Our "Hall" will be alot like this, only smaller, less prestigious, and in my basement.

Well, the time has finally come.  No more guests, or week long waits for new nominees.  The nominees are all in, and per our agreement it is time for the RtB faithful to vote on which two players will be inducted into the inaugural class of “The Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.

If you just found your way to the ballot box, here is what we have been doing over the past 5 weeks:

This is a 5 week project, in which 5 select individuals will nominate two former Brewers as candidates for “The Hall”.  At the end of those 5 weeks, RtB will put up a poll in order to induct 2 players in to the first ever class of the “Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.

Again, I would like to thank the gentlemen who dedicated their time and talents to research each of these “gifted” players; Colin Bennett, Steve Alstadt, Steve Sievwright, and Justin Hull.  Without them, this dream of mine would have been nothing more than fantasy.  Do yourself a favor and follow each of them on Twitter.  I linked all of their names for you.  If you are a Brewers fan, you have no excuse to not be following these guys. 

Ok, enough foreplay sailors.  Below you will find the list of 10 nominees, and the man responsible for their place on the list.  Make sure you take the time to educate yourself on these gentlemen.  I will attache the articles to each ex-Brewers name, that way you will have a reference point in your voting.

Before we start, I want to thank you our readers for really getting behind this silly idea.  I have heard from all kinds of people and made lots of new friends.  Everything I write and work on is designed for your enjoyment, so it is always nice to hear from our readers.  Thank you for your support. 

Here…we…go.

Jeff Suppan — Nom: Lou Olsen

Guillermo Mota — Nom: Lou Olsen

Eric Gagne — Nom: Colin Bennett

Dave Bush — Nom: Colin Bennett

Glendon Rusch — Nom: Steve Alstadt

Kevin Mench — Nom: Steve Alstadt

Jeffrey Hammonds — Nom: Steve Sievwright

Gary Sheffield — Nom: Steve Sievwright

Ben McDonald — Nom: Justin Hull

Billy Jo Robidoux — Nom: Justin Hull

 Now, in order to vote, you must go back to the RtB Home Page and scroll down a bit.  Look to the right side ———————>

There you will see the poll and you are allowed to vote twice, no more and please no less.  You get two votes, so please use them. 

Voting will cease on the 5th of July.  At that time, we will crown our inductees.  My hope is that we can reveal the first two class members live, on the RtB podcast (which you should already be listening to).

Happy voting everyone.  Go Brewers!!!!

No Ashley.  No I will not.

From that singular inquiry came this amazing project.  I hate to see it go, but I love to watch it walk away…

To finish things off, I have brought in a very special guest.  Many of you will know Justin Hull from his radio talk show “Home Stretch” on WSCO Radio in Appleton.  He also works in the station as a Producer.  If you follow him on Twitter @JH1570, or like his page on Facebook, he posts the links to every show. 

In my opinion, Justin is one of the best young radio hosts that the state of Wisconsin has to offer.  I would love to listen to him call a ballgame.  His show gets me through my work week, so I am honored to have him be a part of this project.  Trust me, when you live 2,000 miles away…having some intelligent, Brewers talk radio is just priceless.  And he talks with Kyle Lobner on a fairly regular basis, who I am also a big fan of. 

Justin has a wealth of baseball knowledge, and he was kind enough to drop two of the finest entrants into the “Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.  It’s possible that some of you will read these names…and have no idea who we are talking about.  But part of the healing process, is learning from past mistakes.

Here is a quick catch-up if this is your first time to the party, here are the 4 previous rounds of nominees 1, 2, 3, 4.  Or if you’re lazy…  

This is a 5 week project, in which 5 select individuals will nominate two former Brewers as candidates for “The Hall”.  At the end of those 5 weeks, RtB will put up a poll in order to induct 2 players in to the first ever class of the “Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.

So far, the nominees look like this: : Jeff Suppan, Guillermo Mota, Eric Gagne, Dave Bush, Glendon Rusch, Kevin Mench, Jeffrey Hammonds, and Gary Sheffield

This is Ben McDonald...already looking mediocre

Ben McDonald - Holy crap…talk about a mind blower.  Ben McDonald found his way into the spotlight back in 2009, drawing comparisons to Stephen Strasburg.  Ben McDonald was the can’t miss pitching prospect out of LSU, in the 1989 MLB Draft.  He was taken 1st Overall by the Baltimore Orioles.  Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote a very impressive piece about the similarities between McDonald and Strasburg.  Give it a read.  But we are not here to talk about that. 

