The stache

Hi Boomer5, I do feel encouraged about some of the guys we've taken in the last few years. I think Jake Gatewood and Monte Harrison could be big bats for us. Clint Coulter, too. Hell, if two of those became key players in the next generation of Brewers, I'd be thrilled. I'm hoping for all three. I feel good knowing that we have not one, but two really good shortstop prospects in the system with Arcia and Lara. I even like Yadiel Rivera's upside, too. While I think Arcia will hit, I wasn't sold on Rivera's bat. But thus far he's over .300 at AAA. I don't need power from the shortstop position. If you can get it, great. But I want a shortstop that makes that are of the infield a graveyard for opposing hitters, and a table setter for our big bats. We're not putting all our eggs in the Jean Segura basket, though, so that's a big plus. I still think Jean will be a really good player for us for a long time (I don't want him traded). But if he doesn't develop more consistency, we have options. Gatewood and Lara will probably man the infield corners. Our really young pitchers are encouraging, too. The problem with all these guys is that they're so young. I hate to say it, but baring a miracle, I think we're going to have a couple of lean years now. It's not going to get any better soon. But, I will look to the future, and cheer on the individual accomplishments of a few players. Wouldn't it be a kick in the teeth if Braun were traded right before passing Robin on the all-time home run list? I guess my way of looking at things is that Melvin has been here a long time now. He's had plenty of time to put everything the way he wanted it. He's got his guys in place. He's had a lot of drafts. And this is where we are with him. And while the memories of two playoff seasons are great, the other eleven years of disappointment cannot be brushed under the carpet. Two good years in thirteen, ad few other average seasons where there was no post season ball...and take our current position=it's time for him to go.

