The Crew's all-time single-season team

MILWAUKEE -- Cecil Cooper’s .352 average or one of Prince Fielder’s monster years? Tommy Harper’s impressive introduction to Milwaukee or the first of Paul Molitor’s top 10 finishes in Most Valuable Player Award balloting?

Those were some of the debates as we compiled the best seasons at each position in Brewers history. This is not the best player to play each position, but rather the player with the best season at each position. To sort through instances in which a defender moved around the diamond, we instituted a rule that in order for a hitter to qualify, he had to play at least half of the team’s games at that position.

In some cases, the right answer is not clear cut. See how many of these choices you support:

Catcher: Jonathan Lucroy, 2014
Key stats: .301/.373/.465, 133 wRC+
As catcher framing became a sexy stat across the game, Lucroy’s value came into even sharper focus. His 8.2 fWAR in 2014 is second-best in Brewers history to Robin Yount’s 1982 season (9.8), and Lucroy finished fourth in NL MVP Award balloting with a .301 average and 53 doubles -- a Major League record for a catcher.

Other contenders: 1983 Ted Simmons, 1975 Darrell Porter, 2019 Yasmani Grandal

First base: Prince Fielder, 2009
Key stats: .299/.412/.602, 161 wRC+
By fWAR, it’s Cooper’s 1980 or George Scott’s '73. But by wRC+ and wOBA (.422) it’s Fielder's 2009 -- two years removed from becoming the youngest player since Willie Mays to hit 50 home runs in a season -- when he hit 46 homers, topped Cooper’s single-season franchise record with 141 RBIs and also broke his own club record with a 1.014 OPS. Since then, only Christian Yelich has posted a higher OPS. Fielder did it while playing all 162 games.

Other contenders: 1980 Cooper, 1973 Scott, 2007 and 2011 Fielder, 1991 Paul Molitor, 1996 John Jaha

Second base: Paul Molitor, 1979
Key stats: .322/.372/.469, 127 wRC+
It’s close between Molitor and 2010 Rickie Weeks, when Weeks matched Molitor’s wRC+ and topped Molitor by far in home runs (29-9), runs (112-88) and RBIs (83-62) while both men were hitting a lot at leadoff. But Molitor has the edge in all three slash-line categories, plus a slight edge in wOBA (.371-.369) and stole 33 bases that year to Weeks’ 11. If there’s a tiebreaker, it’s that Molitor is about to get snubbed for a sensational 1987 season at third base in which he set the franchise record by batting .353.

Other contenders: 2010 Weeks, 1977 Don Money, 1991 Willie Randolph

Third base: Tommy Harper, 1970
Key stats: .296/.377/.522, 146 wRC+
Coming off 73 stolen bases for the short-lived Seattle Pilots in 1969, Harper became the fifth 30-30 player in Major League history with 31 homers and 38 stolen bases for the Brewers after the franchise moved to Milwaukee in ’70. Before Harper, only Hank Aaron, Bobby Bonds, Willie Mays and 1922 St. Louis Brown Ken Williams had hit 30 homers in a season while stealing at least 30 bases. Harper was the Brewers’ lone representative at the All-Star Game, and a bona fide star for a team putting down roots in a city starved for baseball.

Other contenders: 1982, 1987 and 1988 Molitor; 1998 Jeff Cirillo; 2012 Aramis Ramirez; 1977 Sal Bando

Shortstop: Robin Yount, 1982
Key stats: .331/.379/.578, 164 wRC+
This is the best single season for a Brewers position player. Yount led the Majors in slugging percentage, hits (210), total bases (367) and doubles (46), and he finished second in the AL in batting average and third in triples (12). He hit 29 home runs with 114 RBIs -- marks that stood as career highs when his 20-year career was over -- while winning an AL Gold Glove Award at shortstop. He was the runaway choice for AL MVP, the first hitter in franchise history to win that award.

The greatness of Yount’s all-around performance in 1982 has not been diminished by the passage of time. It remains the most valuable season in franchise history by fWAR, bWAR, offensive bWAR and Stats. Inc. WAR. In fact, it's at least one win better than the runner-up in every measure, and in some instances, the margin is multiple runs. His 10.5 bWAR is tied for 27th best in baseball history. Yount’s 9.8 fWAR in ‘82 is sixth-best in history for a shortstop.

Other contenders: 1980, 1983 and 1984 Yount; 2006 Bill Hall, 2021 Willy Adames

Left field: Ryan Braun, 2011
Key stats: .332/.397/.597, 171 wRC+, 7.475 composite WAR
Statistically, it easily ranks among the best individual seasons for a hitter in franchise history, as Braun posted the second-best wRC+ and OPS+ for a Brewers batter and the fourth-best wOBA. Averaging his fWAR, bWAR, offensive bWAR and Stats. Inc. WAR, Braun’s output in 2011 tied Yelich’s '19 season as the second-most prolific in club history. Braun hit 33 home runs that year with 111 RBIs and 33 stolen bases, making him the Brewers’ first 30-30 player in 41 years. Braun, who was crowned the NL MVP in '11, gets the edge here over '18 Yelich, who split time between left field and right field that year while winning his own NL MVP Award.