The Brewers went ahead and signed McDonald prior to the ’96 season.  For the most part, I remember being excited about it.  I was still a little young, but he was a name I had heard of.  Which was something the Brewers hadn’t had since Robin Yount retired in 1993.  The problem was, I do not ever really recall him pitching for the Brewers. 

Overall Grade: C-

Brewers Stats:

56 starts, 20-17 record, 3.96 ERA, 3 Complete Games, 348 hits, 156 Earned Runs, 256 K’s, 103 walks, and no balks (not sure why I added that, but…it stays)

To me, this is the most telling stat: in 1996 Ben McDonald’s WAR was 5.1, but in 1997 it plummeted to 1.5  making him only a game and a half better than a random Triple-A pitcher.  So either he was really good in ’96, or the team was terrible…I lean towards the latter.

Money/Contracts:

This is quite the blunder.  In 2 seasons for the Brewers, McDonald collected a staggering $7.5 million dollars.  This marks the first time that the Brewers were screwed by Scott Boras.  Somehow that turd found a team stupid enough to pay big money for an average starting pitcher.  Not to mention the fact, that he only made 14 starts in 1995 due to injuries.  Yet, the Brewers found it necessary to sign him to a high risk, low reward contract. 

McDonald’s deal was reckless and unwarranted.  There was no reason to suspect the team would be any better with a sub-.500 “Ace” on the hill.  The stipulation of this contract is no Ben McDonald’s fault, but it does not excuse his poor and uninspired play as a Brewer.

Likeability:

Not much bad to say about the guy.  While he never lived up to expectations in the big leagues, that hardly makes him a bad dude.  These days he is coaching little league baseball for his son on the Louisiana bayou.  In all of the pieces I read about the guy, there is nothing that would lead you to believe that he sucked in this category.  If anything, he is probably the nicest guy amongst all of our nominees. 

Closing Thoughts:

When the Brewers signed Ben McDonald in January of 1996, I was ecstatic!  A former 1st overall pick, a guy with a sub-4 career ERA in Baltimore (3.89 at the time of signing) and a name that I had heard of.  I think the latter was the biggest thing.  On a team that featured the likes of John Jaha, Greg Vaughn and Matt Mieske, McDonald was someone that people outside of Milwaukee had heard of.  He was supposed to be BIG TIME!  Instead he was, just ok.  Milwaukee had seen many OK players over its history, but this was supposed to be different…and it just wasn’t.  In 2-seasons with the Brewers, McDonald was 20-17 with a 3.96 ERA.  Again, OK numbers but I think we were all expecting more.  Especially when you consider that he signed a pretty nice contract (made 2-million in 1996 (with a $500,000 signing bonus) and 5-million in 1997) with the Brewers.

It's amazing that a guy who looks like he rolled out of an episode of Teen Mom, did not pan out in the big leagues.

Billy Jo Robidoux - If you have never heard of this guy, don’t feel that bad about it.  It’s hard to liken him to anyone because he was such a huge deal in Triple-A and never figured it out in the majors.  So, I guess he is just like almost every major leaguer ever…

What made Billy Jo Robidoux so depressing (aside from his name and general appearance) was that the team really gave him every opportunity to succeed as a player, and they got squat in return.  They gave him 4 seasons to prove that he belonged in the big show, but he could not stick.  Robidoux was the first, in a very long line, of strong minor league players in the Brewers farm system, who completely fizzled out when they got to the major league club.  He might as well have never been a Brewers at all….luckily for us, he was. 

 Overall Grade: C

Brewers Stats:

385 AB’s, 85 hits, 4 HR, 38 RBI, .221 batting average, 61 walks (by far his most impressive stat), 83 strikeouts(spoke to soon), and he grounded into 12 double plays.  Now none of these seems awful…until you look at his career in the minor leagues.

2236 AB’s, 688 hits, 73 HR, 415 RBI’s, .308 batting average, 404 walks, 360 strikeouts, and a .412 on-base percentage.

Now we can all see why Blo Jo Robidoux belongs on this list.

Money/Contract:

There is very little record of how much money Robidoux made in his playing days as a Brewer.  I think it safe to assume that the mid-80′s were not baseball’s most financially frugal days.  While the Brewers made every effort to keep him on the team, there was no reason to over pay for the guy.  When his contract came up, they let him sign with the White Sox. 

