With the American League Championship Series under way and the National League’s edition starting up next week, some of the best-hitting teams in the league are squaring off against each other.
So I thought I’d look at ten players who are likely to make an impact on the batting side of things.
Three things are looked at in this: traditional performance, 2011 Regular Season performance, and 2011 Division Series performance.
The short answer to the question posed in the headline is very simple: Because he plays in Milwaukee.
So why write an entire opinion piece on the subject? Because Ryan Braun should be a superstar.
Ryan Braun does everything you want a superstar to do. Does he hit for average? .312 career, .332 this season. Does he hit for power? More than 30 homers a season every year except 2010, when he hit 25. His career OPS is .933; did you just read that? .933!
Do you know who has a lower career OPS than Braun? Jason Giambi, Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado, Mike Piazza, Ken Griffey Jr., Joe Mauer and even his more-famous teammate Prince Fielder.
But Fernando, you might say, I don’t like your old school “Joe Morgan” stats. What’s his WAR?
In 2011: a preposterous 7.8 WAR. He’s averaged five WAR in his career. The kid is freaking good.
So why isn’t he on the cover of any baseball video games? Why doesn’t he have a lucrative paper towel endorsement? Come on, the Braun-y paper towel guy? This stuff writes itself.
He’s even got a cool nickname (according to Wikipedia): The Hebrew Hammer. Fear his mighty hammer, and his, er, Judaism? Anyway, awesome nickname!
Braun also isn’t the Darryl Strawberry type. He doesn’t get into any trouble, no drug problems, or DUIs or arrests (that we know of). He’s got those wholesome good looks, and he appears to be a nice guy; in April, a female fan made a marriage proposal to Braun via a stadium sign, even including her phone number. Even though Braun has a girlfriend, he called the number and tried to leave a voicemail, but the mailbox was full.
What more do you want from him?!
The East Coast bias in sports coverage is obvious to everyone who lives west of the Mississippi. ESPN refuses to acknowledge any team outside the East Coast (except for the Dallas Cowboys), so our sports knowledge suffers. Can you even name three players on the Indiana Pacers? I know they have Danny Granger, and…um…I’ll get back to you on that.
If Braun played for the Red Sox or Yankees, you’d be sick and tired of him. You’d hear his name 10 times a day, every day, and Buster Olney or Ken Rosenthal would be writing sonnets professing their love for the mighty Braun.
Instead, Braun’s not even the most famous guy on his own team. Instead it’s Fielder and his enormous waistline that get all the publicity.
In fact, the only people who seem to give Braun any attention are the employees in Milwaukee’s front office—because he got paid.
Milwaukee was facing a tough decision a few years ago: You have two offensive monsters (Braun and Fielder), both in their 20s, but you can’t possibly afford them both. So who do you choose? You choose the Hebrew Hammer.
So first the Brewers signed Braun to a $45 million extension in 2008. Then they saw that Braun continued to hit a baseball really, really far, and now he’s signed through 2020 for about $145 million. That will buy you a lot of beer and brats.
Milwaukee clearly understands the kind of superstar it has on the roster—so why don’t you, America?
Fernando Gallo promises he is not a publicist for Ryan Braun. Find more foolish analysis, along with the occasional witty comment, on his 
feed.
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The 2011 Major League Baseball season is nearing an end, yet it’s anyone’s guess as to who will win the National League Most Valuable Player Award.
While Justin Upton was the hot name on the block as recently as two weeks ago, his name has slowly faded from discussion for the prestigious award. The same goes for St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols, who may have had a case if the Cards were able to magically secure a playoff spot. With two late-game losses the last two nights, both the Cards and Pujols have fallen out of the race.
When it’s all said and done, the National League MVP has turned into a race of only two horses, both of whom have their teams heading in different directions come October.
Matt Kemp has put together a season for the ages and now sits only .003 batting average points from the Triple Crown. That would be an amazing feat, but does it make him MVP?
This is the tricky part of the MVP equation. Many people these days seem to forget the difference between a player being “valuable” and a player being “outstanding.” If there were a Most Outstanding Player Award for the player who has the best statistical season, there is no doubt Kemp’s name would be inscribed on the plaque.
The issue here, however, is that there are rare cases—with this being one of them—that the best player of the season isn’t necessarily the most valuable.
