The Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss: Round 4 of Nominees

Welcome back for nominees 7 and 8 into this illustrious group of Brewers that we wish we could forget, or as we have been calling it, “The Hall of Brewers We Won’t Miss”.

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.

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.