We have had some real whoppers on this list so far, but Robidoux probably scores the highest in this category (or worst, depending on how you look at it).  While we won’t miss him because he could not produce on the field, his contract was not a hindrance to the team. 

Likeability:

I mean, just look at the guys picture.  What else do you need to know? 

Closing Thoughts:

I am not sure if it was; his .342 average, 23 homers and 132 RBI in double-A in 1985 or his distinction of “Future Star” by Topps Baseball Cards, but Billy Jo was expected to do great things.  He never did.  After 4-years of raking the ball in the minors, Robidoux bounced back and fourth from the Majors and Minors until 1988.  In 4-seasons with Milwaukee, Billy Jo batted just .221 with 4-homers and 38-RBI, a far cry from his expectations.  The Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox later gave him a chance to crack the big leagues.  Crazy thing was, Robidoux was just 26-years old during his final season in the Big Leagues, 1990 in Boston.  High expectation but little results…(where have we heard that before in Milwaukee?)

This week, our old friend Steve Sievwright is going to provide us with two Brewers that he does not long for.  You all should remember Steve from his march to the MLB FanCave this past March, or at the very least from all of his work for our site in the past.  He allowed Colin and I to practically live through him as he made the Top 30 finalists for the 2012 FanCave.  Once he was robbed the opportunity to live in the Cave, he came to our site and shared every detail of his trip to Brewers spring training.  Then he got settled and played an entire season of MLB 2K12 as the Brewers, just so he could tell us how it went.  When Steve first heard about this project, he lobbied to be a part of it.  Since he is RtB family, I instantly agreed.  And trust me, Steve did not disappoint (foreshadowing). 

Ok, if you are getting to the party late, here is the deal:

This is a 5 week project, in which 5 select individuals will nominate two former Brewers as candidates for “The Hall”.  At the end of those 5 weeks, RtB will put up a poll in order to induct 2 players in to the first ever class of the “Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.

And here is the list so far: Jeff Suppan, Guillermo Mota, Eric Gagne, Dave Bush, Glendon Rusch, and Kevin Mench

So, without further adieu, let’s see who Steve likes…err dislikes, either way it’s correct.

This can be all yours. Although, I can't imagine why you would wan't it.

Jeffrey Hammonds- Just mentioning his name should make you feel empty inside. It should take you back to a black hole in the Brewers’ past that, at the very least, I would like to forget. Hammonds was a free-agent pickup in 2001, but not just any pickup.  A pick-up that, at the time, was the largest contract in Milwaukee Brewers’ history. Injuries kept him from playing very much, but when he did take the field for the majority of a season, it was in 2002. AKA: the worst season (56-106) the Brewers’ ever played.

Overall grade: F

Brewers stats:

65 RBI, now that sounds like a completely average year right? Well, it would be except that’s the amount of RBIs Hammonds had in his 3 years as a Brewer.  Stats as a Brewer are as follows:

.248 BA/.321 OBP/65 RBI/69 Runs/16 HRs

Here’s the key stat: 187 games. In three years! Three abysmal years. 49 games in 2001, 128 in 2002, and 10 (yes 10!) in 2003. All years were cut short by stints on the DL.

Money/Contracts:

Don’t let the others fool you, THIS is the worst contract in Brewers’ franchise history. 3yrs/21.75 million dollars.  And, as mentioned, this was the richest contract to date for our organization. I know this isn’t a fair comparison, but that means Jeffrey Hammonds was guaranteed to make more money as a Brewer than Robin Yount. In 2002, he made almost $8 million to hit .257 with 41 RBI. In 2003, Hammonds was cut after playing 10 games and hitting .158. For those 10 games he was still paid $300,000. I wish I could get paid that much for doing nothing.

Likeability:

When it comes to likeability…I couldn’t find much wrong with the guy. It was frustrating to watch and painful to go through; but technically there wasn’t anything wrong with him (at least when being compared to my next nominee).

Closing thoughts:

Terrible play, terrible contract, and the most terrible season in Brewers’ history. I can’t say much more about it really. Here’s a fun fact about how bad this situation was though: in 2003, there was Jeffrey Hammonds bobble-head night, unfortunately it was a few days after he was already cut from the team. I can’t even stand writing about this so…

With all factors taken in to consideration I hereby nominate Jeffrey Hammonds to The HoBWWM.

