Milwaukee Brewers: Picking the All-Decade Team of the 2010s

Catcher And Outfield

Catcher: 2014 Jonathan Lucroy (8.2 fWAR)

2014 may have been a year to forget for Brewers fans (at least the end of the season was) but it certainly wasn’t that way for Lucroy. He had the highest fWAR of any player over the entire decade that year, even higher than players like Braun or Yelich ever achieved.

Lucroy’s 2014 season was supported by a .301/.373/.456 slash line, .837 OPS, and a league leading 53 doubles. He led the team in average, slugging, OPS, doubles, and walks (66). Lucroy also finished 4th in the NL MVP voting and reached his first of two career All-Star games.

Left Field: 2011 Ryan Braun (7.1 fWAR)

Of course it’s no surprise that of all the great Ryan Braun seasons, 2011 gets him the nod at left field. That was the year he punctuated the team’s playoff run with the first MVP by a Brewer since Robin Yount in 1989.

Braun led the league that year in slugging (.597) and OPS (.994) while leading the team in runs (109), doubles (38), steals (33), and batting average (.332). He also mirrored his teammate Fielder in earning an All-Star nod and a Silver Slugger.

Center Field: 2013 Carlos Gomez (6.7 fWAR)

“Go-Go” certainly endeared himself to fans during his 5+ years in Milwaukee, and the peak of his tenure was in 2013. That year he made the first of two consecutive All-Star appearances for the Brewers and won the first Gold Glove for a Brewer outfielder in team history and first since 1982 when Yount earned one as a shortstop.

Carlos Gomez was all over the team leaderboard in 2013 as he led the Brewers in homers (24), doubles (27), slugging (.506), and OPS (.843) that season and tied for the team lead in triples (10) and runs scored (80). He also finished second on the team in steals (40) and RBI (73).

Right Field: 2019 Christian Yelich (7.8 fWAR)

Yes, Yelich won the National League MVP in 2018. But this team was determined by fWAR, and the Brewer right fielder managed to compile a higher one in 2019, despite playing in 17 less games. That’s the type of performance that can earn one back-to-back MVP awards, but we’re not going to get into that today…

Where do we start? How about the fact that Yelich led the NL in the entire slash line (.329/.429/.671) as well as OPS (1.100), OPS+ (179), and wRC+ (174)? Or perhaps we can add the fact that he had just the tenth 40-30 season ever, even in limited games, when he bashed 44 homers and swiped 30 bags. Yelich did earn an All-Star nod and a Silver Slugger award for his efforts, and that will have to be consolation enough.