In that last category stood Prince Fielder, who elicited tears of joy from a Brewers fanbase ready to watch Fielder and former teammate Ryan Braun get back to basics with that 1-2-punch celebration. Little did we know, we were watching the most valuable Brewers batter throw to another franchise great.

[/wipes back those tears]

It’s easy to enjoy Prince Fielder’s return to Milwaukee, first and foremost because the slugger was always a joy to watch and one of the club’s best prospects to translate on an MLB diamond. Make no mistake about it, Fielder was an elite slugger with exceptional plate discipline, traits that were often underplayed by fans due to his size and defensive performance. Given that Fielder retired due to an injury, and indeed survived an injury that could have taken a much larger toll on his body, there is a sense with the former slugger that it’s great to see him healthy, happy, and now having a chance to tour his home organization with a victory lap.

Yet, it was not always so rosy with Brewers fans and Prince Fielder. Because of the slugger’s defense, rated approximately 39 runs below average according to the Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA) stat, and aforementioned size, there was frequent debate a decade ago among Brewers fans about when the Brewers should trade Fielder. Of course, there’s always this type of talk among fans, so some of it should be dismissed as common fan banter (we’re casually debating whether Jesus Aguilar or Domingo Santana should be traded on #BrewersTwitter this year, among other things, so, you know…); but recalling those halcyon days of the SportsBubbler (RIP!) and Journal-Sentinel Online boards, there seemed to be a different edge about Fielder trade talks. Thus, there was a sense, even during Fielder’s most elite seasons in Milwaukee, that many regular, diehard fans underappreciated the patient, disciplined hitter. It was as though, for some odd reason, Brewers fans needed to choose between Braun and Fielder, that the two couldn’t simply coexist as one of the most amazing 1-2 punches in franchise history; indeed, the most valuable 1-2 punch in franchise history.

For a time, it seemed justifiable to knock Fielder down a rung. For one, Fielder exercised his free agency rights by securing a gigantic contract with the Detroit Tigers, and thus had fewer years with the Brewers organization than some of the other franchise greats. Assessed by aggregating Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP), which assesses a player’s batting and fielding performance against the typical “next man up” from the minor leagues, Fielder is a Top 20 Brewers player, but more like Geoff Jenkins than Robin Yount. This summer, here’s what we (thought we) knew about Fielder’s career:

If we recognize that WARP penalizes Fielder (unjustifiably) for leaving Milwaukee and (justifiably) for his fielding, one can rank offensive performance on a season-by-season basis to find the best performers in franchise history.  I constructed a Milwaukee Brewers baby-database during the summer of 2018, so I have relatively recent True Average calculations during this DRC+ release week. True Average (TAv) was the old comprehensive offensive metric by Baseball Prospectus, where .260 represented an average performance and the higher the number, the better; it incorporated all sorts of elements of batting performance, but used different weights for situational hitting, parks, strike outs, and other elements than other linear weights methods. Offensively, Fielder stands out much more among the greatest Brewers of all times:

Even by TAV, Fielder’s greatness might be undermined by the general dominance of Ryan Braun and Paul Molitor in the Brewers Top 20 (four appearances each); Fielder (three appearances) is tied with Robin Yount, which is quite good; Cecil Cooper, Braun, Fielder, Molitor, and Yount comprise 16 of the Top 20 Brewers offensive seasons by TAV.

Deserved Runs Created Plus (DRC+) comes to the rescue and restores Prince Fielder to his rightful place atop Brewers offensive seasons. DRC+ is read on a scale where 100 is average, and the higher the number, the better; 80 means a batter is approximately 20 percent below average, 120 means a batter is approximately 20 percent better than average.

First, let’s take a step back: what is DRC+? DRC+ is the new Baseball Prospectus comprehensive batting metric, which is designed as a sort of “inverse” to Deserved Run Average (DRA), BP’s comprehensive pitching metric. Baseball Prospectus features numerous articles introducing the stat, including this description, and a few advanced discussions of why it should be used (this is good, too. Read everything by Jonathan Judge). The gist of DRC+ is this: once you focus on what is expected at the plate, instead of constructing a basic average of outcomes, you can model run production in a manner that is more accurate, descriptive, and predictive than other metrics. What is interesting is that the batting metrics correlate in many cases, which means that where there are outliers with DRC+, the focus on expected outcomes, different park factors, and other contextual elements could lead to valuable insights into a player’s batting performance.

So back to Fielder, DRC+ launches Fielder to the top of the Brewers franchise, and it’s a rout. By TAV, Fielder was competing with a handful of other batters; with DRC+, he’s competing with himself, clearly a step above all other comers as most valuable bat. What is especially interesting about this new offensive ranking is that the “shape” of the organization’s most elite seasons changes considerably; Fielder now has four Top 20 appearances, which is better than Braun (2), Molitor (2), Yount (2), and (now!) Gorman Thomas (2); Thomas, that Prodigal Wallbanger, did not appear in the Top 20 by TAV, whatsoever, so the DRC+ develop calibrates his career as well.

