17 games into the season, and a franchise-record-tying 3-HR game is cause for concern, eh? Tough room. A bit of stat cherry picking on my part, but still. Since the beginning of last year, Braun has only hit 12 homers in roughly half a season of at bats. For a guy who averaged roughly 35 homers a year at the beginning of his career, I believe that's cause for concern, especially considering his thumb and all the other issues of the past 12 months. Look around the league -- the current list of guys with a sub-.700 OPS in the NL includes Heyward, Wright, Granderson, Craig, Sandoval, Pence, Headley, & Hill. Braun's OPS is .797, even though he hasn't looked completely like his normal self yet. I'm not worried at this point.