While the team is likely out of the playoff race and watching this team try to pitch on a nightly basis has become a bit of a chore, there are still quite a few reasons to watch this team — mainly, they can really hit. In honor of Alcides Escobar hitting his first career home run yesterday afternoon in Washington, here’s a look at some other Brewers on the verge of reaching some important milestones.
– Ryan Braun needs 3 home runs to reach the 100-homer mark. Ryan Howard currently holds the record for quickest to 100, reaching the century mark in just 325 games. Braun won’t break that record — as of yesterday, he’s already appeared in 384 contests — but Braun can potentially join an exclusive club by the end of the year.
The amazing start to Braun’s career has often been compared to that of another NL Central rival, Albert Pujols. Pujols burst onto the scene by hitting 114 home runs in his first three professional seasons, tying the record that Ralph Kiner held for over 50 years. While it seems unlikely that Braun can reach 114 by the end of this season (he’d need 17 more in the final 39 games), it is likely that he can join Mark Teixeira and Joe DiMaggio in a tie for fourth place on that list. Both Tex and Joltin’ Joe hit 107 homers in their first three seasons.
Of course, Braun is at a bit of a disadvantage in this race, due to him only playing in 113 games his rookie year and 151 games last year. He’s on pace to set career highs in both games played and home runs this year, though, and if you go by games played instead of full seasons, he’s still hitting the ball out of the park at a historic rate. Only five players have hit 100 home runs in their first three seasons. At any rate, Braun will become the 6th…not bad company to have, is it?
– Prince Fielder needs 17 RBI to break the team record for RBI in a season. Fielder has racked up 110 RBI to this point, and at the rate he’s been driving in runs this year, he’ll obliterate the current record of 126 currently held by Cecil Cooper. Fielder made a run at the record in 2007, but fell short by ending the year with 119. Richie Sexson nearly broke the record in 2001 (125) and 2003 (124), but was the victim of poor lineup support. Fielder has had high-OBP players in Braun and Craig Counsell hitting in front of him all year, and with Felipe Lopez tearing the cover off the ball in the leadoff spot since coming over from Arizona, he’s had no shortage of possibilities. RBI is a stat of opportunity, and Prince has done well to capitalize on the opportunities he’s been given this year. Fangraphs has the Rest of Season ZiPS projections on Fielder, which predict he’ll finish the year with 44 HR and 142 RBI — MVP-type numbers if it wasn’t for that Pujols guy.
– Fielder is on pace to shatter another team record…Jeromy Burnitz’s mark for walks in a single season. No Brewer has ever eclipsed the 100-walk mark — Burnitz’s mark is 99 — but Fielder has already taken 82 free passes to first in 123 games. Part of Prince’s improved walk totals has been the lack of a solid #5 hitter to provide protection (the spot’s been a revolving door of Corey Hart, Casey McGehee, and Mike Cameron all year), but he’s also done a fantastic job of laying off pitches he normally would’ve hacked at. The result? Fielder’s on the verge of hitting over .300 for the first time in his career, and seems likely to finish the year with an OBP north of .400 for the first time, too.
– On a different note, Braden Looper is 6 home runs away from surrendering more homers in a season than any other pitcher in Brewers history. It’s safe to say that Looper hasn’t pitched as well as anyone hoped this year — the Brewers paid him to be a #4-type starter, and he’s actually pitched below replacement level. No one expected him to put up a sub-4.00 ERA like he did in St. Louis, but no one thought he’d lose so much velocity on his fastball and lack movement on every pitch in his repetoire. Before the season it seemed like a lock that the Brewers would pick up his 2010 option, but now his future with the club is a little hazy. You have to figure that four rotation spots on next year’s club are already relatively locked in — Yovani Gallardo, Dave Bush, Manny Parra, and Jeff Suppan. If the Brewers are planning on upgrading the rotation, they’d likely have to either let Looper go, find a taker for Suppan’s ridiculous contract, or both. Of those, turning down Looper’s option is probably the easiest route to take.
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