While we suffer through the worst record in Major League Baseball, I thought it would be fun to look at what some other recent Brewers that we let go are doing. (bold denotes leads league in category) Prince Fielder: .368 AVG, 70 hits, 10 home runs, 38 RBI, 1.008 OPS Nelson Cruz: .341 AVG, 18 HR, 38 RBI, .687 SLG, 1.082 OPS, 205 OPS +, 123 total bases Michael Brantley: .313 AVG, 17 doubles, 4 home runs, 28 RBI, 7/7 stolen bases, .901 OPS Lorenzo Cain: .293 AVG, 32 runs scored, 19 RBI, 8/10 SB. 2.8 WAR (was leading the AL in WAR as of two days ago). Nori Aoki: .322 AVG, 21 runs, 11/15 SB, .813 OPS Jake Odorizzi: 3-5, 2.31 ERA, 0.965 WHIP, 66 1/3 IP, 53 K, 0.3 HR/9 IP, 2.1 WAR Alcides Escobar: .281 AVG, 20 runs scored So those are the guys we've traded away. There are a few others who aren't doing so well this year, Brett Lawrie has been dinged up again (stop me if you've heard that one). Yovanni Gallardo hasn't been great. But for the most part, those recent ex-Brewers are flourishing. Big time. And, while it kills me to say it, I'm glad to see them thriving. I just wish they were doing it for the Brewers. Well, we let those great players go. So, who has Doug Melvin brought in? Adam Lind: .261 AVG, 7 HR, 19 RBI, .819 OPS. 0.7 WAR. Jonathan Broxton: 1-1, 7.27 ERA Kyle Lohse: 3-5, 5.80 ERA Matt Garza: 2-7, 6.00 ERA We couldn't keep Prince Fielder, who has been a .300 hitter since leaving Milwaukee (and yes, he did miss most of last year). But I think we all agree that year would have been forgivable based on everything else he's done. We didn't offer him enough money. We offered a lot, but for a player of his caliber, we didn't offer enough. Yet, Broxton, Lohse and Garza. What are they making? Broxton: $9 million for 2015 Lohse: $11 million for 2015 Garza: $12.5 million Hmm, we're paying $32.5 million this year for three guys who have combined for this line: 6-13, 6.08 ERA, 0 saves, 133.1 IP, 90 ER, 24 home runs, 115 K, 46 BB. 6 wins, 13 losses, an ERA over 6, and 24 home runs surrendered in 133 innings pitched. That's $32 and a half million dollars well spent. Now, I'm sure that the Reds are paying part of Broxton's salary, at least, I hope. Lind is the latest in a long line of replacements at first. He was great in April, hitting .333 with 4 home runs and 13 RBI. Since then? He's hit .187 with 3 home runs, and 6 RBI in May. He has a .360 SLG and a .659 OPS this month. There have been some other players. Gerardo Parra has played some great defense, and has hit .274 with a .742 OPS since coming to Milwaukee. About what we expected. (deep breath) I know that the Brewers hadn't even sniffed the playoffs in like a million years, and that was old. It was tiresome being the punchline of every baseball trivia joke. Yes, we squeaked into the playoffs because we rented CC Sabathia for a half season. Remember that briefest of appearances in 2008 while we watch Michael Brantley continue to make All Star teams year after year for the Indians. The last year and a half, he's been sensational. His averages per 162 games played since the start of the 2014 season? .325 AVG, 96 runs scored, 206 hits, 52 doubles, 20 home runs, 104 RBI, 25 stolen bases, 62 BB, 56 K, .387 OBP, .506 SLG, .893 OPS. And an 8.2 WAR. He's stolen 30 bases in 31 tries over that span. And Greinke (and Marcum) got us a few games from the World Series. Great memory. But if anybody can sit here and tell me that those memories, as great as they are, were worth where we are now, with the outlook we have, I'd say you're crazy. Cain is a star. He's never going to blow up the stat sheet, but he does so many things well. And he plays incredible defense. His WAR the last two years (well, almost year and a half) is 7.9. He had a 2.7 dWAR last year. This year, he's already up to a 1.5 dWAR. Brantley and Cain, in a year and a half, have combined for a 16.1 WAR. The problem is that we've been such a utter failure as a franchise for so long, any appearance in the playoffs suffices. Any positive memories as a franchise (not individual ones like Prince hitting 50, or Brauny winning the MVP) are so few and far between, when they happen, we treat them like we just won the lottery. We won 90 games in 2008, and the only reason we made the playoffs is that Sabathia put up a 5.2 WAR in a half season. He was 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA while here. He was the best player we had, and he was only here a half the year. Then we proceeded to lose 3-1 in the playoffs to the Phillies, and Sabathia was terrible in his start because we'd driven him into the ground during the regular season. Tell me, was that brief appearance worth losing Brantley? No way. If you say "yes", you're kidding yourself. Thank God the other guys we sent turned out to be such big nothings. If LaPorta, the key part of the trade, had developed into half the player people thought he was going to be.....yikes. Brantley was the player to be named later. I've see people praising the moves Melvin made, that his trades have been generally good. When you give up a lot to borrow a great player for a half season, or almost a year and a half, the short term success you have might make it seem like an even trade. But it's not. Selling out a team's future for short term gratification is not smart business sense, especially with how terrible the Brewer high draft picks have been between 2008 and 2013. There's nobody on the horizon that's going to get us out of this funk. The impact players, the ones I'm hopeful will actually become something, are two to three years out. Orlando Arcia might be ready next year, but as good as I think he can be, he's going to have to grow into his talent. He's not going to be a star from the get go, at least I don't think so. Defensively, yes, but he will have to develop with the bat. He's doing real well at AA, but the Majors are another animal. If the Brewers are going to clean house, and as we get closer and closer to mid season, I fear we are, we do NOT...I repeat do NOT need Doug Melvin to be here. Better to start completely over. Get a new GM. Get new scouts. Rebuild this franchise the way a small market team has to be built to be successful. We need pitching. We need players that can get on base in a variety of ways, because when our big bats go into a funk, we can't manufacture runs otherwise. We make far too many mistakes on the basepaths. We have mental lapses that should never happen at the top level. Defense. Pitching. Fundamentals. Draft a strong core of young players. Develop them. Augment with the occasional veteran. But stick to your plan. Don't trade away half of your top prospects for a one off chance at the playoffs. My fear, everybody...and it is one that is getting bigger and bigger in the rear view mirror, is that we're going to finish the season with the worst record in baseball. We're going to trade away the guys we do have that have real talent--Braun, Gomez and Lucroy, and we're not going to get equal value for them. And, the guys we do get, will be more of the same. Big time hitters without a natural defensive position. Because it's criminal what we've done to Ryan Braun. He will never be a great defender. But he was a pretty good defensive left fielder. He worked hard, and made himself at least Major League average. We moved him from from shortstop, where he played in college, to third base. Then, we moved him to left field. Then, we moved him to right field. Why did we move him to right? Because Khris Davis can only play left field. His arm is so weak, we can't put him anywhere else. So, a fairly good left fielder gets replaced by a below average left fielder, and in turn, we get a below average right fielder. No matter how good Carlos Gomez is, he can't cover the entire outfield by himself. Somebody please....talk me down. Please tell me that I'm overreacting, and that despite all this talent we've given away, we're going to turn this organization around. Mark Attanasio won't let this continue to go on much longer, will he? I need some reassurance in the worst way. I've tried to remain positive all year long, but the last week or two, it's just been harder. We've lost seven of our last eight. The new manager hasn't helped us at all. So, this has to spur our owner into action. It just has to. Cry. I love this team. I've been loyal to the Brewers for 37 years. But my patience is wearing thin.