Kemp has the Los Angeles Dodgers at 79-77 and in third place in the NL West. Fans will make the argument that without Kemp, the team would surely be in last place. I agree with that notion 100 percent, but you’re talking about two cases where his team wouldn’t even sniff October!
If being the Most Valuable Player means bringing your team from last place to third place, then we might as well throw out the award altogether. The luster behind the award and the true meaning of it appear to be all but gone.
I would sympathize with people who claim Kemp to be MVP if there were no other viable candidates around the league, but in no way is that the case.
Ryan Braun proved just how valuable he is to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday evening, hitting a mammoth three-run homer to center field in the eighth inning, breaking a 1-1 tie and ultimately giving the team its first division title since 1982.
Both Kemp and Braun are the only two NL players in the 30-30 club this season, with both players leading the league in pretty much every statistical category. They both have more than 30 doubles, 100 runs and 100 RBI, yet Kemp has played in 11 more games than Braun this season.
The most glaring and obvious factor, however, is the fact that Braun’s team has 92 wins—compared to the 77 of Kemp’s Dodgers—accompanied by a divisional crown and a trip to the playoffs.
While Kemp has been minimally better statistically this season, where Braun has led the Brewers should trump those margins by a mile.
Jeffrey Beckmann is a MLB Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Jeffrey on his new Twitter account for all of his latest work. You can also hear him each Friday at 1 p.m. EST on B/R Baseball Roundtable.
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Corey Hart doubled with one out in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game. Nyjer Morgan walked, bringing up the Hebrew Hammer, Ryan Braun.
After fouling off Clay Hensley’s first pitch, Braun took three-consecutive pitches out of the strike zone. The Marlins Hensley had to come in with a strike. Braun hit a home run that clinched the Central Division title for the Milwaukee Brewers.
A light mist was falling over Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, helping to cause premature darkness and gloominess.
Hub Walker led off the Detroit Tigers half of the ninth inning with a pinch-hit single to center field. Skeeter Webb laid down a bunt toward first base. St. Louis Browns’ first baseman George McQuinn’s throw to second was ruled late, putting Tigers on first and second with no outs. The Browns protests were to no avail.
Eddie Mayo sacrificed the runners over, bringing up Roger Cramer. Browns’ manager Luke Sewell decided to intentionally walk Cramer to set up a potential inning ending double play.
Hank Greenberg rubbed his bat with a piece of bone to smooth it out. He stepped into the batter’s box, took a ball from Nels Potter and then hit the next pitch, a screwball from a right-handed pitcher, deep down the left field line. It was fair and the Tigers had a three-run lead.
Greenberg’s hit gave the Tigers the 1945 pennant.
Ryan Braun hit a historic home run that clinched the division, but its significance pales next to Greenberg’s.
The Brewers had a comfortable six game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals with six games left for each team.
The Tigers led the Washington Senators by one game, two in the lost column, entering the last day of the season. The Tigers were scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Browns. The Senators had completed their season the previous day.
Greenberg’s home run came in the first game of a doubleheader to win the pennant. The second game of the twin bill was rained out and never played.
Greenberg had joined the Tigers in July after missing almost four seasons.The home run was his 30th of the season.
After only 19 games in 1941, Greenberg was drafted into the Army Air Corps. He told a reporter for Life Magazine that he didn’t consider being drafted a sacrifice.
“I never asked for a deferment. I made up my mind to go when I was called. My country comes first.”
Three months later, Congress ruled that men over 28-year of age were exempt from military service. On Dec. 5, 1941, Greenberg, who was 30-years-old, was discharged.
On Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Greenberg enlisted.
Ryan Braun is a great player. He has almost unlimited potential and if he remains healthy, he is a certain Hall of Famer. He was the Rookie of the Year, has been an All-Star four times in five seasons, has three Silver Slugger Awards and already has 160 career home runs.
All Americans, not only those who are Jewish, can be proud of Ryan Braun and Hank Greenberg.
Reference:
Tigers annex flag on four-run homer. (1945, Oct 01). New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/107100811?accountid=46260
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Ryan Braun is this year’s NL MVP.
Other players might be in the discussion, namely Matt Kemp, Prince Fielder, Joey Votto, Albert Pujols and Justin Upton, but at the end of the season Braun should be adding to a trophy case that already contains Rookie of the Year and three Silver Sluggers.
