The Best Combo Nobody is Talking About

Anyone who has been paying attention to this baseball season has heard about some of the big-name hitting combos: Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, Matt Holiday and Albert Pujols, and the duo that has gotten the most attention, Adrian Gonzalez and David "Big Papi" Ortiz. But did you know that none of these three-four combos lead the ML in stats such as runs batted in, home runs or runs scored? I'm sure that this will come as a surprise to many people out there, and a bigger surprise is who DOES lead in these important hitting categories: Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder of the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers. 

That's right, Braun and Fielder are combining to beat out all of these prestigious slugging duos in almost every statistical category. Yet they continue to not get half the respect they deserve. For example, much of the talk on ESPN and across the internet is Adrian Gonzalez's 71 RBIs combined with the resurgent Papi who has added in 48 of his own. Yet their combined total of 119, while being closer than anyone else on this list, is 10 FEWER than Braun and Fielder's 129. The secret to their success is that they are balanced, Braun has 60 coming from the three spot in the line-up and Fielder follows him with 69 more RBIs. To put this astounding stat into more context let's look at the other two hitting combinations: Tex and Rodriguez have combined for 113 RBIs of which Tex is responsible to 62. When it comes to Matt Holiday and Albert Pujols the number drops to 95 RBIs between them, but someone who has been paying attention will point out that Holiday has played just over 50 games, putting him at a nearly 20 game disadvantage. This is a fair point, however how realistic is it that in those 20 games he would have added 33 RBIs, the amount needed to put him and "The Machine" in the lead? Not very. 


When it comes to home runs, the stats get a little bit closer. With 37 home runs between them, Braun and Fielder are tied with the Yankees bashing brothers, Tex and A-Rod. However it must be remembered that Mark Teixeira is leading the Major Leagues in HRs with 24 (he is in a tie with Joes Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays) so once again I would give the edge to Braun and Fielder, who share the HR load, 21 for Prince and 16 for Braun, considerably closer than the 24/13 mark left by the Yankees sluggers. Gonzo and Papi come up four HRs short having blasted 33 homers, a surprisingly low number considering Gonzo leads the majors in RBIs. Holiday and Pujols pull up the rear again with 27 HRs between them, which is actually an impressive number considering the stunted season for both stars. 


Possibly the most telling statistic of all is runs scored. With 104, Gonzo and Papi come the closest but still come up two runs shy of Braun and Fielder's 106. While both stats are impressive, the Brewers tandem proves their worth even more when looking at the total team statistics. Gonzo and Papi have accounted for an astounding 25 percent of runs scored for the Red Sox, who have scored the second most runs in the ML behind only the rival NY Yankees. Braun and Fielder have combined to scored 30 percent of the Brewers 355 runs. This shows how important these two are, it is clear the Brewers are not the same offensive powerhouses as the other three teams, which rank 1st, 2nd and 4th in runs scoring. 

With this knowledge at hand it is clear that Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder have shown they are not only great players but that they BOTH deserve a trip to July's All-Star game. The powerful combo has shown that they can not just hang with the best but they can BE the best. They are, without a doubt, worth talking about.