Why does DRC+ “love” Fielder so much? Let’s look under the hood at those absurd 2007, 2009, and 2011 campaigns. BP publishes DRC+ Run Values, which assess a player’s Runs Above Average (RAA) according to each major batting component that is an element of the DRC+ model. This is a supreme tool, and should be used alongside the basic surface DRC+ statistic!

So, the obvious, first: Prince Fielder hit some of the most majestic home runs I ever saw, and he also hit some of the hardest laser beams out of Miller Park. But I wish fans took the eye test away from the waistline a bit and watched his batting approach more carefully, for Fielder’s plate discipline was awe-inspiring. Fielder would never get cheated on his first two swings; good grief, it would be difficult to find someone who swung harder on strikes one and two. But don’t mistake those gigantic swings for a lack of discipline, for Fielder also dug in and made pitchers work, and had no trouble waiting for his pitch to drive. To my astonishment, not only does this show up in Fielder’s valuable walk totals (BB RAA), but I also hypothesize that this helps to drive his strong Ball-In-Play Outs (BIP Outs RAA) performance.

Let’s compare Fielder’s very best seasons to those of his contemporary, Braun:

Unlike Fielder, Braun derived more of his run production during his elite seasons from singles, doubles, and triples, rather than home runs and walks. This has a curious outcome on BIP Outs, but it stands to reason that by controlling the strike zone more, limiting balls in play, and maximizing slugging outcomes, Fielder would be able to produce value in that contrarian way (namely, avoiding the batted ball in play). This last line is speculation on my part, and not a reflection of the DRC+ stat, and certainly an avenue for further research (to my mind, the BIP Outs RAA stat is a fascinating aspect of this new stat).

Let’s step back from the numbers: why does any of this matter? If you’re unconvinced about the new stat, think about the eyeball test you used with Fielder during his prime years. How often did you call him a better hitter than Ryan Braun? How often did you compare him favorably to Paul Molitor? How often did you place his elite offensive production at the top of the franchise? DRC+ certainly provides the statistical background to address these questions, and in being openly situated to offensive production through a different lens than other prominent stats, we can revisit our blindspots and perhaps find value that we previously missed. It turns out that Brewers fans may have had Prince Fielder all wrong. Even if your measurement for a baseball stat is to confirm what you already know in most cases, or even if you previously believed that Prince Fielder was an elite batter, there’s room to marvel at just how great he was once more. Take the chance to dig into Fielder’s career again, and maybe revisit some other careers, as well: DRC+ gives us the chance to find some of our other blindspots.

Finding Fielder’s reappraisal is especially sweet because it places an exclamation point on one of the best competitive periods in Brewers franchise history. Fielder sure did the big things loudly, but he also did a lot of things to quietly bolster his production.

Photo Source.

“I think that people here, at least most of them, recognize there is at least a chance that today is my last home game as a Brewer,” Braun said in the wake of a 4-2 loss to the Reds. “I don’t think there is a great chance, but certainly a higher chance than at any point in the 10 years that I’ve spent here.”

Brewers fans have gotten awfully good at ovations like this over the last six years, dating back to the ovation fans gave Prince Fielder at the close of the 2010 season when it appeared all but certain Fielder would be dealt before he had the chance to test the free agent market the next season. We understand that the few established stars we’re lucky enough to watch in Milwaukee will be heading for greener pastures at some point. Fielder received another ovation during the 2011 NLCS, his actual last game as a Brewer. And this season, Jonathan Lucroy received an ovation before the trade deadline. If you were to point to any three Brewers who were the core of the club’s recent successes, it would be clearly be those three.

It’s unfortunate that this scenario keeps popping up, and that Brewers fans are so used to talented players leaving the city that we have this ritual already prepared. But it is wonderful to see the appreciation Brewers fans have for these stars, and it’s clear that the appreciation is reciprocated. All those players have in some form declared their love for Milwaukee’s fans, and I think it’s in no small part due to the consistent love we show for the players.

Jonathan Lucroy probably put it best after receiving his ovation this July. He told the AP:

“The fans here are awesome. They’ve always treated me great, and I’m very blessed to be able to grow up in front of fans like this. The fans have treated me really well. They have shown me nothing but love and respect — and that’s all you can ask out of your home fans. There are not a lot of home teams that can say that. We have fans here that love you no matter what. I can’t even remember the last time we were booed here — so it’s pretty impressive with our fan base how positive and loving they are.”

Carlos Gomez’s exit from the Brewers wasn’t quite as telegraphed, and there wasn’t an ovation for him before the trade deadline in 2015, as he still had some time remaining on his contract. But nonetheless, he expressed similar sentiments when he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “”I have a lot of respect for this organization. They gave me the opportunity to be the way I am right now. And the fans are passionate and they are always there for you, when you’re good or you’re bad. I feel like I’m home.”

The fact that Brewers fans could help make Milwaukee, Wisconsin feel like home for Gomez, a native of the Dominican Republic, practically half a world away, is remarkable. It speaks to the power of a fanbase that can make its players feel loved and appreciated, and I hope the fans at Miller Park never lose that joy and respect for the players that make the ballpark worth coming to even when the club isn’t racking up wins like we would want.