Braun, who is hitting .332, trails NL Leader Jose Reyes by just one point.
He leads the National League in On-Base plus Slugging percentage (OPS), baseball’s best measure of offensive output, at .987. He’s one of just three plays in the senior circuit with at least a .400 On-Base and .550 Slugging Percentage (Kemp is just outside with a .399 OBP). Only Votto (.985) is within 20 points of Braun.
Braun has put together such an incredible OPS through a balanced offensive attack. A patient slugger, he’s walked enough that his On-Base is 70 points over his impressive batting average. He has 25 homers, 35 doubles and five triples, giving him 65 extra-base hits already – more than any of his potential MVP counterparts except for Upton (68).
Currently leading the league in runs with 93 and sitting fifth in RBI at 91, Braun should easily eclipse the century mark in both fields before season’s end.
Among this group, Pujols’s 51 strikeouts are the only total less than Braun’s 79. Fielder (88) is the only other player under 100.
Of potential MVP candidates, Braun’s 31 steals trail only Kemp’s 37. Braun, however, is a more efficient stealer than Kemp, stealing bags at an 86% success rate compared to Kemp’s 82%. In fact, Braun’s rate is better than anyone in the top 10 in stolen bases except for Cameron Maybin, whose 32-for-37 barely bests Braun’s 31-for-36.
Braun is also the best hitter, and No. 3 batter for a Brewers club that has opened up an impressive 8.5 game lead in the NL Central. The magic number to clinch their first division crown since 1982, when they were in the American League, is 16. So with 23 games remaining and 24 for the division rival St. Louis Cardinals, any combination of 16 Milwaukee wins plus St. Louis losses will earn them a trip to the playoffs. If the Braun-led Brew Crew plays just one game under .500 the rest of the way, St. Louis would have to go 19-4 just to force a tie.
The other players have all had tremendous seasons of their own, and each deserves some consideration, but ultimately none stack up to the season Braun has put together.
Several teams have very good players in their three, four and five holes in the batting order. However I don’t think any are as good as the St. Louis Cardinals this season. Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman are as good as it gets.
As I write this article, Holliday is the National League’s leading hitter, and Berkman is in second place, both batting over .400.
In OBP, Holliday is in first place and Berkman in third.
Pujols is perhaps the best player in MLB, having won three MVP awards (and being runner up in four more), and averages .330/.424/42/128 per 162 games for his career.
The Milwaukee Brewers have great third and fourth hitters, in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder but Casey McGehee is not on the same plane as Berkman.
Since Braun moved from third base to left field, he has become one of the best rounded hitters in the game today. Entering his fifth MLB season, he is averaging .309/.368/37/118. He led the NL in hits in 2009 with 203.
Prince Fielder, who joined his father Cecil in the 50 HR club in 2007 with 50 round-trippers, has averaged 37 HR and 105 RBI over his six years in the major leagues.
The New York Yankees, who should have the best team money can buy, can’t match the trio that the Cardinals put on the field, even with the 10th player.
Robinson Cano who is undoubtedly the best second baseman in the junior circuit, had a career year in 2010, finishing third in MVP voting.
His two high-profile teammates that should be mentioned in a list such as this are third baseman Alex Rodriguez and first baseman Mark Teixeira.
Rodriguez, a three-time MVP winner, is currently sixth on the career HR list with 618. Since coming to the Bronx in 2004, he is averaging 43 HR and 134 RBI. These stats are actually a shade above his career numbers meaning he has had no noticeable decline in his productivity.
The only time Teixeira has had fewer than 30 HR or 100 RBI was his rookie year of 2003 with the Texas Rangers. He led the AL in HR, RBI and TB in 2009.
The only other team that I believe has a comparable 3-4-5 hitting combo is the Boston Red Sox. Adrian Gonzalez (acquired this offseason from San Diego), Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz are clearly a fearful sight to opposing pitchers.
The durable first baseman Gonzalez has averaged 161 games over the past three seasons. During that period he has averaged 36 HR and 108 RBI.
“Big Papi” Ortiz has the power and run productivity of the others, but his .281 career average is sub-par in comparison.
Third baseman Kevin Youkilis, who has played a lot of first base for the Bosox, is not the offensive threat as others mentioned in this article, but is a menacing threat to pitchers.
