Last Updated on November 8, 2023 by Matt Musico
We’ve already spent time going over which hitters are among the single-season and all-time home run leaders in Brewers history. So, the next logical thing to cover would be taking a peek at the single-season Brewers RBI leaders.
There have been a total of 40 different seasons in Milwaukee’s history where a player has racked up at least 100 RBI. We’ll first talk about the top five in detail before listing out the remainder of those occurrences.
Single-Season Brewers RBI Leaders: Top 5
Prince Fielder: 141 RBI in 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57RTJadBdr8&pp=ygUecHJpbmNlIGZpZWxkZXIgMjAwOSBoaWdobGlnaHRz
Prince Fielder made waves in 2007 by becoming the first player in Brewers history to reach the 50-homer plateau. However, the 141 RBI he accumulated to get to the top of the franchise’s single-season RBI leaderboard didn’t happen until a couple of years later. Fielder still added 46 dingers to his 2009 stat line, so it’s not like this particular campaign wasn’t at all powerful.
What the first baseman produced at home (23 homers, 70 RBI) and on the road (23 homers, 71 RBI) was just about identical. Fielder went into the All-Star break with 78 RBI already on his ledger. But he still came right back and collected 63 RBI in 14 fewer games played.
As you can imagine, Fielder was a machine with runners in scoring position. He posted a 1.049 OPS with 13 homers and 93 RBI in that situation.
Cecil Cooper: 126 RBI in 1983
Between 1979 and 1983, Cecil Cooper enjoyed four seasons of 20-plus homers and 100-plus RBI. However, the last two years of this stretch (’82 and ’83) went up another notch. Cooper posted at least 30 dingers with 120 RBI in both of those campaigns. His 126 RBI led the league and were a career-high mark. It also led to him finishing fifth in MVP Award voting for the third time in four years.
The month of July was especially good to him. Across 123 plate appearances, Cooper slashed .366/.390/.714 with 10 homers, 39 RBI, and 26 runs scored. This was the only month where his OPS crested above 1.000, and all those other numbers were single-month bests when specifically looking at his 1983 season.
Jeromy Burnitz: 125 RBI in 1998
Jeromy Burnitz‘s tenure in Milwaukee was very powerful. His first full season in 1997 included 27 homers and 85 RBI. But for the four seasons that followed, he never collected fewer than 31 homers or 98 RBI. This included three different 100-RBI seasons, with the 125 he posted in 1998 being his best.
It was Burnitz’s second half of play that got him to where he landed. He had just one month of 20-plus RBI through the end of June (24 in March/April). But from June to September/October, he drove in at least 20 runs each month.
The outfielder also slugged 17 homers with 53 RBI while the Brewers were trailing in games. That was easily his most in each category, regardless of the situation (trailing, ahead, or a tie game).
Richie Sexson: 125 RBI in 2001
Richie Sexson is always one of those dudes that seems to fly under the radar. He provided a ton of power in his prime and racked up 306 homers with 943 RBI across a 12-year MLB career. The first baseman spent just three years with Milwaukee, and he certainly made them count. Sexson produced three straight 100-RBI seasons and never hit fewer than 29 homers in a year.
The first baseman was a second-half player in 2001. Prior to the All-Star break, he owned a .792 OPS with 18 homers and 56 RBI in 348 plate appearances. After the midsummer classic, his OPS went up to .995 to go along with 27 homers and 65 RBI in just 319 plate appearances.
He saved his best work for the end of the season, too. Over Sexson’s final 121 trips to the plate, he slugged 12 homers with 32 RBI. That was accompanied by a .324/.397/.694 line.
Richie Sexson: 124 RBI in 2003
The right-handed slugger took a brief respite in 2002 by hitting 29 homers with 102 RBI before getting back over the 40-homer plateau and nearly beating his previous career-high mark for RBI. Unlike 2001, this performance earned him a trip to the All-Star Game and a 12th-place finish in NL MVP Award voting.
Sexson never had fewer than 18 RBI in a single month during the 2003 season. However, he didn’t surpass the 20-RBI mark in a month until July. He’d end up finishing the year with three straight months of 20-plus RBI. From the standpoint of his OPS, he once again saved his best work for last. Similar to 2001, Sexson’s 1.074 OPS was the only time it got over 1.000 throughout the year.
Single-Season Brewers RBI Leaders: The Rest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiB4t6cT3l8&pp=ygUgY2hyaXN0aWFuIHllbGljaCAyMDE4IGhpZ2hsaWdodHM%3D
There have been 40 different 100 RBI seasons in Brewers history. Here is the remainder of those performances.
- Gorman Thomas, 1979: 123 RBI
- Cecil Cooper, 1980: 122
- Cecil Cooper, 1982: 121
- Prince Fielder, 2011: 120
- Prince Fielder, 2007: 119
- Ben Oglivie, 1980: 118
- John Jaha, 1996: 118
- Larry Hisle, 1978: 115
- Robin Yount, 1982: 114
- Carlos Lee, 2005: 114
- Ryan Braun, 2009: 114
- Gorman Thomas, 1982: 112
- Ryan Braun, 2012: 112
- Ryan Braun, 2011: 111
- Christian Yelich, 2018: 110
- George Scott, 1975: 109
- Ted Simmons, 1983: 108
- Jesus Aguilar, 2018: 108
- George Scott, 1973: 107
- Cecil Cooper, 1979: 106
- Ryan Braun, 2008: 106
- Gorman Thomas, 1980: 105
- Aramis Ramirez, 2012: 105
- Casey McGehee, 2010: 104
- Robin Yount, 1987 and 1989: 103
- Jeromy Burnitz, 1999: 103
- Ryan Braun, 2010: 103
- Ben Oglivie, 1982: 102
- Richie Sexson, 2002: 102
- Prince Fielder, 2008: 102
- Corey Hart, 2010: 102
- Sixto Lezcano, 1979: 101
- Travis Shaw, 2017: 101
- Jeromy Burnitz, 2001: 100
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