in Brewers history.
Catcher: Jonathan Lucroy and B.J. Surhoff, 5 each
First Base: Cecil Cooper, 9
Second Base: Jim Gantner, 11
Shortstop: Robin Yount, 10
Third Base: Don Money, 7
Left Field: Ryan Braun, 9
Center Field: Robin Yount, 8
Right Field; Sixto Lezcano and Jeromy Burnitz, 5 each
Designated Hitter: Paul Molitor, 4
Starting Pitcher: Ben Sheets, 6
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Today’s Sportstat: March 14, 2020
Brewers Trivia: How well do you know the team?
With professional sports on a sort of hiatus because of the Coronavirus, there’s not much stat analysis to write about. How about a little trivia?
Here’s three trivia questions for Brewers fans. Try to read the questions and guess the answers before skipping down to the answers.
- Three Brewers players played 1,000 or more games with the team but never made it on an all-star team while with the Brewers. Can you name the three?
- Name the Brewers managers who have been named Manager of the Year in either the American League or National League.
- From 2011 to 2019, there were nine different players who were the Opening Day starting first baseman for the Brewers. How many of the nine can you name?
Answer #1: Jim Gantner tops the list of most games played in a Brewers uniform without ever making the all-star team as a member of the Brew Crew. Gantner played 1,801 games with the Brewers but did not play in an All-Star Game. Charlie Moore (1,283 games with the Brewers) and B.J. Surhoff (1,102 games with the Brewers) are the other two players. Surhoff did play in the 1999 All-Star Game as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.
Answer #2: Trick question. The Brewers have never had one of their managers finish first in the voting for a Manager of the Year Award. There have had four Brewers managers who finished second in the voting for the award: Tom Trebelhorn (1987), Phil Garner (1992), Ron Roenicke (2011) and Craig Counsell (2018 and 2019).
Answer #3: Opening Day starting first basemen for the Brewers: 2011-Prince Fielder, 2012-Mat Gamel, 2013-Alex Gonzalez, 2014-Lyle Overbay, 2015-Adam Lind, 2016-Chris Carter, 2017-Eric Thames, 2018-Ryan Braun, 2019-Jesus Aguilar.
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Players who played their entire MLB career with the Brewers
Here’s a great trivia question for Brewers fans:
Can you name the five players who played their entire career with the Brewers (minimum of 500 games)? Hint: Two of them are currently on the Brewers roster. (Answer to follow)
It’s pretty rare to find a player who spends their entire MLB career with one team, especially if that career has a lot of mileage. Of the 22 players who played 2,800 or more games in the majors in their careers, only seven played all of their games with one team (Carl Yastrzemski, Stan Musial, Cal Ripken, Jr., Brooks Robinson, Robin Yount, Craig Biggio and Al Kaline).
As most avid Brewers fans know, Yount spent his entire career with the Brewers and holds the number one spot in this stat with 2,856 career games, all with the Brewers. One of Yount’s running mates during his career, Jim Gantner, holds the number two spot on this list with 1,801 career games, again, all with the Brewers.
Here goes… the 12 players who played (or have played) 200 or more career games in the majors, all with the Brewers.
1. Robin Yount, 2,856
2. Jim Gantner, 1,801
3. Ryan Braun, 1,219 (currently on Brewers roster)
4. Dave Nilsson, 837
5. Jonathan Lucroy, 710 (currently on Brewers roster)
6. Scooter Gennett, 320 (currently on Brewers roster)
7. Mark Brouhard, 304
8. Jerry Augustine, 279
8. Matin Maldonado, 279 (currently on Brewers roster)
10. Bill Wegman, 266
11. Ron Theobald, 251
12. Teddy Higuera, 213
How well did you do on the trivia question? Yount and Gantner were easy; Braun and Lucroy was pretty easy guesses, especially with the hint, but Nilsson… that one I would have missed.
A pair of Brewers who were on the roster last year would have been on the above list but are no longer in the organization. Khris Davis was traded to Oakland few weeks ago; he had 321 games with the Brewers and will most likely add a few MLB games to his career with the A’s. Logan Schafer has 292 games with the Brewers in his career, but is now in the Washington Nationals organization.
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Milwaukee Brewers all-time “stolen base” team… by position
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Milwaukee Brewers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Milwaukee Brewers have 21 stolen bases this season which is right at the National League average. Carlos Gomez leads the team with five steals.
Over the course of the Brewers 43-plus year history, the team has not really been known as a base-stealing team. There were, however, pockets of time in their history when stolen bases were a major part of their offensive arsenal. They led the league in steals in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots and then did not lead the league in stolen bases until 1987. It was that period from 1987-92 where the Brewers led the league five out of six seasons in stolen bases.
Since their move to the National League in 1998, stolen bases have not been a significant focus for the team. They did lead the N.L. in steals in 2004 led by outfielder Scott Podsednik’s 70 swipes. That year and a third-place spot in steals in 2003 are the only times the Brewers have finished in the top three in the N.L. in steals since 1998.
Here’s a look at what an all-time Brewers stolen bases team might look like… by position.
First Base: Cecil Cooper (77 stolen bases). Cooper had only 12 stolen bases in his first six seasons with the Red Sox. As a Brewer, “Coop” stole 48 bases in his first four seasons with the team. His career-high was 17 steals in 1980. Reserve: George Scott (40 stolen bases)
Second Base: Jim Gantner (137 stolen bases). Gantner will likely be supplanted by Weeks in the next couple of years in this category. Gantner averaged nearly 15 steals per season from 1985-90. His year-high was 20 in both 1988 and ’89. Reserve: Rickie Weeks (102 stolen bases)
Shortstop: Pat Listach (112 stolen bases). A.L. Rookie of the Year in 1992 stole 54 bases in his award-winning season. Reserve: Jose Valentin (78 stolen bases)
Third Base: Paul Molitor (412 stolen bases). The Brewers career leader in stolen bases. He finished his career with 504 steals. He has four of the top 10 best single-seasons for steals in team history. Reserve: Don Money (66 stolen bases)
Outfield: Robin Yount (271 stolen bases). Had 10 or more steals in 16 of his 20 seasons with the Brewers. The only Brewers player in history to have over 200 career home runs and over 200 career steals.
Tommy Harper (136 stolen bases). More than half of his steals as a Brewer came in 1969 when he led the league with 73 bases with the Seattle Pilots. His 73 steals is the Brewers single-season record.
Scott Podsednik (113 stolen bases). Spent only two seasons with the Brewers. Had 70 steals in 2004 that led the National League. He and Harper are the only two Brewers to have 70-plus steals in a season.
Outfield Reserves: Darryl Hamilton (109 stolen bases); Mike Felder (108 stolen bases); Ryan Braun (100 stolen bases).
Catcher: B.J. Surhoff (102 stolen bases). Had a career-high 21 steals in 1988 with the Brewers. Reserve: Charlie Moore (51 stolen bases)
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