Extreme teams: Braves and Brewers
Both clubs share a Milwaukee link, but their levels of success differ considerably
Each Friday brings a new story about the extreme performances by big-league franchises, their best and worst seasons throughout baseball’s Modern Era. Each installment focuses on two clubs, based solely on alphabetical order.
But today’s subjects are linked by more than their initial consonants. The Braves and Brewers both called Milwaukee home during the era, which began in 1961. The Braves left Milwaukee for Atlanta after the 1965 season, then the Brewers arrived from Seattle in 1970 (after spending a single year in Seattle as the Pilots.)
That’s not to say that the two franchises have enjoyed similar levels of success. Far from it.
The Braves have won six National League pennants and a pair of world championships (1995 and 2021) in the Modern Era. The Brewers have made only one appearance in a World Series, way back in 1982, and they lost it.
Each club’s best and worst seasons have been determined by my calculations of team scores (TS), which are plotted on an equalized 100-point scale. (Click here to learn about the TS formula.)
Best year for the Braves: The franchise won its fourth world championship overall — and its first in Atlanta — in 1995, the team’s 30th season in Georgia. The Braves ran away with the National League East by 21 games, then breezed through the playoffs with 11 wins against three losses. The team’s great strength was its pitching. Greg Maddux won the Cy Young Award with a 19-2 record and a 1.63 ERA. Fellow starter Tom Glavine went 16-7.
Worst year for the Braves: Atlanta was terrible in the latter half of the 1980s, finishing last or next-to-last in five successive seasons. The nadir was 1988’s 54-106 record, which left the Braves 39.5 games out of first place in the NL West. Right fielder Dale Murphy paced the team with 24 homers and 77 RBIs, and first baseman Gerald Perry batted an even .300.
Best year for the Brewers: What else could it be? The year 1982 is discussed reverently in Milwaukee, since it brought the only league championship in franchise history. The Brewers squeezed past Baltimore by a single game to win the American League East, edged the California Angels in the final game of the AL Championship Series, and finally lost to St. Louis in a seven-game World Series. Shortstop Robin Yount led the AL with 210 hits and won the MVP trophy. Pitcher Pete Vuckovich’s 18-6 record earned him the Cy Young Award.
Worst year for the Brewers: Milwaukee lost 106 games in 2002, easily the worst total in franchise history. The club finished 41 games off the pace in the National League Central. First baseman Richie Sexson drove home 102 runs. Ben Sheets posted the best record on the pitching staff, with 11 victories against 16 defeats.
Scroll down to see the top and bottom 10 lists for both franchises between 1961 and 2022. You can find similar rankings for all other clubs in the print edition of Baseball’s Best (and Worst) 2023 Yearbook.
Each team is listed below with the year in brackets, followed by its regular-season win-loss record, its postseason results (if any) in parentheses, its margin between runs scored and allowed per game, and its Modern Era percentile.
These are the abbreviations for postseason outcomes: P indicates that a club made the playoffs, L that it won a league championship, and W that it won the World Series.
The Modern Era percentile is the share of all 1,656 clubs in the 1961-2022 span that the given team outperformed, based on my TS comparisons.
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Top 10 for Braves (1961-2022)
1. Braves [1995], 90-54 (WLP), plus-0.73 margin, 98.7% in era
2. Braves [1996], 96-66 (LP), plus-0.77 margin, 98.4% in era
3. Braves [1992], 98-64 (LP), plus-0.70 margin, 97.2% in era
4. Braves [1999], 103-59 (LP), plus-1.10 margin, 96.7% in era
5. Braves [1997], 101-61 (P), plus-1.30 margin, 96.6% in era
6. Braves [1998], 106-56 (P), plus-1.51 margin, 95.9% in era
7. Braves [1991], 94-68 (LP), plus-0.65 margin, 95.7% in era
8. Braves [2021], 88-73 (WLP), plus-0.83 margin, 93.3% in era
9. Braves [2003], 101-61 (P), plus-1.03 margin, 92.9% in era
10. Braves [1993], 104-58 (P), plus-1.28 margin, 92.4% in era
Bottom 10 for Braves (1961-2022)
1. Braves [1988], 54-106, minus-1.16 margin, 1.3% in era
2. Braves [1977], 61-101, minus-1.34 margin, 2.5% in era
3. Braves [1990], 65-97, minus-0.86 margin, 5.0% in era
4. Braves [1978], 69-93, minus-0.93 margin, 7.7% in era
5. Braves [1989], 63-97, minus-0.60 margin, 8.0% in era
6. Braves [1985], 66-96, minus-0.92 margin, 8.5% in era
7. Braves [2015], 67-95, minus-1.15 margin, 9.0% in era
8. Braves [1975], 67-94, minus-0.97 margin, 9.7% in era
9. Braves [1979], 66-94, minus-0.59 margin, 11.4% in era
10. Braves [1987], 69-92, minus-0.51 margin, 16.0% in era
Top 10 for Brewers (1969-2022)
1. Brewers [1982], 95-67 (LP), plus-1.07 margin, 94.3% in era
2. Brewers [1992], 92-70, plus-0.84 margin, 88.9% in era
3. Brewers [2011], 96-66 (P), plus-0.51 margin, 88.0% in era
4. Brewers [1978], 93-69, plus-0.95 margin, 86.8% in era
5. Brewers [2018], 96-67 (P), plus-0.58 margin, 83.1% in era
6. Brewers [1979], 95-66, plus-0.53 margin, 79.5% in era
7. Brewers [2021], 95-67 (P), plus-0.71 margin, 78.9% in era
8. Brewers [1980], 86-76, plus-0.80 margin, 77.9% in era
9. Brewers [2008], 90-72 (P), plus-0.38 margin, 77.2% in era
10. Brewers [1987], 91-71, plus-0.28 margin, 76.5% in era
Bottom 10 for Brewers (1969-2022)
1. Brewers [2002], 56-106, minus-1.20 margin, 2.2% in era
2. Brewers [1984], 67-94, minus-0.58 margin, 9.1% in era
3. Brewers [2003], 68-94, minus-0.98 margin, 9.8% in era
4. Pilots [1969], 64-98, minus-0.98 margin, 10.8% in era
5. Brewers [1976], 66-95, minus-0.53 margin, 10.8% in era
6. Brewers [1972], 65-91, minus-0.65 margin, 14.1% in era
7. Brewers [1993], 69-93, minus-0.36 margin, 14.8% in era
8. Brewers [2001], 68-94, minus-0.41 margin, 15.5% in era
9. Brewers [1970], 65-97, minus-0.85 margin, 15.6% in era
10. Brewers [1985], 71-90, minus-0.70 margin, 16.6% in era