It’s a sad end to an otherwise great career.

While Fielder played for the Tigers and the Rangers, he will always be known as a Milwaukee Brewer. The first baseman was drafted by the organization seventh overall in the first round of the 2002 draft.

At the time, the Brewers were in the midst of one of the longest playoff droughts in all of baseball. They hadn’t made the postseason since 1982 and were traditionally seen as one of the worst franchises.

Fielder certainly didn’t turn the Brewers franchise all by himself, but he was one of the most impactful players in its turnaround. Let’s, therefore, contextualize Fielder’s career with Milwaukee.

Fielder’s Year-to-Year Marks

Fielder’s best seasons with the Brewers came in 2009 and in 2011.

In those seasons he was worth more than five WARP. Fielder was never the best defensive player. In fact, he was yearly one of the worst, but in those seasons the defensive metrics didn’t hate him as much as they usually did.

But, what made Fielder so special was his ability to hit the baseball. In those two seasons, he put up monstrous offensive numbers. In 2009 Fielder had a slash line of .299/.412/.602, the best slash line of his career, in 2011 it was .299/.415/.566.

Fielder was never the best player on any Brewers team. He was simply too limited of a player to be that great. His defense and base running always hurt him, but Fielder was always one hell of a hitter, and in 2009 he put it all together to have his best hitting season of his career.

2011 was a magical season for the Brewers. They finished with a 96-66 record, winning their division for the first time since 1982. Fielder was marvelous that entire season, and as was chronicled by my colleague Travis Sarandos, he had one of the more impactful home runs of that entire year.

“RIP, dude. Paulino was annihilated by Fielder’s shot so completely that the Rockies designated him for assignment the very next day. The win would kick off a 16-5 run that would see the Brewers, who had entered play 21-23, claim the NL Central lead in a division they would go on to win handily,” wrote Sarandos.

That home run on May 5th, 2011 had the highest WPA (at .798) of any play in Fielder’s career.

Ranking The Prince Among Brewers All-Time Greats

Now that the Prince’s career has come to an end, let’s look at where he stands amongst Brewers all-time greats.

Fielder was worth 22.52 BWARP throughout his Brewers career. This may sound underwhelming, but that ranks 12th among all Brewers players, including pitchers. The top three are Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Ryan Braun. The reason Fielder doesn’t belong in that ilk of players is because he was a slow and lumbering first baseman. The only way those players can truly provide value to a team is by being very good hitters, and Fielder was a very good hitter. In fact, he was a great hitter, but his limitations at the other fundamental aspects of the game are the reasons why he doesn’t rank higher on this list.

If we now compare Fielder to other Brewers first basemen, he ranks third.

The other reason Fielder doesn’t rank higher on this list, or on the all-time list, is because he didn’t play his entire career with the Brew Crew. Cecil Cooper, the Brewers top first baseman, played eleven seasons with the Brewers, while Fielder only played seven. Furthermore, in 2005, Fielder only had 62 plate appearances. As you know, WARP is a cumulative stat; therefore, the more seasons one plays, the better chance that player has of accumulating a higher WARP.

George Scott, on the other hand, only played five seasons with the Brewers, but he was beloved by FRAA. In 1973 Scott had an FRAA of 31.4, and in 1974 it was at 35.9. In the seven years Fielder played for the Brewers, he only had two seasons where he didn’t have negative FRAA values. Those seasons were 2010 and 2011, and in those seasons Fielder’s FRAA was very close to zero. Fielder was actually a much better hitter than Scott or Cooper, but he simply didn’t play long enough and his game wasn’t well rounded enough for him to become the greatest Brewers first baseman.

That said, being the third best first baseman, and ranking among the top 20 players of all time for a team, is still quite an accomplishment. There’s no shame in not being a Hall of Famer, and Fielder still stands as one of the greatest Brewers in its franchises history.

Games Played and Home Runs

How can one honor a player without bringing up some of his greatest feats?

Two elements of Fielder’s game that Brewers fans remember strongly is his amazing ability to stay on the field and hit home runs. You’ve heard this stat before but, from 2009-2013, Fielder only missed one game. While that streak of games played didn’t end with the Brewers, it certainly started with them.

But, that’s not the only time that Fielder showed a propensity for durability. Throughout his time with the Brewers, he always played more than 155 games a season (not counting 2005).

Fielder is also well known for the being the youngest player to reach 50 home runs in a season, which he did at the age of 23. Unfortunately for the Brewers, he would never reach that feat again, but Fielder consistently hit home runs throughout his career.

From 2006 until 2011, no Brewer hit more home runs or played more games than Fielder. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Fielder hit 228 home runs during that time frame. The second was Ryan Braun with 161.

Fielder also played in 959 games during that time. The second was Corey Hart with 774, a 185 game difference.

In all six of his seasons with the Brewers (not counting 2005), Fielder led the team in games played, and in four of his six seasons with the team, he led the team in home runs.

In all of baseball, only Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols hit more home runs from 2006-2011.

Also, no player played in more games than Fielder during his time with the Brewers. It was close: Adrian Gonzales played in 958 games from 2006-2011, but it wasn’t more than Fielder.