Gary Sheffield-  

Whereas a bad point in time, contract, situation as mentioned above can be really terrible. This is one that makes my blood boil.  When someone doesn’t want to be where they are and then start to plague the team, that is terrible. Here’s a guy with all the talent in the world and just chooses not to use it, just because he didn’t like being moved to 3^rd base?  What’s worse is that he goes on to have an arguably a Hall of Fame career, but around these parts he’s known for the attitude.  After the Brewers got rid of him it had a major impact on our franchise.

Overall Grade: D

Brewers Stats:

His stats as a Brewer were fine, especially for being an 18 year old kid.  In 1991, his last year in Milwaukee, he was limited to only 50 games because of injury, but hit only .194 during that time. In four years he never hit more than 10 HRs in a season, a far cry from his stats later in life (though that might have something to do with his inclusion in the Mitchell Report). In his best season, he played 125 games hitting .294 with 10 HRs, 67 RBI, and 25 SB.  What a waste.

Money/Contracts:  

This might be the one area that doesn’t completely kill his situation. In his time in Milwaukee he didn’t even make $700,000. But then again he claims that in 1991 Bud Selig offered him a long-term big money contract but later reneged on it. Which will give way to the next section.

Likeability:

So his stats were fine to average and he didn’t cost us much, but this category is where Sheffield earns his nomination.

What didn’t he hate?  He thought Milwaukee was a frozen hell, that County Stadium was a dump, that the weather sucked, and that there weren’t enough black people. That covers pretty much everything.  I’m sure he hated the food and probably Bernie Brewer on top of it.  He claims Milwaukee brought out the hate in him.  He said that if the official scorer would give him an error, that he would throw one in the stands and show him what an error really is (though there’s no record of this and later he would take that back and said maybe he did it in the minors, poor Helena Brewers). There was the whole, “was it or wasn’t it a broken foot”, “the phantom contract”, and of course calling our pitchers girls because they wouldn’t throw at players after he was beaned. Bottom-line I’m pretty sure he wasn’t and still isn’t likeable…whatsoever.

Closing Thoughts:

Gary Sheffield…all the talent in the world, held back by a terrible attitude. Went on to have a great career, a career that started improving as soon as he hit San Diego after we traded him (steroids). Clearly he didn’t want to be here, which is a real shame. In 1988-1992 it was still the heyday of Yount, Molitor, and Higuera.  With all of those great Brewer players, Sheffield could’ve gone down in Milwaukee history as a good guy and a legend, but chose to go the other way.

Overall I believe these two players to be the leaders (or maybe the dregs) in two important categories: Contract and Likeability. One needed to learn how to love and forget how to hate and the other had no business getting paid as much as he did for what little he was able to do.

So I nominate Jeffrey Hammonds and Gary Sheffield to the HoBWWM. 

And in my opinion they are two clear 1^st ballot HoBWWMer’s.

But, as always, here is what we are doing: 

This is a 5 week project, in which 5 select individuals will nominate two former Brewers as candidates for “The Hall”.  At the end of those 5 weeks, RtB will put up a poll in order to induct 2 players in to the first ever class of the “Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.

This week I asked RtB staffer and cultural attache of  Guinea-Bissau, Steve Alstadt, to throw two more nominees our way.  All I asked him for was two nominees, a grade, and some closing thoughts.  But Steve said, “No way. I got this Olsen.”  Who am I to argue with a political diplomat.

What you are about to read was written entirely by our resident cheese, wine, and Guinea Bissau cultural references expert.  If you like Steve’s work, be sure and check out some of his other Brewers work on our site as well as his other site Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turning Up The Heat! 

Glendon Rusch -   Perhaps no poor soul epitomizes the total futility of the early 2000s Milwaukee Brewers than Glendon Rusch. Those teams were dreadful—in 2002 they lost 106(!) games. Rusch was the anti-ace of the staff. In Milwaukee for two years, the only thing he made headlines for was losing games at an alarming rate. Making matters worse was the fact he went to the Cubs in 2004 and put together a good season as a reliever and fill-in starter. 

**Lou’s Side Note: Rusch went to High School right down the street from where I live in the Seattle, WA area**

Steve’s Overall Grade: D

Brewers Stats:

As head of that historically bad 2002 team, Glendon Rusch lost 16 games. He gave up over a hit per inning and had an ERA of 4.7. Yet, because the team was so bad, he racked up 210 innings—simply because they had nobody better!

How did he follow it up in 2003? With a much, much worse season, that’s how. How does a 1-12 record with a 6.42 ERA (!!!) and 12.5 hits per nine innings sound?