Oh, I give Attanasio plenty of blame, too. Trust me. The way he's sat by with a worthless GM running this team into the ground, hemming and hawing. He takes a good deal of blame, too. He's opened up the wallet more than any other owner Milwaukee's had. That I give him credit for. But a lot of the signings are looking terrible now. Lohse is terrible this year, as is Garza. And Broxton? Really?

That's a lot of misinformation. There are reasons to dislike Melvin but his ability to make trades is not one of them. The only real mistake trades I can think of he's made have been late season relief pitcher trades, like the Broxton deal, or Linebrink deal, or Weathers deal. As for the draft it's usually the scouting director calling the shots. I'd blame Bruce Seid before I blame Melvin for poor drafts in recent memory. Why did we continue drafting hitting? Because it's pretty much BPA for the whole draft, that's how you approach a baseball draft. The little what if game you're playing can be done with every team in every sport and every draft, if only we'd have known exactly who to pick. Give me your predictions for this year's draft and lets see if they all turn out to be super stars. Doug Melvin has been an assistant GM for 30 years now. 5-6 (off the top of my head) in Baltimore as head of player development and Assistant General Manager. Since then, save for one year where he was in Boston between GM jobs in Texas and Milwaukee, he's been running the show. That's about three decades of assembling Major League teams. Yes, the scouts have major say in who a team drafts, but ultimately a GM buys the groceries. How many bonafide starting pitchers has Doug Melvin drafted in his time as a top executive at the Major League level? You can try to demur somewhat and place the blame on Seid and others, but the one constant in all those years in Baltimore, Texas and Milwaukee is those teams haven't won! And they haven't won because, in order to get quality pitching, they have had to overpay. I've said it before, and I've said it again. And I've done the research. Doug Melvin's teams have won one playoff series in thirty years as a Major League Baseball executive. One series!! One!!!!!! If a GM doesn't have post season success a decade onto the job, ok, well, some prospects might have panned out. Some might have been injured. Still some others might simply not have reached the Majors yet. Two decades in, you're pushing it. Three decades of completely inept baseball...that's a trend. And when teams don't win for thirty years, and those teams have had only ONE thing in common, that person in common has to receive a lion's share of the blame. Who do we fire next? The bullpen catchers? The guys selling cotton candy or ice cold beer? Because it seems that Melvin is pointing the finger at everybody else, but refuses to look in the mirror. And I saw the exact same thing happen when he was in Texas, because I live 15 minutes from the Ballpark in Arlington. I watched him draft power hitter after power hitter in Texas. They had Rafael Palmeiro, Ruben Sierra, Pete Incaviglia, Jose Canseco, Dean Palmer, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez. They could hit the snot out of the ball. But outside of Kevin Brown and a few others he inherited, I can't think of any really great pitchers that he drafted. Ol' Doug left Texas in 2001. Eight years later, about the amount of time it takes for a new GM to come in, change the direction of a team (trim the fat, make some trades, draft and develop a new waive of players), the Rangers are playing in back to back World Series. The Rangers never sniffed the Series while Doug was there. And we got close once since he's been here. Once in now thirteen seasons. Twice in thirteen years we'll make the playoffs. I'm sorry, but that's not acceptable. Not in the slightest. Meanwhile, Michael Brantley has become a stud in Cleveland. Two of the top three hitters in the American League, Prince Fielder and Nelson Cruz, were Brewers. I didn't blame Melvin for losing Fielder, for what he wanted to be paid. But we sure found the money to waste $9 mil a year on Broxton. How much did we spend on Garza? Then there's Lorenzo Cain, who leads the American League with a 2.8 WAR this far. He's sensational, playing spectacular defense, hitting .311 and on a pace for 30 stolen bases, 114 runs scored and almost 180 hits. Alcides Escobar turns one web gem after another at short. Jake Odorizzi is only 3-5, for Tampa Bay, but he's got a 2.31 ERA over 66 innings. Well, there's a good pitcher we drafted, at least, right? Peralta and Nelson will be good. Maybe after three decades Melvin has finally figured pitchers out. And I'm probably exaggerating some things because I'm sick of this team being inept. I'm sorry, one really great year, and another pretty good year where we squeaked into the playoffs because a Cy Young winner single handedly willed us into the playoffs...doesn't equate to a "great run" in thirteen years. Look where we are now. Worst team in the Majors, and while some of our lower level guys look promising, as of right now, we have the worst farm system in the Majors, too. If we had sold it all and actually won a Series or two, I could forgive our current position. But we weren't even a fart in the wind. One post season series win. That's what Doug Melvin has brought us. You can spin it, look at it from different angles, but that is what we have to show for 13 years of Dougie ball. We should hope to be so lucky to get to two Series 8 years after canning him. If Cruz catches one ball, the Rangers win it all. It's time to cut our losses, dump Doug Melvin, and find somebody who will preach baseball fundamentals. You can win some games when your guys can hit the ball out of the park. But when the bats go cold, as they often do, a team needs to be able to win with pitching, defense, and manufacturing runs. We can't do that. None of it. We have to throw away more runs on the base paths than any other team in the Majors. We have a few good defenders, but the rest are plodding, or have weak arms. And the other starters we have are just.... It's time to move on. Cut out this cancer, and give this franchise a new lease on life. PLEASE. For the love of God, enough already!