Fielder’s Walk and Strikeout Ratio

One element of Fielder’s game that is often undersold is his amazing eye at the plate.

As strikeouts in baseball have risen, fewer and fewer players in baseball nowadays can proclaim better walk rates than strikeout rates. In 2016, for example, only Ben Zobrist, Bryce Harper, David Ortiz, and Jose Altuve can claim that feat.

Fielder, while not always being able to reach that plateau, was able to accomplish the feat three times in his career, in 2011, 2012, and 2014.

This is one of the reasons Fielder was consistently one of the best hitters in all of baseball. Usually, when a hitter hits for a lot of power, he usually tends to strikeout a lot. Fielder was never that with the Brewers. While he hit a ton of home runs, he never ran strikeout rates more than 20 percent. His worst years, when it came to strikeouts, were in 2006, 2008, and 2010, where he had a strikeout percentage of 19.3. His best was in 2011, when he only struck out 15.3 percent of the time.

With this sort of graph, the more the player remains in the top left-hand corner of the graph the better, because it means the hitter is walking a lot while striking out very few times. Apart from 2006, Fielder is consistently in the upper left part of the graph.

His great eye at the plate is one of the main reasons he was able to have such a successful Brewers career.

Saying Goodbye

Prince has always been one of the Good Ones. This is tough.

— J.P. Breen (@JP_Breen) August 10, 2016

J.P. is right. Whether Fielder was hitting home runs or just goofing around in the clubhouse or on the field, one could always tell that he loved the game of baseball.

Fielder’s career ended too early and too suddenly. His press conference was beyond heart breaking, as he announced that he would no longer play the game he loved. But, let that not be your final memory of the Prince. Remember Fielder’s joyful attitude on the field. Remember his towering home runs, his wonderful eye, his one of a kind power.

Prince Fielder was a generational talent and a one of a kind player. Let’s remember him for the success he brought to Milwaukee, and the unlikely talented player he was.

It all started with this massive two-run home run to take a late lead over division rival Houston on September 14th.

Fielder isn’t hitting for the kind of power he used to. Anything under 30 home runs in the hitter’s paradise that is Texas would have been a disappointment for the Fielder who went to three All-Star games as a Milwaukee Brewer and twice hit 40 in a season. Instead, Fielder, who always insisted he had the ability to be a consistent .300 hitter in Milwaukee, has put his money where his mouth is. The 31-year-old has become one of the league’s best contact hitters. He’s hitting .304 and has a meager 12.7 percent strikeout rate, which is 28th-best in the league. Of the 27 men in front of him, only Albert Pujols has more home runs than Fielder’s 22.

It’s great to watch Fielder at the plate, but his biggest highlights of late are coming in the dugout. He’s busting out secret handshakes after second-deck home runs. He’s joking about StatCast clocking his top speed at 18.2 MPH with Adrian Beltre (“I can’t run in some school zones. Did you know that? Some school zones won’t let me run.”)  And he’s been dancing in the dugout since May.

Fielder is exuding the same kind of energy he did in Milwaukee, especially in 2011, the year of the Beast Mode Brewers. Beast Mode was great because it kept things light and fun — Fielder even called the name “too hard” — and a way to connect the team. Ryan Braun called it “something we do for each other, to get each other fired up when something positive happens.” That joyous atmosphere was a critical part of both the 2011 division champions and the 2008 team that broke Milwaukee’s 26-year playoff-less streak.

Fielder acknowledged the importance of that kind of loose, fun atmosphere in a spot for Rangers.com earlier this month. “For a couple years, here or there, I used to play against these guys and I’d be mad at them because they have so much fun. I’d be jealous,” Fielder said. “I like the way everybody keeps it close, it’s like a family.”

Because of Fielder and his impact on the Brewers — his ability to hold the team together and rally it — I firmly believe that what the baseball world calls “team chemistry” (the kind of loose environment where players can feel like a family) is critical to winning baseball. I acknowledge that this team chemistry is as much created by winning baseball games as vice-versa, if not more so. It’s not something that can be easily controlled or predicted. It’s not something analytics is prepared to handle — and when it tries, the results can be disastrous. But you also can’t watch this year’s Nationals, whose disastrous season was just capped off by Jonathan Papelbon choking Bryce Harper in the dugout, and say it doesn’t exist or matter.

So perhaps team chemistry should be thought of less as something to be controlled as something that should be allowed to develop. When it does, great things happen. In 2011 we saw so many players — not just Fielder, but Nyjer Morgan, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart and John Axford — have some of the best years of their careers as they rallied around the team’s energy. That energy took some time to build, but once it did, centered around Fielder, those Brewers felt unstoppable. It hasn’t felt like this team has had a rock like him since he left.

When the Brewers are competitive again, it will be because they found another player — or players — who can be that cornerstone. Maybe it’ll be somebody already around, like Fielder had been for years, who finds that presence in the midst of a winning season. Maybe it’s somebody who isn’t around yet, somebody who can make an impact like Josh Donaldson has in Toronto this season, or a homegrown top prospect-turned-superstar leader like Buster Posey has been for the Giants all decade. But for now, I’ll have to settle for watching Prince be that rock in Texas, even if he is in the wrong uniform.

