2003 Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Graphs Review

Milwaukee was looking at a typical cellar-dwelling kind of year, when they had a scintillating ten-game win streak in August. This brought them in line with Cincinnati, but they couldn't avoid the cellar in the end.

Milwaukee had the worst combination of FIP and DER in the league. Their fielding was slightly above average, so either the pitching, or luck, is responsible for that lousy DER.

Take a look at Glendon Rusch in our National League pitching stats. Hint: he's last in ERSAA. But check out his FIP: 0.75! That's about equal to Livan Hernandez's FIP. But Rusch's DER was an incredibly bad .625! A couple of years ago, Glendon Rusch was the DIPS poster boy. Now, you've got to wonder...

That August streak looks kind of out of place on this chart, doesn't it? During the streak, Geoff Jenkins was awesome before getting hurt, but the Brewers also received contributions from Podsednik (Rookie of the year in the NL?), Sexson, Ginter, Helms -- even Brady Clark. Their hot pitchers included Doug Davis, Kinner, Obermueller and Franklin. Not an imposing list, is it?

Looking at the offensive stats on this chart, you can see that the Brewers really weren't that bad at the bat, at times. In fact, their slugging percentage was about league average, though their OBP was below average. However, the run elements just didn't add up for the Brewers -- they actually scored about .3 runs per game less than their run elements project. It's hard to say why. For instance, they hit relatively well in the clutch.

Milwaukee Brewers' Win Shares

Player          Team    Pos     Hit     Field   Pitch   Sum     WS	
--------	----	----	-----	-----	-----	-----	---	
R Sexson        MIL     1B      23.23   3.23    0.00    26.47   26	
S Podsednik     MIL     OF      19.30   2.86    0.00    22.15   22	
G Jenkins       MIL     OF      18.11   1.77    0.00    19.88   20	
W Helms         MIL     3B      10.08   2.32    0.00    12.40   12	
K Ginter        MIL     2B      8.06    1.31    0.00    9.37    9	
B Sheets        MIL     P       0.00    0.00    9.33    9.33    9	
D Kolb          MIL     P       0.00    0.00    9.06    9.06    9	
J Vander Wal    MIL     OF      7.32    1.18    0.00    8.50    8	
E Young         MIL     2B      7.00    1.37    0.00    8.37    8	
E Perez         MIL     C       3.86    3.15    0.00    7.00    7	
B Clark         MIL     OF      5.49    1.17    0.00    6.66    7	
R Clayton       MIL     SS      0.00    6.53    0.00    6.53    7	
L Estrella      MIL     P       0.00    0.00    5.55    5.55    6	
M DeJean        MIL     P       0.00    0.00    5.35    5.35    5	
D Davis         MIL     P       0.00    0.00    4.73    4.73    5	
K Osik          MIL     C       0.63    3.55    0.00    4.18    4	
M Kinney        MIL     P       0.00    0.00    4.11    4.11    4	
W Franklin      MIL     P       0.00    0.00    3.88    3.88    4	
V De Los Santos MIL     P       0.00    0.00    3.84    3.84    4	
B Hall          MIL     SS      2.54    1.13    0.00    3.67    4	
C Leskanic      MIL     P       0.00    0.00    3.66    3.66    4	
B Kieschnick    MIL     P       1.91    0.00    1.70    3.61    4	
A Sanchez       MIL     OF      1.95    0.99    0.00    2.94    3	
D Burba         MIL     P       0.00    0.00    2.68    2.68    3	
M Ford          MIL     P       0.00    0.00    1.82    1.82    2	
W Obermueller   MIL     P       0.00    0.00    1.62    1.62    2	
M Crudale       MIL     P       0.00    0.00    1.27    1.27    1	
J Foster        MIL     P       0.00    0.00    1.25    1.25    1	
L Vizcaino      MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.83    0.83    1	
T Ritchie       MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.78    0.78    1	
M Smith         MIL     OF      0.62    0.13    0.00    0.75    1	
J Conti         MIL     OF      0.40    0.19    0.00    0.59    1	
S Nance         MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.50    0.50    0	
E Cruz          MIL     SS      0.00    0.36    0.00    0.36    0	
P Zoccolillo    MIL     OF      0.00    0.12    0.00    0.12    0	
J Hammonds      MIL     OF      0.00    0.11    0.00    0.11    0	
R Quevedo       MIL     P       0.08    0.00    0.00    0.08    0	
R Weeks         MIL     2B      0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
J Durocher      MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
D Manning       MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
L Martinez      MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
G Rusch         MIL     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	

Richie Sexson was ranked the third-best third baseman in the league, and Scott Podsednik deserves very strong Rookie of the Year consideration. And that's about all you can say. Everybody's favorite two-way player, Brook Kieschnick, had about the same number of batting and pitching Win Shares.

Among pitchers, Ben Sheets is a fine young pitcher, Doug Davis had some good moments, and Danny Kolb, the former Ranger, came out of nowhere to become the new closer. Bets are off for next year.