Can any team in MLB match the power and batting prowess of the St. Louis edition of “Murderer’s Row”? Not in my opinion.
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Heard This Blog ranked the top five Jewish current baseball players
The Milwaukee Brewers enter the 2011 season with high hopes and expectations of contending in the National League Central.
The Brewers have gone all in this year. They held onto first baseman Prince Fielder, who will be a free agent after the season, and made a splash with offseason acquisitions such as Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum and Takashi Saito.
Fans can count on some things from the Brewers in 2011. Fielder, Ryan Braun, and Corey Hart will provide steady offensive production. The catcher position will once again be the weakest link in an otherwise potent offense. The sausage races will continue to be a popular attraction at Miller Park.
However, several key factors will determine the fate of the Brewers’ season. Read on to find out what needs to happen for the Brewers to make a deep postseason run.
With the news today that Zack Greinke will miss the first couple weeks of the 2011 season due to a broken rib, it has become even more imperative for the Milwaukee Brewers to be a great offensive ballclub.
They have the talent to score a ton of runs, and Ryan Braun will be a key figure for them to do so. Like his teammate Prince Fielder, Braun is coming off a subpar year in 2010. He hit .304 with 25 home runs and 103 RBI last year. Though those are good numbers, they are a significant decline compared to the numbers he posted during the first three years of his career.
Over his first three seasons, Braun hit .308 and averaged 31 home runs and 106 RBI. Most notably, his slugging percentage never dipped below .550. Last year, he slugged just .501—still a good number—but down over 130 points since his rookie campaign in 2007. Along with the decline in power, he has yet to gain a great deal of plate discipline, having never accumulated more than 57 walks in any single year.
In addition to the low number of walks, he has struck out at least 105 times every season. To his credit, that career-low of 105 strikeouts came last season, so there could be hope for him to become a more patient hitter. Hitting in front of Fielder should continue to give Braun ample opportunities to get good pitches to hit.
He just needs to accept the fact that a walk can be just as valuable as a hit with the power-hitting first baseman behind him.
At the end of last season, Braun was worn down physically, and his weight dropped to around 196 pounds. To combat that, he put on a solid 10-plus pounds of muscle in the offseason and reported to camp this year at 210 pounds. The added weight will help him maintain his strength throughout the season, which should help increase his power numbers back to what he posted earlier in his career.
One of Braun’s best attributes as a hitter is his willingness to hit the ball to all fields. This makes him a dangerous threat to get on base, even if his power numbers never recover to the level of his rookie campaign. As long as he stays healthy, 200 hits per season should never be out of the realm of possibility for him.
Another strong, but undervalued, aspect of Braun’s game is his speed. He has stolen at least 14 bases in each of his first four seasons. Former manager Ken Macha was not a fan of the running game, especially with Fielder hitting behind Braun; however new manager Ron Roenicke has promised to use the running game as more of a weapon in 2011.
Even with Fielder at the plate, Braun should expand his aggressiveness on the base paths. Opposing pitchers may choose to then walk Fielder, but Casey McGehee proved last season with his 104 RBI that he is more than capable of producing with runners on base.
There’s no reason to believe Braun won’t continue the kind of offensive production he has posted the first four seasons of his career. If he can develop the plate discipline Brewer fans hope he can, that should improve his overall numbers, including his power totals. Expect another .300-plus batting average and a return in his power numbers with at least 30 home runs and well over 100 RBI. He has made the All-Star Game three straight seasons, and I don’t see any reason to believe 2011 won’t be a fourth.
Ryan Braun is off to a Hall of Fame start to his career. Unlike Fielder, he is signed long-term and will be in Milwaukee at least through the 2015 season. With Fielder’s departure imminent, 2011 could serve as a springboard year for Braun to become the face of the franchise and cement his legacy as one of the best Milwaukee Brewers ever.
To read more by Jesse Motiff, click here.
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Spring Training starts up in less than a week and the upcoming baseball season should be a great one. The NL MVP is most prestigious individual award in National League.
The National League MVP is awarded annually to the player who has the most value to his respected team. Recent winners of the NL MVP include names such as Joey Votto, Albert Pujols, and other greats.
In follow-up of my AL list I have decided to make an NL version of the preseason prediction.
