In Search of Ryan Braun

By Chris in Baseball, Brewers on June 6, 2010 2:43 pm / 2 comments

It’s probably just me, but it seems like Brewers OF Ryan Braun has checked out. It’s not just that he looks more lost in left field than he usually does, but his stats over the last 24 games tell an alarming story: A mediocre.250 BA coupled with a limp.286 OBP mixed with an anemic.380 SLG for a totally indifferent OPS of .666. Not surprisingly, the team has gone 8-16 over that stretch.

I wonder about where Braun’s head is at. He has been on record complaining about the hitting conditions at Miller Park, not liking the batting backdrop and troubled by the shadows during day games. Interestingly, his numbers at home this year are very much like his overall numbers over the past 24 games–a .667 OPS (including a sub .300 OBP).

Braun is also on record bitching about the team’s pitching last year; to his credit, he clammed up about it after he got some blow-back from management and fans. But while he might be silent about the team’s woeful pitching this season, he is playing like that poor performance has sapped his energy.

So, has the Hebrew Hammer mailed it in? Is he letting frustrations about Miller Park and the team’s pitching staff rob his enthusiasm? I certainly hope not, as that would be a horrible character flaw. For now, I will chalk it up as a performance slump, perhaps caused by his sore knee. That would definitely help me feel better about his recent play. But it doesn’t keep me from wondering…

 

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2 Comments

  1. Miller Park Drunk says:
    June 6, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    He hasn’t mailed anything in. On May 10 he was hit by a pitch and missed the next two games because of it. Of the 25 game stretch you speak of 22 are since then. If you’re going to wonder, wonder if he’s been playing through an injury.

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  2. Chris says:
    June 7, 2010 at 4:58 pm

    I’ve always maintained that if a guy is so badly hurt that his production is several levels below his normal play, he does no favors to the team by taking the field.

    If Braun is hurt that badly that the best he can muster is a .666 OPS over nearly a month of play, he should have gone on the DL rather than dragging that sorry level of production out there in the three or four hole every day.

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