From 2007 through 2014 (and the first week or so of 2015), I felt the Brewers had a chance to compete every year, even if it was occasionally a slim one. Their offense was always laden with enough talent — thanks to great players like Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Carlos Gomez, J.J. Hardy, and Jonathan Lucroy — which inspired confidence that if they could just squeeze a little bit of production from the supporting cast, a winning season was possible. Now only Braun and Lucroy remain among the Brewers stars, and neither of them has been at their best in 2015. It’s clear that if the Brewers will compete in the second half of this decade, another Great Brewer (or two) must make himself apparent, and soon.

A couple of years ago, fellow blogger Larry Granillo mailed me some old Brewers media guides that were taking up too much space during his move. My favorite of the bunch is this one, from 2006:

I have a lot of love for this campy, extremely mid-2000s piece of baseball kitsch. None of these players are Brewers any more, and two of them are unemployed. But here, they’re the future. They’re the youth movement. The Brewers had won 81 games out of nowhere in 2005, the team’s first sign of baseball life since 1992. These four — combined with the talent in the minors and yet-to-be-drafted players like Braun, Yovani Gallardo and Corey Hart — comprised the core of the only competitive Brewers squads I’ve seen in my lifetime.

Hall was a four-year veteran, the oldest of the bunch, yet still only 26. Hardy and Fielder made their major-league debuts in 2005, and Weeks had played just seven games in 2003 prior to coming up for good in 2005. Weeks, Fielder and Hardy had combined for under 1,000 career plate appearances. Only Hall had extended major-league experience; the other three were rookies still trying to find their sea legs in The Show. But we already knew what the likes of Geoff Jenkins and Doug Davis could do. If you believed in the future of the Brewers in the mid-2000s, you believed in these young players.

It’s pretty amazing to think of what these four players did in the years to pass. Their careers were just beginning, and neither the stiff major-league competition nor any of the seemingly infinite pitfalls of injuries prevented their careers from lifting off. Even Hall, the worst of the bunch, finished his Brewers career with 102 home runs, tied with Sixto Lezcano for 19th in team history.  In the years that followed, these four players reached five All-Star games for the Brewers (and Hardy deserved another one in 2008), hit 493 home runs, and compiled 53.0 WARP. They had produced all of 5.0 WARP collectively before that, four of those coming from Hall’s breakout 2005 season (.291/.342/.495, 17 homers, 18 stolen bases, and average-to-good defense all across the infield).

We can only hope the next wave is this successful. Hopefully, as this year concludes and 2016 begins, the next fearsome foursome to capture our hopeful baseball souls will become clear. Maybe it will include Jimmy Nelson, who has pitched like he belongs in the top half of a rotation since early June (2.98 ERA, 72 strikeouts in 87.2 innings over his past 14 starts). Rotation mate Taylor Jungmann has made his case as well, with a dazzling 2.23 ERA, sharp 2.82 FIP. He has allowed over three earned runs just once in 13 starts, startling consistency from a pitcher in his first crack at the major leagues. 

Who else will be the future? Domingo Santana, who kicked off his Brewers career with a laser beam homer off Gio Gonzalez on Friday night? Orlando Arcia, whose glove could make him a rock behind Brewers pitching like J.J. Hardy was before? What about Brett Phillips, the centerpiece of the Gomez trade, or Gilbert Lara, the teenage phenom from the Dominican Republic the Brewers aggressively signed last year? The Brewers have a number of exciting young prospects, but most of them are still a breakout season, minors or majors, away from becoming the kind of young player who really inspires hope in a competitive future.

It’s because of this uncertainty that I’m not ready to say I have hope for the Brewers yet. It’s why the question for this club isn’t, as it has been for the past eight years or so, “What can we do in the offseason to make the playoffs?” but rather, “How many years away are we?” But leafing through my Brewers junk and finding this gem of recent history reminded me of what hope for this team can look like, and that the future just might be closer than you think.

The American League already led when K-Rod came on to pitch the seventh inning for the National League All-Stars, thanks to a two-run fifth inning conceded by Clayton Kershaw. But a 3-2 game, with three innings to play, is hardly a guaranteed victory. Had Rodriguez gotten through the inning without conceding any additional runs, the NL would have been in decent shape.

That wasn’t how it played out. Mike Trout drew a leadoff walk, and Brock Holt replaced him on the basepaths. Brought on to run, Holt did that rather expertly — pilfering second base and setting up Manny Machado with an run-scoring opportunity. Machado delivered with a drive into the power alley in right, driving in a run and trading places with Holt. K-Rod settled down and didn’t give up another hit, but the AL still managed to bring Machado in to score, too. The one-run deficit expanded to three, and the National League’s chances of a comeback had been cut almost to a third of where they stood a half-inning earlier.

Rodriguez avoided the ignominy of getting saddled with the loss, but most Brewers fans were thinking the exact same thing: this has got to be the worst All-Star performance a Brewer has ever turned in.

