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30 Teams in 30 Posts: #22

I'm ranking all 30 of the MLB teams in order of how much I like them at this moment in time.  As with most countdowns, I'm starting with the worst (Cardinals) and I'll eventually end up with the best (Reds).  The real question now is, where will the other MLB teams land in my countdown?

On my post for team #23 in my ranking, I asked for guesses on which team would end up in spot #22.  While the total number of guess was quite small, Fuji nailed it with the very first comment on the post...

#22:  Milwaukee Brewers
Image source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2018/06/04/ball-glove-we-all-see-m-and-b-retro-brewers-logo-right/668923002/

My issues with the Brewers are three-fold.

First, the Brewers are in the NL Central and for the last several years have been nothing but a thorn in the side of the Reds.  More specifically, it seems like certain relatively worthless players for the Brewers have made entire careers simply by playing the Reds a lot.  Eric Thames comes to mind. 

In 2018 alone he had 22 at bats against the Reds.  In those at bats he had only five hits, but four of those five hits left the ballpark.  Thames knocked in 8 runs against the Reds and ended the year with a 1.119 ops against Cincinnati.  In comparison, Thames only had a TOTAL of 16 home runs for the entire 2018 season...so yes, he hit almost a third of his home runs for the season against my Reds.  He's not the only "no name" Brewer to seemingly light up the Reds, but he is perhaps the most recent player to do so.

The second reason that the Brewers are down in spot #22 is because I have some family members that root for the Brewers.  I don't mind friendly rivalries, but I do mind getting emails, texts, etc. talking about yet another Brew Crew beat down on my Reds, especially over the past four or five years when the Reds have been quite pathetic.

Finally, the Brewers deserve a low spot in the rankings because they don't use the ball-in-glove logo as their official logo.  As a kid, I was genuinely excited when I realized the Brewers logo made a baseball glove using the "M" from Milwaukee and the "b" from Brewers.  Heck, the more I think about it, perhaps I was too generous to Milwaukee with the #22 ranking!

Actually, that's not entirely fair.  I have to give credit where credit is due - and in the case of Milwaukee, I can honestly say that the one game I saw in person in Milwaukee was one of the all-time best atmospheres for what was basically a meaningless game between two teams that weren't in a sort of contention (this was a number of years ago now).  In fact, I'd say that my time in Milwaukee at that game was easily one of my top three favorite games that I've ever seen in person (even if my Reds did end up losing in a slugfest)!

And with that, we've covered the bottom 9 teams in MLB.  Next up, the final team in my bottom 10 - a team that has had brief flashes of greatness stuck between otherwise perpetual ineptitude. 

My list of favorite MLB teams (from worst to first):
#30:  St. Louis Cardinals (post)
#29:  New York Yankees (post)
#28:  San Francisco Giants (post)
#27:  Washington Nationals (post)
#26:  Boston Red Sox (post)
#25:  Chicago Cubs (post)
#24:  Atlanta Braves (post)
#23:  Los Angeles Dodgers (post)
#22:  Milwaukee Brewers
to be continued...

Comments

  1. I, too, loved that ball-in-glove logo Milwaukee used back in the day.
    Also, I completely agree with your assessment of Miller Park... great place to take in a game.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Family members sending email and texts? You're a good man. It's that kind of stuff that make the SF Giants and SF 49ers rank so high (or in your case low) on my lists.

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