TODAY’S SPORTSSTAT – No shortage of shortstops for Brewers

By JERRY TAPP

Are there any more players who will take a shot at shortstop for the Brewers this season? So far in 2018, the Brewers have had six different players who have taken a turn playing short: Orlando Arcia, Brad Miller, Nate Orf, Hernan Perez, Tyler Saladino and Eric Sogard.

The six different players at shortstop are tied for the third most by the team in a season (six players also played short in 1986, 1978 and 1971). The most shortstops used by the Brewers franchise in a season was eight. That happened in 1969 when the team was in Seattle as the Seattle Pilots. The second most shortstops used was in 2012 when seven players played short for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Here are the names of the shortstops used by the franchise in those 1969 and 2012 seasons.

1969 (eight shortstops used): Ron Clark, John Donaldson, Gus Gil, John Kennedy, Gordy Lund, Ray Oyler and Fred Stanley.

2012: (seven shortstops used): Jeff Bianchi, Brooks Conrad, Alex Gonzalez, Cesar Izturis, Edwin Maysonet, Cody Ranson, Jean Segura

In case you were wondering, there has never been a season for the Brewers where they used only one shortstop the whole season. There have been, however, six different seasons where they used only two shortstops in a campaign: 1970 (Ted Kubiak and Roberto Pena), 1976 (Tim Johnson and Robin Yount), 1981 (Robin Yount and Ed Romero), 1991 (Bill Spiers and Dale Sveum), 1998 (Mark Loretta and Jose Valentin) and 2005 (Bill Hall and J.J. Hardy).

30-100 Brewers
Last season Travis Shaw became the first Brewers player since 2012 (Ryan Braun) to have 30 or more home runs and 100 or more RBIs in a season. Shaw had 31 HRs and 101 RBIs in 2017.

Through games of July 20, Shaw has 18 homers and has driven in 55. He is on pace to end the season with 29 HRs and 90 RBI.

If he can reach 30-100 again this season, Shaw would become the first Brewers player since Braun (2011 and 2012) to have back-to-back 30-100 seasons for the Brew Crew.

There have been five Brewers players who had back-to-back 30-100 seasons: Gorman Thomas (1979 and 1980), Cecil Cooper (1982 and 1983), Jeromy Burnitz (1998 and 1999), Prince Fielder (2007, 2008 and 2009) and Braun, who did it twice (2008 and 2009; 2011 and 2012).

Braun and Fielder are tied for the most 30-100 seasons with the club; each had four in a Brewers uniform. Burnitz and Thomas each had three 30-100 seasons in Milwaukee, while Cooper, Ben Oglivie and Richie Sexson are the only other Brewers to have multiple 30-100 seasons with the Brew Crew, each with two.

Alex Rodriguez leads the majors with the most 30-100 seasons with 14. He is followed by Jimmie Foxx, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and babe Ruth, each who had 12 such seasons.

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