Oh, man. I missed on...Gary Sheffield. As in, "I missed his being here''....because as soon as he left Milwaukee, he chased the Triple Crown in San Diego. He was a horse's ----, but he could hit. Oh boy, could he hit.

I would say "when it rains, it pours", but I'm in the Dallas area where it's been raining for two months straight, and people have been losing their lives because of it. So, I'm not going to say that. But this is just another blow to a terrible season. We finally develop a pitcher, and now this. I hope it's only 4-6 weeks.

LOL, seriously? We're complaining about Brian now? LMAO! He's one of the best baseball announcers there is. As to his lack of enthusiasm....hello, we're 16-30. He's had to watch every game (well, almost every), and try to put a bow on this steaming pile of cow flop Doug Melvin has presented us with. Maybe he's just tired of seeing Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza serve up gopher ball after gopher ball. Maybe he's tired of seeing the complete lack of discipline on this team. Or, perhaps he's baffled by what I lovingly refer to as "a pee wee league grasp of baseball fundamentals". Of all the things we could be complaining about...Brian Anderson? Now I have truly seen it all. /face palm When he leaves, and he will, you're going to wish he were still here. No, wait. That's me. Anderson's calls are one of the few things that makes Brewers baseball enjoyable for me.

Nail on the head. Our general manager is completely incompetent. But our owner is clueless, and so we are stuck with him. (whispers)"Psst, Mark. Doug has been an assistant GM/General Manager for thirty years in the bigs, and he's won one more playoff series than I have. And I've never been in the Majors. Not even as a hot dog vendor. Perhaps he's.....I don't know....not the right guy for the job? What do you think, hmm?" The good news is we'll get an insanely high draft pick. The bad news is that we'll draft some guy who can hit the ball 500 feet, play in left field only, and has a .310 OBP...when he gets to Milwaukee in 5 years. Sigh. Somebody please shoot me. I don't know how much more of this I can take. What's Mark Attanasio's email? Pretty please. Somebody needs to get it, so he can get an idea of just how sick of this we all are. Because, clearly, he doesn't.

Brauny with career home run #240 tonight. He is now 11 home runs behind Robin Yount for the team's all-time lead. At this rate, he'll be passing Yount sometime in July. He has an outside chance at passing Cooper for third on the team's all-time runs scored list by season's end. He's 83 behind him. He should pass Geoff Jenkins for fourth on the all-time doubles list. Jenkins has 287, and Braun, with two last night, has 272. He's one triple behind Jim Gantner for fourth, and 5 behind Charlie Moore for third at 42.

Ryan Braun over the last 14 games has been sensational. He's hitting .362 (17 for 47), 13 runs scored, 5 doubles, 6 home runs, 20 RBI, 2 stolen bases, 9 BB and 10 Ks. His slash line? .448 OBP/.851 SLG/1.299 OPS! He's playing like an MVP again. This is the best he's looked since 2012.

There. Fixed that for you.

Here's a noble idea. Maybe try Jeffress out as the setup guy? His stuff is pretty nasty, and he can't be worse than Broxton. But I know. In Milwaukee, we have a setup guy, and a closer. And we don't ever ever ever deviate from that course. Perhaps that inability to make changes until it's beyond too late explains why our franchise has never won the World Series. How many more years of my life will be wasted by Doug Melvin's incompetence?

None. I could have been up there, and would have at least drawn a walk. Enough is enough. Get us a real General Manager, Mark. I'm tired of Doug Melvin's worthless bleep.

