Brewers Make Franchise History

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If the MLB season had ended on Sunday night the Brewers would have been well positioned to make a run in October: They won 26 of their first 40 games for the first time in franchise history, sit atop the NL Central by three games and have the National League’s third best record. They would also have a few players in line for some pretty significant accomplishments.

Here are a few Brewers leading or near the top of the National League in various categories, and a look at how long it’s been since the last time the Brewers had a player finish atop any of these leaderboards:

Home Runs

The leader: Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron has 11.

The top Brewer: Willy Adames, Hunter Renfroe and Rowdy Tellez are all tied for fifth with nine.

The National League home run leaderboard features several surprises at this point: Cron has never hit more than 30 in a season but is on pace for 45 this year, and Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker’s ten are already tied for the second-most he’s ever hit in an MLB season. The Brewers, meanwhile, are getting about the best they could have expected out of Adames, who has carried his hot bat from 2021 into 2022, Renfroe, whose power has shone through at times and Tellez, who has broken out as an everyday player.

Three Brewers have led the National League in home runs since the Brewers joined the circuit in 1998: Chris Carter was the most recent with 41 in 2016, preceded by Ryan Braun with 41 in 2012 and Prince Fielder’s 50 in 2007.

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Runs Batted In

The leader: Mets first baseman Pete Alonso has 36.

The top Brewer: Rowdy Tellez is four back with 32, tied for second place.

While the home run leaderboard features some unlikely candidates, the NL RBI leaderboard is more closely aligned with preseason expectations. In addition to Alonso, the top 10 features household names like Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, Justin and Trea Turner of the Dodgers, Bryce Harper of the Phillies and Manny Machado of the Padres. In amongst that group of perennial All Stars, however, is Rowdy Tellez. He’s already more than halfway to his previous career-best of 54.

The Brewers bet big on Tellez being able to perform in a larger role than he’d ever received before, and he’s lived up to expectations with 19 extra base hits in 39 games. His eight RBI game on May 4 against the Reds didn’t hurt, either. He could become the first Brewer to lead the NL in RBI since Prince Fielder had 141 of them in 2009.

Innings Pitched and Strikeouts

The leader: Phillies starter Aaron Nola has 52 1/3 and 64 to lead the NL in both categories, respectively.

The top Brewer: Corbin Burnes is just two outs behind him at 51 2/3 and two strikeouts behind him at 62.

Last season the primary argument against Burnes winning the National League Cy Young Award was his relatively small workload: He just barely qualified for the league’s ERA title with 167 innings pitched, tied for the 32nd most in the NL and almost 50 behind fellow contender Zack Wheeler. In the early going this season, however, Burnes has been one of the game’s most reliable pitchers.

While his peripheral numbers have seen a bit of a dip as Burnes has allowed a bit more solid contact and has been a bit more homer-prone in 2022, he’s still striking a lot of batters out, limiting walks and working deeper into games than ever before.  In so doing, he’s in somewhat uncharted territory: No Brewer has led any league in innings since Cal Eldred logged 258 in 1993. Meanwhile, no Brewer has ever led his league in strikeouts.

Saves:

The leader: Padres closer Taylor Rogers has 16.

The top Brewer: Josh Hader has 15 in his first 15 appearances this season.

Hader has been lights-out in his first month and a half this season, allowing just two hits across 13 2/3 innings of work and striking out 21. The Brewers have also maximized his save numbers by bringing him in for partial-inning saves when another reliever stumbles into trouble in the ninth inning, giving him a pair of one-out saves in games the Brewers won by four runs.

Hader also led the NL with 13 saves in 2020, but no Brewer has finished atop the league in a full season since John Axford finished with 46 in 2011. While he chases that mark Hader will likely claim another Brewers record: He needs 22 more saves to tie Dan Plesac for the Brewers’ all-time lead in that category with 133.