So we went through the history books, and as it turns out — no, it wasn’t the worst of all time. But it was certainly among the finalists. And on the flip side of that coin, a Milwaukee representative has swung the Midsummer Classic for his league on more than one occasion. Our own Andrew Salzman wrote a great piece on this topic on Tuesday; however, I wanted to add my own two cents and add a few more performances to the lists.

The Five Best Milwaukee All-Stars

5A. Fernando Vina, PH/2B, 1998. 1-1, 1B, BB. .137 WPA.

5B. Ryan Braun, LF, 2012. 2-2, 2B, 3B, R, RBI. .110 WPA.

Sure, the WPA numbers aren’t saying “tie.” The thing of it is, WPA is an imperfect metric — and this is a textbook example of why that is.

Keeping with the theme of that season, the 1998 All-Star Game was a supercharged display of offense. That was the season we saw Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa recalibrate what people thought realistic home run totals looked like — and, by a fun coincidence, the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game took place in home-run-happy Coors Field that year.

The end result was one of the craziest All-Star Games ever seen. The leagues seesawed back and forth, and the American League eventually emerged with a 13-8 victory. The Win Probability Chart of that game indicates that at eight different points the favored team changed.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, trailing 10-6, the NL managed to put together a mini-rally. They were only able to cut the gap to 10-8, but left the tying run on base. In doing so, the National League turned a 6 percent chance of victory into a 40 percent chance — which then evaporated back to 9 percent in just two plays. But a chunk of that 34 percent WPA from the failed rally was added by Vina, who walked to fill the bases before the two runs scored. In an earlier at-bat, Vina added a single to his resume and getting on base twice plus sparking that ill-fated rally were good enough to earn him .137 WPA for the game thanks to the fortuitous timing of the events in question.

That Ryan Braun’s 2012 All-Star performance measures up short of this is no fault of his own. The 2012 All-Star Game might have been the dullest event ever broadcast nationally. By contrast, The World Series of Concrete Setting would have made for must-see TV. The National League had five runs in the first inning, they had eight by the end of the fourth, and the game was basically over. Braun gets shafted in the WPA department because the American League decided to roll over and play dead — even though his two extra-base hits were far more impressive than either of Vina’s plate appearances fourteen years earlier.

My vote is with Braun, but you can feel free to disagree — and make sure to sound off in the comments with your reasoning if you do!

4. Lary Sorensen, RP, 1978. 3.0 IP, 1 H. .184 WPA

It’s easy to forget that before he became infamous for his association with the Pittsburgh Drug Trials of 1985, Sorensen was once a promising young pitcher with electric stuff. He was only 22 in 1978 and went 18-12 with a 3.21 ERA en route to his first and only All-Star appearance. That the Brewers threw him 280 innings as a 22-year-old, then 235 as a 23-year-old, should perhaps make it far less confusing as to why Sorensen quickly turned into the sort of ballplayer best known for his cocaine use.

The 1978 All-Star Game saw the AL jump to a 3-0 lead, and the NL answered with a three-run third inning to square it off. Sorensen started the fourth by surrendering a single to Larry Bowa, but after that initial baserunner, he retired the next nine batters he faced in order. Sorensen didn’t record a single strikeout — hardly out of the ordinary, as his career 2.9 K/9 would indicate — but he was coolly effective and the game remained tied. Though the American League pitching staff would blow it behind him, Sorensen still helped out with almost a fifth of a win.

3. Teddy Higuera, RP, 1986. 3.0 IP, H, BB, 2 K. 0-1, K. .189 WPA as pitcher, 1.78 total WPA.

We move eight-years later, but we’re still in the era when All-Star pitchers would get thrown more than two innings. Not only did Higuera go three, but he was inexplicably allowed to bat for himself! Roger Clemens batted for himself, too. Facing the best arms the National League had to offer, the two American League pitchers both struck out in terrible at-bats.

However, it wasn’t Higuera’s fault he got thrown to the wolves in the batter’s box. On the mound, he acquitted himself just fine. Nursing a 2-0 lead for his entire tenure, Higuera allowed just two baserunners — both in the fifth — and his scoreless, high-leverage three innings of work were instrumental in the American League’s 3-2 victory. Roger Clemens won the game’s MVP award, but Higuera actually posted a higher WPA than the Rocket for his work.

(For trivia purposes, it’s worth noting that Teddy Higuera pitched in the Major Leagues for nine seasons, starting over two hundred games. Because all of this happened in the pre-Interleague era, he recorded exactly one plate appearance — which came during the All-Star Game.)

2. Prince Fielder, 1B, 2011. 1-2, HR, R, 3 RBI. .230 WPA.

Ah, sweet memories of 2011. The American League took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on an Adrian Gonzalez home run — but C.J. Wilson gave up singles to the first two batters in the bottom of the inning. Then, Fielder stepped up, just as Joe Buck noted on the telecast how Gonzalez’s home run had been the first All-Star home run since 2008.

Less than a minute after the words were out of Buck’s mouth, Fielder crushed a tailing line drive to the opposite field, just high enough to clear the fence. The three-run home run completely negated Fielder’s first at-bat — a two-out lineout to strand a runner — and won him the All-Star Game MVP, even though that would be his final All-Star at-bat as a Brewer.