Thanks, Broxton. Another great move by Doug Melvin. "Paging Mark A. Paging Mark A. "The problem" is still in Milwaukee. "The Problem" is STILL in Milwaukee."

Braun with a home run and two walks tonight. I love how he's drawing more walks. Let's win this, Brewers, and take the sweep! Tied 2-2, we can do this!

Well, then, why not just assume that Derek Jeter did PEDs, too. He not only "had a relationship" with Rodriguez, but he played alongside him every day for 11 of the past 12 years. Or, is Jeter too squeaky clean? And how do you know that he Miami team was "so drugged up, it was unbelievable?" Were you there in the locker room, testing them day in, day out? Or, perhaps are you guilty of a little hyperbole? I'm sorry, but the whole "Balco was right down the street from U of M" is analogous to saying "every teenager in this project is a block away from a guy selling dope on the street corner, therefore all the kids are doing drugs." Is mere proximity to illegal activity now a sure fire sign of guilt? Well hell, let's just tell the cops to haul everybody living in a neighborhood with drugs into jail. And anybody who played football, or baseball, for Miami while Balco's doors were open. If Major League Baseball wasn't doing a bang up job of testing Braun before 2011, they sure locked down on him in 2012. You better believe that every time Braun turned around, he was being tested. Did they find any signs of a banned substance in his blood in 2012? Nope. Yet he had another MVP caliber season. What could one infer from that? Well, for one, Ryan Braun, who we all agree is a spectacular hitter (and naturally gifted) is able to perform at the highest level as a Major League Baseball player without taking anything illegal. If this is true, why, then, would he take a PED in 2011 when he could perform at the highest level without them? For that fun, added possibility of being busted? Why would he ever take a PED? Baseball is a long season. A hell of a long season. If we are to assume that Ryan Braun has been taking PEDs since coming to the Majors in 2007, then we must, also, assume that for five years of his pro career, he was able to properly mask those drugs without incident. Yet when it came to the post season of 2011, what, he suddenly screwed up? Or, he thought that they wouldn't test in the post season? I'm sure he was tested in 2008 when the Brewers were, too, in the playoffs. It doesn't add up logically. Braun by the 2011 post season, if he had been taking all along, would have by then been one of the best drug maskers in the known world. I have a hard time believing that day in, day out for five years (plus the time he spent in the minors) he did this bang up job of masking his piss, and then suddenly, one day in the fall of 2011, he dropped the ball. Really? I find it much easier to accept, from the perspective of logic, that he used the one time in the 2011 post season (or a few times towards the end of the 2011 season leading into the post season), and then goofed somewhere along the way, and then got busted. Isn't it easier to assume that somebody new to masking drugs is more likely to get caught than somebody who's been doing it for five years...or more? I've been taking testosterone for the last two years now. Doctor's orders. Once a week, I stick myself with a needle. The first couple of times I did it, I had questions. I might have goofed something up. I may have forgotten to use alcohol to swab my leg, or the vial top. Maybe I squeezed the flesh of my leg, or my abdomen, incorrectly. But after two years of doing it, I've got the procedure down cold. I could do it in my sleep. Walk into the bathroom, close the door. Pull the T vial out of the box. Pull a needle out of the bag. Pull an alcohol pad out of the box. Wash my hands. Pull the needle out of the sterile wrapper. Pull the wipe out, clean off the top of the vial, then my leg. Stick the needle in, draw the medicine out. Stick my leg (or whichever site I've rotated to). Etc etc etc. I've done it enough times where I don't have to think about it. The likelihood of my forgetting something important are next to nil. But when I first started out, I forgot things all the time. I had to think every step through. Who is more likely to get busted for PEDs? The guy that's been doing it for years, has an "agent" advising him, buying the stuff for him, and telling him what to do, or...somebody who's relatively new to the whole thing? It's just more fun for some people to think "oh sure, Braun's a scum bag. He's a liar. A cheat. He kicks puppies, and squeezes the gums of newborn babies. He's just an evil, evil human being, and his being busted is just the tip of the iceberg. He went to Miami University, and there were drugs down the street! Why, he's been using since college. Hell, he's probably responsible for the people in charge at Coca Cola switching to that new formula, too. Bah!" It's always more fun for some people to assume the worst. Maybe thinking Braun is this terrible human being makes you feel better about yourself, T Plush. I don't know. All I know is that you cross the line from somebody who hates him, to somebody who hates him, and seemingly takes great satisfaction from reminding people time and time again just how much you hate him. To me...that is pathological. Braun lied, and he got busted. Lots of people lie. It sucks. But at some point, now that you've established this level of vitriol you have for Braun, maybe, I don't know, give it a rest for a bit? You can hate him all you want. You can have your little Ryan Braun dartboard, and throw for his eyes for all I care.