Other contenders: 2018 Yelich, 2009 and 2012 Braun, 1978 Larry Hisle, 1980 Ben Oglivie, 2000 Geoff Jenkins

Center field: Robin Yount, 1989
Key stats: .318/.384/.511, 149 wRC+
A shoulder injury pushed Yount to center field in 1985, but it didn’t stifle his bat. In ’89, he won his second AL MVP Award by a razor-thin margin over Ruben Sierra, Cal Ripken Jr. and George Bell to become the second player to win AL MVP honors at two positions. The other was Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg of the Tigers, who won as a first baseman in 1935 and as an outfielder in ’40. Yount put up his numbers -- including 21 home runs, 103 RBIs and 19 stolen bases -- in a walk year, and he seriously considered signing with the Angels. But a month later, Yount re-signed with Milwaukee on a three-year deal and wound up playing his entire 20-year Major League career in a Brewers uniform on his way to Cooperstown.

Other contenders: 1979 and 1982 Gorman Thomas, 1988 Yount, 2013 and 2014 Carlos Gómez, 2018 Lorenzo Cain

Right field: Christian Yelich, 2019
Key stats: .329/.429/.671, 174 wRC+
Regression? No way. Yelich won the National League MVP Award in his debut season in Milwaukee in 2018 -- yet somehow was even better in year No. 2, despite losing the final three weeks of the season after suffering a fractured right kneecap when he fouled a pitch off his leg. Yelich won a second straight NL batting title with an average three points higher than the year before. He led the NL in on-base percentage and led the Majors in slugging percentage and OPS (1.100), and his wRC+ was the best in Brewers history. Because Yelich had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title before he got hurt, he set franchise records for OPS (1.100), OPS+ (179), at-bats per home run (11.1) and wOBA (.442).

Other contenders: 1979 Sixto Lezcano, 1999 Jeromy Burnitz

Designated hitter: Paul Molitor, 1991
Key stats: .325/.399/.489, 145 wRC+
As injury issues mounted while he played all over the diamond for the Brewers, Molitor settled into the DH role for the final two seasons of his career in Milwaukee and proved he was still one of baseball’s best hitters. In 1991, he started 112 games at DH and 46 games at first base and turned in one of his finest offensive seasons, leading the Majors in runs (133), hits (216) and leading the AL in triples (13) while hitting 17 homers and posting the best batting average for any of his nine Brewers seasons with at least 500 at-bats.

Other contenders: 1992 Molitor, 1990 Dave Parker

Starting pitcher: Corbin Burnes, 2021
Key stats: 176 ERA+, 0.94 WHIP, 12.6 K/9
Ben Sheets set a franchise record with 264 strikeouts while delivering a 2.70 ERA in 2004, but Burnes surpassed that performance in ’21 while combining with Josh Hader on the second no-hitter in club history and setting a slew of strikeout records. Burnes became the first league ERA champion in franchise history and the third pitcher in franchise history to win a Cy Young Award. His 167 innings in 2021 were the fewest for a starting pitcher who won a Cy Young Award in a full season, but when Burnes did pitch, he was almost always dominant. The right-hander led MLB in ERA (2.43), expected ERA (2.01), FanGraphs WAR (7.5), strikeout rate (35.6%, eighth-best all-time for a qualifying pitcher), K/BB ratio (6.88), FIP (1.63), home runs per nine innings (0.38) and barrel rate (2.9%). Only Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, in 1999, had posted a lower FIP in the divisional era (since 1969).

Other contenders: 1978 Mike Caldwell; 1986, 1987 and 1988 Teddy Higuera; 2004 Sheets; 2008 CC Sabathia; 2021 Brandon Woodruff

Relief pitcher: Rollie Fingers, 1981
Key stats: 333 ERA+, 0.87 WHIP, 7.0 K/9
The Brewers made their first postseason appearance by winning the second half of MLB’s strike-interrupted season -- and the right to face the Yankees in baseball’s first Division Series -- in no small part because of Fingers. Of the team’s 31 victories in the second half, Fingers pitched in 24 of them with 16 saves and five victories. He finished with a 1.04 ERA and Major League-leading 28 saves in 78 innings on the way to becoming the first relief pitcher in history to win his league’s Cy Young Award and MVP Award in the same year.

Other contenders: 1987 Dan Plesac, 2011 John Axford, 2018, 2019 and 2021 Josh Hader, 2020 Devin Williams