1. Jonathan Lucroy, C, 2014. 2-2, 2 2B, 2 RBI. .247 WPA.

Lucroy’s 2014 All-Star Game definitely goes down as one of the best ever from a player on a losing team.

The National League suffered a 5-3 defeat, but Lucroy arguably acquitted himself better than any other player on the roster. That year, he set the Major League record for doubles, and in the All-Star Game, he came up with a runner on base in both the second and fourth innings, doubling them home both times.

Lucroy didn’t hit one out of the park — nor did he spur his team’s winning rally — but he drove in runs, set the table for further offense, and didn’t hurt the team in any imaginable way. His major contribution in such a close game is enough to get him the highest All-Star WPA of any Brewer to represent the team.

The Five Worst Milwaukee All-Stars

(Dis)Honorable Mention: The 1980 Delegation. -.240 WPA. 

In 1980, the Brewers sent a total of three players to the All-Star Game, including starting left fielder Ben Oglive. Neither Oglive, Robin Yount, nor Cecil Cooper performed obnoxiously bad as an individual, but the group combined to go 0-for-5 with a single walk.

In total, the three Brewers in question cost the American League almost a quarter of a win that year.

5. Jose Hernandez, SS, 2002. 0-3, 2 K, -.144 WPA.

Hernandez entered the game in the top of the sixth inning, and proceeded to strike out swinging in his first two at-bats. Then, he extinguished the tenth inning with a runner on base by grounding out.

A more positive contribution, and maybe that year’s game ends with a real resolution. Yes, Jose Hernandez can arguably be held responsible for the controversial tie. But then again, can you really expect much from Hernandez? He had a career year in 2002 though, slashsing .288/.356/.478 en route to his first and only All-Star berth. But even then, Hernandez struck out over 30 percent of the time. Generally speaking, expecting anything of him at the plate against the best pitchers in the league was a recipe for disappointment.

4. Carlos Lee, LF, 2006. 0-1. -.147 WPA.

El Caballo got the one chance that little kids dream of, only he didn’t get the happy sports-movie ending.

He entered the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning. In the bottom of the ninth, with the American League leading by one run, Lee came up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. A home run would have won the game in the most dramatic way possible.

Instead, Lee skied a lazy popup to second, and the game ended without any heroics. The abruptness, combined with the situation (one-run game, man on base, two out) resulted in that one unfortunate play costing Lee more WPA than Hernandez’s entire string of oh-fer escapades four years earlier.

3. Francisco Rodriguez, RP, 2015. IP, H, BB, 2 ER. -.183 WPA. 

The details on this one can be found back in the introduction. The fact that it was the seventh inning, and a one-run game at the start of the inning, really made things look worse than they were. K-Rod walked one, gave up a hard hit ball, then settled in and retired the side. It was a brief, two-batter hiccup, but that was all it took to get two runs across.

If the Brewers’ are looking to trade K-Rod, though, Tuesday’s game should matter very little in the grand scheme of things. Minor hiccups are a part of the territory, and Rodriguez has never let the occasional bad outing get in his head before. This one even has the benefit of not affecting season stats in any way!

2. Corey Hart, RF, 2008. 0-3, 1 K. -.229 WPA. 

After the debacle of 2002, Major League Baseball took steps to ensure that they would never again be caught with their pants down in the event of extra innings for the All-Star Game. When the 2008 All-Star Game went into the tenth inning with a score of 3-3, these preparations were put to the test.

History tends to repeat itself, and just like in 2002, there was a Brewer going 0-for-3 through the extra innings. But as the gap in their WPA totals might indicate, Hart missed on some much better opportunities. Each time he came up, the National League had a runner on base for him. And yet, he was unable to capitalize.

It was an unfortunate moment in Hart’s career, but it paled in comparison to the list-topper.

1. Rollie Fingers, RP, 1981. 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 ER. -.545 WPA.

Twenty-four years before Francisco Rodriguez gave up two All-Star runs in a Brewer uniform, Rollie Fingers himself did the same thing — in a much more catastrophic turn of events. First, he walked Ozzie Smith. Smith stole second and went for third on a bad throw, but managed to bail Fingers out momentarily with a TOOTBLAN. Undeterred, Fingers walked the next batter. Then, Mike Schmidt reversed the one-run lead with a home run to deep center.

That play, alone, swung the expected win percentages of each side by a full 50 percent. After giving up another hit, Fingers was mercifully lifted — the losing pitcher, with just a third of an inning completed and over half a loss contributed to the effort.

But Fingers would have the last laugh that season. He may have blown the mid-season exhibition contest, but he would go on to win both the Cy Young Award and American League MVP, an unprecedented feat for a relief pitcher.

Top Performances

2011 Prince Fielder (+.230 WPA): 1-for-2, HR, 3 RBI, R

Of course, the lone Brewer All-Star MVP is tops on the list. Prince Fielder’s last season in Milwaukee was monstrous. He was in the midst of a 5.5 WARP campaign and en route to a Top-3 finish in the NL MVP voting. He was selected to start the game ahead of Joey Votto and, uh, Gaby Sanchez.