Because, if he's standing off the plate, and teams pitch him inside, it's a ball, and he can just take it. I'm not so concerned about where the pitches are flying out of the park. They're flying out of the park. At bats per home run: 2007 451 AB 34 HR 13.26 AB/HR 2008 611 AB 37 HR 16.51 AB/HR 2009 635 AB 32 HR 19.84 AB/HR 2010 619 AB 25 HR 24.76 AB/HR 2011 563 AB 33 HR 17.06 AB/HR 2012 598 AB 41 HR 14.59 AB/HR 2013 225 AB 09 HR 25.00 AB/HR 2014 530 AB 19 HR 27.90 AB/HR 2015 135 AB 09 HR 15.00 AB/HR Right now, Ryan Braun has the third highest home run frequency of his career. But, where is he hitting them? I think this is interesting. I looked at five of his seasons. His rookie year of 2007, his MVP season of 2011, his 2012 season where he was MVP runner up, his 2014 season where he was injured, and this season. 2007: 34 home runs left: 16 home runs left-center: 8 home runs center: 4 home runs right-center: 2 home runs right: 4 home runs 2011: 33 home runs. National League MVP left: 4 home runs left-center: 13 home runs center: 4 home runs right-center: 7 home runs right: 5 home runs 2012: 41 home runs. National League MVP runner-up left: 11 home runs left-center: 8 home runs center: 10 home runs right-center: 7 home runs right: 5 home runs 2014: 19 home runs left: 6 home runs left-center: 3 home runs center: 2 home runs right-center: 4 home runs right: 4 home runs 2015: 9 home runs through May 19th left: 1 home run left-center: 1 home run center: 2 home runs right-center: 1 home run right: 4 home runs Now, what this means long term remains to be seen. But here's what this analysis shows. As a rookie in 2007, Ryan Braun hit a whopping 70.6% of his home runs to either left field, or left-center field. Only 17.6% of his home runs went to right-center or right field. In 2011 and 2012, his two best seasons overall, he combined to hit 74 home runs. Of those, 15 went to left field, 21 went to left-center, 14 went to center field, 14 went to right-center field, and 10 went to right field. This means that 48.6% of his home runs went to left field, or left-center field, down from 70.6% as a rookie. 32.4% of his home runs went to right-center field, or right field, up from only 17.6% in his rookie season. In 2014, Braun's spray chart was the most balanced of his career. He only hit 19 home runs, but 9 went to either left field or left-center, and 8 went to either right field, or right-center. Now, compare where he's hitting them in 2015. Of his nine home runs thus far, 2 have been to left field or left-center. That's 22.2%. 5 of his 9 home runs have gone to right, or right-center, 55.6%. What does all this mean yet? I don't know. Though he didn't hit a lot of home runs last year, it's clear that those 19 were getting hit to all different parts of the ball park, and unlike his rookie season, where 7 of every 10 home runs was going to left or left-center field, Ryan Braun has clearly learned to use the entire field. And, that has made him a much more complete offensive threat. I'm not ready to declare that Braun is now an opposite field home run hitter. You can't make a statement based off of 9 home runs. Point in case. In 2012, when he hit a career high 41 home runs, of his first 9 home runs, only one went to right or right-center field. All the others went to center field (2), left-center (3), or left (3). Of his last 32 home runs, 12, or 37.5%, went to right-center or right field. Here's one more thing to consider, unrelated to Braun's home run chart. His BAbip is only .272. His career BAbip is .335. He's had some terrible luck with the balls he's put into play. We know he's hitting the ball hard. Simple math tells us that some of these balls coming off of Ryan Braun's bat, that have been outs until now, are going to start falling for extra bases. That means his average is going to rise. His doubles and triples are going to rise. His ISO and his WAR is going to rise. Ryan Braun has been unlucky thus far. He's starting to turn that around. It's too early to declare Braun is back yet, but these last twenty games, which are more than just a small sample, are a great indication of where a player is going.

