Ryan Braun

And Ryan Braun’s a whiz with the bat—when he makes contact—but not such a great defender in left. Might you want to shift Nate McLouth, a reserve who normally plays in center, to right instead, since Nate’s OPS is 16 points higher even than slugger Braun?

Continue reading "Gimme A Break!"

I'm a Ryan Braun fan, and it's not hard to see why. He homered tonight for the fourth time in two games--two two-HR games in a row. Ever since he was brought up early last season, that's what he's done: hit the heck out of the ball. Doubles (he was second in the league last year with 13), home runs (his 34 last season put him in fifth place in the NL, and his 43 through the past two seasons is the fastest pace ever), both of these in spite of fewer than 500 ABs last year.

Continue reading "The Brawn of Braun"

r and should be very tough.  The Brewers have a stacked line-up with Prince Fielder, JJ Hardy, Ryan Braun and Mike Cameron.  If Rickie Weeks and Bill Hall can improve from last season this line-up will be downright scary.  The rotation looks to be solid but is also very young.  Gallardo and Villanueva are top young pitchers and need to continue to improve.  If Ben Sheets can stay healthy that would go along way to helping the rotation stay consistent.  The bullpen is pretty good also.  The Brewers brought in Eric Gagne to replace Fransico Cordero and I think Gagne should be much better than his two months in Boston last year.  Their bullpen is deep with Turnbow, David Riske, Torres and Shouse.  This may be the year the Brewers are ready to take that big leap and win a division crown.

Continue reading "Part II: NL Central"