Inspired by an article written by co-director of the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America) Daniel Epstein, we’re going to take a look at the all-time Milwaukee Brewers team … with a twist. The rules to this are as follows:
No retired numbers. No Hall of Famers. No active players. No problem, right? Wrong.
The Milwaukee Brewers have five non-Jackie Robinson numbers retired in their history, those are 1, 4, 19, 34, and 44. As far as Hall of Famers, Hank Aaron, Rollie Fingers, Paul Molitor, Ted Simmons, Robin Yount, Trevor Hoffman, and Don Sutton are all ineligible for this as well.
Then you take into account active players. While the current roster is not filled with talent that would make the “All-time Brewers team”, an argument could be made for Christian Yelich and Josh Hader to be included in the conversation. But alas, they are currently active and will not be taken into consideration.
The same could be said for former Brewers players Zack Greinke, John Axford, Will Smith, Jonathan Lucroy, Corey Knebel, Jesus Aguilar, Mike Moustakas, Yasmani Grandal and Avisail Garcia, all of whom are still active but with other clubs. Now, most of these names may not be considered some of the greatest Brewers of all time but when you apply the specific filters we’re working with here, the list of possible candidates shortens significantly.