Yes, the majority of the contracts paid to baseball players are for their on the field value, and if you don't believe that, you're even more foolish than I first believed. Yes, the other stuff--marketability/likability--that certainly comes into it, too. The face of the franchise, whoever that may be, helps to sell tickets. Public relations is a big part of any sport. But you know what the ultimate ticket seller is? Winning. You can have Captain America starting in right field. He can look like Brad Pitt, bang supermodels as often as we change socks. His teeth can be perfect. He might even get walk on roles in Hollywood films. Gosh, he can be the most likable guy in America. He can sell us Fruit of the Loom underwear, tell us to wash down our Popeyes Chicken with a nice, cold Coca Cola while kicking our feet up to watch the big game on our Sony televisions. All that is fine and good. But, if he's hitting .230 with 5 home runs, and the team is 20 games below .500, nobody is going to give two spits about how likable he is. Winning puts butts in the seats. There are towns where people just love their teams, like Green Bay, and the games sell out regardless of how the team is doing. The Packers sold out even when the Lombardi days were a distant memory, and long before Brett Favre, Reggie White, Mike Holmgren and Ron Wolf ever descended on Titletown. But the Packers are the exception to the rule. Winning is the cure all. You can have a team that dresses like slobs, their uniforms dirty, their manners lacking. If they win, you call them "the Gashouse Gang", and call them eccentric. The Brewers didn't pay Ryan Braun all that money because they thought he was a swell guy. They paid him that money because he was an MVP candidate that hit the baseball into the seats with startling frequency. They did it because finding comparable talent at that dollar figure was an impossibility. Sure, the other stuff was a plus, and I'm sure they had a lot of Ryan Braun bobblehead days planned that had to be scrapped. But if Braun keeps hitting the ball out of the park, then I guarantee you that Mark Attanasio won't feel one bit upset that he signed that guy to the amount of contract he did. Now, the rest of the team might suck, but Braun hitting home runs will still put butts in the seat. Hell, if he hits 25 more home runs this year, people will buy tickets just so they can come out to the ballpark and boo him. The end result is the same. The team makes money.

Being towards "the back of the top 100 list" in America isn't elite? Wow. That's news to me. Do you have any idea how many kids play high school baseball across America? If you're listed as one of the top 100 baseball players in the country as a high school player, guess what: you're elite. Braun attended Granada Hills High School in Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California. He was a four-year letterman on the school's baseball team, and three-year team captain and Most Valuable Player (MVP). He played shortstop, and pitched through his junior year. As a sophomore in 2000, he recorded the highest batting average of his prep career (.456), while posting a .654 on-base percentage (OBP). During his junior year, he hit .421, with a .668 OBP. Braun capped off his high school career by batting .451 as a senior, with an OBP of .675, and breaking the school record for career home runs with 25.[3] He was a two-time all-area selection by the Los Angeles Times, and a three-time choice by the Los Angeles Daily News. As a senior, Braun was rated the sixth-best shortstop prospect in the country by Team One Baseball, and among the top 100 overall prospects by Baseball America.[4] He graduated in 2002, but went undrafted as he told teams that he intended to attend college. Sixth-best shortstop prospect in the entire country coming out of high school. He was an elite prospect before he ever got to Miami. Yes, he's been a baseball superstar his entire life. Or, would you like me to go find some articles about Braun in Pee Wee baseball, too, Mr. T Plush? Have we become this cynical in our society where a guy uses something he shouldn't have to heal an injury, and immediately we assume that he's used his entire career? Is it possible? Yes, absolutely. Is it likely that Braun has been using since college, throughout the minors, and five years in the Majors, and yet nobody has seen him doing something he shouldn't have, or spotted a shady character, or overheard something said that would indicate Braun as a steroid user? There's a reason why there weren't any rumblings about Braun prior to 2011. This guy had one of the best starts of any hitter in the history of Major league Baseball. He had the highest slugging percentage of any rookie in the history of the game. Higher than Ted Williams, or Jimmie Foxx, higher than DiMaggio, or Gehrig, higher than Pujols, or Bonds, or Mays, or Aaron. The guy has been hitting ever since he stepped onto the field. Get this through your heads, people. Ryan Braun is a special baseball player. Ok, he's only average defensively, though a few times he's been a finalist for the Gold Glove. That means he was one of the best two or three at his position defensively in the League, where there are some 15-20 players that get substantial playing time at the position. No, he's never going to get mistaken for Al Kaline or Roberto Clemente in right field. And yes, he's been nominated at positions that weren't nearly as demanding as shortstop, or third base, catcher, or second base. Ok, he makes a few mistakes from time to time. Yes, he doesn't always take the greatest path to the ball. But he hits 35-40 home runs when he's healthy. He's been an MVP, an MVP runner up (AFTER testing positive, and being watched under a microscope by MLB, mind you), and a third place finisher in the MVP. And occasionally, he makes spectacular plays in the outfield. I see them. Funny, Ted Williams was the greatest hitter in the game's history, yet he was a surprisingly average fielder. He was disinterested. He's stand in the field working on his swing. Yet nobody ever harps on his defense when the all-time greats are discussed. Braun has had one bad season...ONE...in a Major League career that started back in 2007 (hmm, meaning he's in his ninth season in the Majors), and people immediately dismiss everything he's done because he used an illegal drug to try and heal a nagging injury for the Brewers once in a decade playoff push. The guy is one of the greatest hitters of this generation. Average fielder, or slightly below average fielder, meh. Amazing to me how much people want to diss this guy. He's been the best player we've had in the last thirty years. He took less money to stay here. He's started businesses in Milwaukee. So, he's not perfect. Guess what? Baseball players aren't trying out for the priesthood. They're professional athletes. And when there are other athletes killing people, or beating their girlfriends, or raping women at dance clubs, lying about taking a drug that was meant to get him back to normal health, and nothing more, while bad, doesn't even compare with some of the horrible crap I've seen other athletes do. I'm not excusing it by any means. It angered me that he cheated. But a little perspective. You people that are still delighting in every opportunity to bash this guy, or put him down--get over yourselves! I think some of you people are really negative, cynical human beings STILL looking to pile on a guy that has had everything he's done for the last three years plus scrutinized. He's paid his dues, and then some. "Well, he's had a micro hot-streak". No, he hasn't! He destroyed the ball in spring training. When this season started, he crashed into a wall on opening day, and got dinged up a little. It happens. And, he was facing the best pitchers in the game while healing up. And trying to work on his swing mechanics. He's been pretty freaking spectacular since April 28th. That's over 3 weeks where he's been crushing the ball. That's 20 games. That's 1/8th of the season. The last twenty games, the Brewers are 11-9. Over .500. And Braun? .288 AVG (21 for 73), 18 runs scored, 3 doubles, 8 home runs, 23 RBI, 10 walks, 16 strikeouts, 3/3 steals, 48 bases. His slash line is .374 OBP, .658 SLG, 1.032 OPS. Ryan Braun has been spectacular for a pretty good chunk of the season. Now, he's going to cool down in the power department. But maybe his batting average climbs some, too. All things considered, he's playing pretty darned well. He's the best power hitter we have...by far. Can't we forego the "well, he's hitting home runs again, so he must just have a better supplier" BS, and see what happens? Please?

