Mariners Sign Russell Branyan (1 Year Deal)

[TooLiveBrew]

Russ with a HR yesterday & another shot that was caught literally with the Red Sox's J.D. Drew's glove pressed against the very top of the RF wall at Safeco that would have (iirc) been a 2-R HR in what was then a 2-2 game in the late innings.

 

The flyout was a patented Branyan 'hit as high as it was far' shot

[giffted1]

Oh, how I miss him...

 

Branyan rewriting 'book'

[rluzinski]

Why even use DiFelice here? Complete waste of time.

[DougJones43]

Bump!

 

Branyan's line right now is .318/.420/.607/1.027 -- in 173 ab's.

 

Just for funsies, can anybody figure out how much that would have helped the Brewers (in wins) over the craptastic production we've actually gotten at 3B?

 

It still irks me quite a bit that Branyan could be on this team, and Gamel could be getting more work in at AAA.

[1992casey]

This method works much better for large samples and 1 win per 10 runs is a rounded off number, but here goes...

 

Branyan: .420 OBP x .607 SLG x 173 AB = 44.10462 runs

 

Brewer 3B: .326 OBP x .405 SLG x 205 AB = 27.06615 runs

 

44.10462 - 27.06615 = 17 runs or 1.7 wins

 

Give this some breathing room for the small sample and for more precise calculation being better, and you should have somewhat of an idea.

[logan82]

You can probably knock a little off for defense as well. Not much.

[Ennder]

Bump!

 

Branyan's line right now is .318/.420/.607/1.027 -- in 173 ab's.

 

Just for funsies, can anybody figure out how much that would have helped the Brewers (in wins) over the craptastic production we've actually gotten at 3B?

 

It still irks me quite a bit that Branyan could be on this team, and Gamel could be getting more work in at AAA.

It would hurt our production since it came at 1B. Branyans big flaw has always been his health, he just cannot stay healthy at 3B, there is no good reason to believe that he would have the same line as a fulltime 3B for the Brewers.

[pogokat]

Is The Manyan gonna be an all-star?

[1992casey]

That's a good point, Ennder. I actually answered the question, "what would happen if we replaced our 3B production with 173 ABs of Branyan?" That's fine, but it doesn't reflect "real life."

[brewdude15]

I sure would love seeing him at the All-Star game. I think every Brewer fan should include a vote for Russ when they're punching out holes in the ballot or choosing online.

[JoeHova]

There are so many good 1st basemen in each league. I'm worried that Russ and Prince will both be forced out. Hopefully they can each keep doing what they're doing though.

[DougJones43]

It would hurt our production since it came at 1B. Branyans big flaw has always been his health, he just cannot stay healthy at 3B, there is no good reason to believe that he would have the same line as a fulltime 3B for the Brewers.

Were his injuries usually the result of having to play 3B though? I don't really remember. I figured it could just as easily have been the result of swinging the bat.

[Ennder]

I think most of them were back related and in general 3B is not a position where players stay healthy, it is pretty demanding.

[1992casey]

This is simply an example, but Paul Molitor stayed a lot healthier once he stopped playing 3B. I don't think we could prove a cause and effect relationship, but I don't think it's totally coincidental either.

[Ennder]

I don't have a link to the stats but from a fantasy baseball standpoint baseball fantistics did a study on reliability of projections and health by position and it pretty much came up as the reverse of defensive spectrum. 1B and corner OF stay a lot healthier and maintain their production longer, it was a very pronounced difference. CF and 3B slide a good bit faster and then the MI and finally C.

 

It is basically why you shouldn't believe in positional scarcity in fantasy baseball because the more scarce the position the more likely they are to get injured or ineffective as well.

[BrewCrewForever]

Seeing Russell in the All-Star game would be quite sweet. He has a shot, but like someone else said a lot of good 1B in the AL just as there is in the NL. I will always remember when I got to meet "The Muscle" at Jeff's Sports last summer. A signed baseball by him to many not worth much, but to me it is one of my favorite autograph's and I would never trade or sell it.

[PeaveyFury]

Seeing Russell in the All-Star game would be quite sweet.

 

If only for the reason that he'd finally be able to put up an astounding show in the HR derby....

[DHonks]

It should be Russell, Dunn, Cust, Fielder, Howard, etc in the Derby anyways. It shouldn't matter if you're an allstar or not.

[BrewCrewForever]

Seeing Russell in the All-Star game would be quite sweet.

 

If only for the reason that he'd finally be able to put up an astounding show in the HR derby....

Oh man Peavey, I did not even think of that. And people thought Josh Hamilton put on a show last year, just think what Branyan could do.

 

I have goosebumps thinking about it.

[Invader3K]

They've had guys not on the All-Star team before in the derby, haven't they?

[PeaveyFury]

They've had guys not on the All-Star team before in the derby, haven't they?

 

I think only once- Howard was allowed in to defend his HR derby championship 2 years ago despite not being an All-Star. Don't think it's happened outside of that.

[Fatter than Joey]

If only for the reason that he'd finally be able to put up an astounding show in the HR derby....

 

I am pretty sure that no insurance company would cover this event.

[DougJones43]

Now, I'm totally envisioning a scenario where a bunch of non-Branyan players hit a bunch of crappy 450-foot homeruns in the derby. The crowd is all yawning, when suddenly a helicopter emerges from overhead and lands directly on home plate. Branyan steps out with his bat, having re-grown his mountain man beard. The world ends instantly.

[mothershipconnection]

My prediction: 37 home runs, a new record for most pitches laid off, and all 10 outs via swings and misses.

I really wish sometimes that they went with metal bars for the derby, as it'd be just crazy to see what those guys could do with aluminum. Branyan would leave 300 bodies in his wake.

[hawing]

From the Wikipedia page on Russell (bold added by me):

He's also regularly referred to as Russell "The Muscle" Branyan and is now also called the "West Coast Pujols".

Oh, that hurts. Someone needs to take that back.