Fielder lined out in his first at-bat against American League starter Jered Weaver. He earned his ASG MVP award in the fourth inning with his homer off southpaw C.J. Wilson. Carlos Beltran and Matt Kemp hit singles before Fielder’s home run, which put the National League up 3-1. It was the top play of the game according to WPA, worth +.250 on its own. C.J. Wilson was tough that year on lefties, making Fielder’s homerun even more impressive. Wilson allowed only two regular season home runs to left-handed batters and limited their slugging percentage to a measly .335.

Also noteworthy: This was the first home run by a Brewer in an All-Star Game.

2014 Jonathan Lucroy (??? WPA): 2-for-2, 2 2B, 2 RBI

I was disappointed WPA information for the 2014 game wasn’t logged, because Lucroy had a strong game and it’d be great to determine how it measured against Fielder’s MVP. In his 3.5 innings of work, Lucroy collected a double in both of his at-bats, driving in a run with each hit. The runs scored on his doubles represented the second and third runs of the game for the NL after the AL scored three in the first inning; thus, via Win Probability Added, it should have been an impressive showing.

2012 Ryan Braun (??? WPA): 2-for-3, 2B, 3B, RBI, R

This would have been another interesting game for a WPA measure. Ryan Braun served as the catalyst for the rout with his double off Justin Verlander in the first inning. Melky Cabrera, then with the San Francisco Giants, scored the first of five runs in that inning. It was shocking to see Verlander — who was in the middle of his second-consecutive Cy Young season — get torched to start the game. To bring us back to WPA, while Sandoval’s triple broke the game open and made it 5-0, one assumes that Braun’s hit would have scored high as well.

For the rest of the game, Braun recorded another hit via a triple in the fourth inning off lefty Matt Harrison. However, it came with two outs and the bases empty, and the NL already had an 8-0 lead, so it likely wouldn’t have moved the WPA needle much in a positive direction. The rest of Braun’s positive contributions came from some catches in left field, which likely had a small, but positive effect on his WPA.

1986 Teddy Higuera (+.189 WPA): 1.3 RE24, 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Finally a pitcher! As All-Star Game managers have continued to rely on pitchers for one inning at maximum, the opportunities for hurlers to have an outsized and positive impact on the game is pretty much nil. Not enough time exists to accumulate much in terms of WPA, and if they allow a couple runs, they won’t get another inning to balance out their poor showing.

Teddy Higuera pitched in an era in which managers employed strategies meant to maximize their chances of winning, rather than emptying their benches so everyone got a chance to play. While Roger Clemens started the game and earned MVP honors for three perfect innings of work, Higuera actually earned slightly more WPA, as Clemens finished the game with only a +.149 Win Probability Added.

Higuera was in the middle of his best season as a professional. He would go on to place second in the Cy Young voting (Roger Clemens bested him again) and finished the season with +5.7 WARP. During the game, Higuera struck out Tony Gwynn (true story) and Ryne Sandberg, maintaining the AL’s 2-0 lead. He got into some trouble in the fifth, surrendering a single to Darryl Strawberry and a walk to slugger Mike Schmidt, but he wiggled his way out of the inning.

1978 Lary Sorensen (+.184 WPA): 1.2 RE24, 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Once again, a pitcher provided solid value when given a chance to shine. Sorensen started his appearance by allowing Larry Bowa to hit a single. Then, he retired the next nine batters he faced. Somehow, the right-hander made it through his three innings without recording a strikeout, which is borderline unfathomable in 2015. What odds would you need to bet on a team making it through three innings on Tuesday without striking out? The answer, of course, is none, unless you enjoy giving away your money.

Then again, it was a different time, and Sorensen was not a strikeout pitcher. During his four years in Milwaukee, Sorensen’s highest K/9 was 3.60, which came during his rookie season in 1977. It was at 2.50 in 1978, much lower than the American League average of 4.50.

Worst Performance in an All-Star Game

Rollie Fingers (-.545 WPA): -2.2 RE24, 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K

As mentioned above, it’s difficult for a pitcher to have a large, positive impact on the All-Star Game. However, across all All-Star Game eras, it’s quite easy for pitchers to record a terrible WPA. Blowing saves represents an easy way to do so.

Rollie Fingers’ first year in Milwaukee, 1981, was magical. He became the first relief pitcher to win both the Cy Young and MVP awards in the same season — however dubious those awards may have been — and the Brewers made their first playoff appearance that year. The All-Star Game was a blemish on that season. Called upon to start the eighth inning for the American League, Fingers faced five batters and the only out recorded came via a base running miscue by Ozzie Smith. He gave up a two-run homer to Mike Schmidt and another single before being replaced by Dave Stieb. The homerun put the National League ahead 5-4, which was the final score.

Can we expect either Francisco Rodriguez or Ryan Braun (!) to crack this list after Tuesday? Let’s hope Rodriguez doesn’t, since reliever usage patterns would likely mean he blew the game. Braun may have a chance for a positive impact, though. If the game stays close as the benches empty, Braun could have a chance to deliver a big hit, which could prove to be the difference in the game.