During his tenure as a Brewer, his ERA+ was 78. League average is 100. Oof. 

Money/Contract: 

This is one of the reasons I only went down to a D for Rusch. I have been unable to find his salary, but it couldn’t have been that much. The team had a payroll of $50 million in 2002 and $40 in 2003, so they almost didn’t have room for bad contracts.

Like-ability:

I don’t remember much about Rusch as a person, other than he had that blood clot scare after he left the Brewers. I remember people honestly feeling sorry for him because of all the losses, though.

Steve’s Closing Thoughts:

I only went with a D because Rusch truly wasn’t as bad as his true numbers indicate. He wasn’t even the worst pitcher on that 2003 team; Fangraphs has Wayne Franklin as the worst pitcher in baseball that year. Rusch being here is almost a team award for the Brewers of 2002 and 2003. He was the poster boy, because he had all those losses. A closer look at his numbers reveals something fascinating. His ERA was an amazingly bad 6.42, but his fielding independent pitching (FIP) in 2003 was 3.87! That implies that the defense behind Rusch was terrible and artificially deflated his numbers. Plus, the losses were often a result of poor run support from a heinous offense. So, really, this honor should go to Glendon Rusch/The 2003 Milwaukee Brewers.

Kevin Mench -  This may be a personal one more than the numbers back up, but I despise Kevin Mench as a baseball player. Actually, that isn’t a strong enough word. I loathe Kevin Mench the baseball player. If you recall, Mench was in Milwaukee for about a year and a half. He came to Milwaukee with Francisco Cordero in the underwhelming deal that sent Carlos Lee (and Nelson Cruz, doh) to Texas. He’s probably remembered for two dumb stories. First, he has a large head. People liked to joke about it. Secondly, he had that infamous shoe thing in Texas. Right after he switched to a larger shoe size, he had a stretch in which he hit some home runs and it became a story.

Also, mainly because I didn’t like him, I used to enjoy pointing out his resemblance to Voldemort.

Steve’s Overall Grade: D-

Stats:

2006: .230/.248/.317, for a cool .566 OPS in 133 plate appearances. He drew four walks.

2007: .267/.305/.441 in 308 plate appearances.

Plus, he was an awful outfielder.

Mench is the perfect example of why strikeouts are a horrible measuring tool for offensive players. For his career, Mench’s strikeout rate is just 12.9%. A player people like to rip on for strikeouts, say, Rickie Weeks, is at 23.1%. Yet, Weeks is a much better offensive player, because he gets on base so much more often than Mench ever did.  2007 is a good comparison for those two, actually. Weeks was 14^th in MLB in pitches per plate appearance, at 4.45. Mench was 11^th-worst  among all players with at least 300 plate appearances—just 3.31. Mench was a hacker, plain and simple, and hackers are my least favorite of all baseball players.

Aside: The worst in pitches/PA that year was Johnny Estrada, who I could have just as easily chosen for this segment. My God, and watching him “run” the bases… I have to stop now before I delete this entire thing and start all over using Estrada instead of Mench.

Money/Contract:

Mench didn’t make an exorbitant amount while he was here—somewhere around $4 million a year, if I remember correctly. That makes this all the more impressive in my eyes. My hatred was fixated purely on Mench as a baseball player, and had nothing to do with his contract.

Like-ability:

It seemed like his teammates liked him, or whatever, but I will never forget what cemented him forever in my HoF. I can’t find the exact quote now, unfortunately, but once he was asked about his lack of walks, and he said (paraphrasing) “They don’t pay me to walk. I’m not a mailman,” and he laughed. He laughed at the notion of walking. UGH.

Steve’s Final Thoughts:

There is one memory of Mench that stands out to me more than any other. The Brewers’ were in the midst of their epic 2007 collapse in which they blew a substantial division lead to the Cubs. The day was August 30, 2007 (not because I remember it this clearly, but because I looked it up). The Brewers were down two runs against the Cubs in the ninth inning. The closer at the time, Ryan Dempster, had just walked in a run. Mench was in the lineup that day, and he spot in the order came up. With three lefties on the bench in Geoff Jenkins, Craig Counsell, and Johnny Estrada, Ned Yost elected to let Kevin Mench, he of the .309 career OBP against righties, hit. And what does Mench do? After Dempster had just walked in a run? He lazily grounded out to shortstop on the first pitch. Game over. Commence rage.