Whoa, wait a second. LOL, I'm as big a Yount fan as there is. But calling Yount a "Gold Glove guy" is a little ridiculous. He won ONE Gold Glove in a 20 year career. Braun was the Gold Glove runner up just a few years ago. For all the dissing you're doing of Braun, he was a few votes from having just as many Gold Gloves as Yount did in two decades of baseball. By the way, the "1-2 WAR guy" went 2-4 with a double, a 3 run home run and 4 RBI tonight. Must be a hell of a "micro streak" he's on, as he's on a pace for 36 home runs and 109 RBI. He's currently 7th in the NL in home runs, and 6th in RBI one-quarter of the way into the season. Must be on hell of a supplier, huh?

Nice to see two home runs, one to deep left field, and one to the opposite field, from Braunie. This is the best he's looked in a while. In the last 17 games, he's hitting .283, has scored 17 runs, hit 2 doubles and 7 home runs, 17 RBI, 3 stolen bases. His slash line is .377/.667/1.044. Those are MVP numbers. Also, a really nice effort from Lohse. I'd love to see some more consistency from this team. But our best player is playing like he did for the first six years of his career, and I am very happy!

I think that a lot of people started worrying that Braun wasn't going to be the same player he once was, and that we'd be saddled with a huge contract for a good long time. As a Braun fan, I have no problem with the discussion. I also have no problem pointing out--again--that his drop in production was due to an injury to his thumb. Now that the thumb is better, what is he doing? Well, for the season, he's on a pace for 36 home runs and 95 RBI. But... Since his day off on April 26th? 17 games played. 17 for 60 (.283 AVG), 17 runs scored, 2 doubles, 7 home runs, 17 RBI, 3 SB, 17 K and 9 BB. A triple slash line of .377/.667/1.044 Braun has a 1.044 OPS the last 17 games. I'd say he's back to his normal self, wouldn't you all?

Just some idiot trying too hard to diss Braun. Instead he should be talking about the bombs coming off Braunie's bat lately.

Agreed. I think it's understandable, though, given how terrible our season has started out, that Brewer fans are looking for signs of better things to come. A few good games from Braun, where he's showing more patience, and Brewer fans are hoping it's the influence of the new manager, and that these positive steps will continue. That's how I'm looking at it, anyway.

Love it! Brewers win! Hello, win column!!