11/05/24
April 21, 2011
Ryan Braun signs $105 million extension: "One of the cornerstone pledges we made when purchasing the Brewers was to build a perennially competitive team, and Ryan Braun has already shown that he is a very rare and special talent," said chairman and principal owner Mark Attanasio. Elected to start in each of the last 3 All-Star Games, Braun, 27, is one of just 5 players in MLB history to hit 125 homers and post a .300 batting average over the first 4 seasons of his career (Joe DiMaggio, Chuck Klein, Albert Pujols and Ted Williams). He also currently holds the franchise's mark for highest career batting average at .308 and entered the 2011 season with 128 homers, eighth-most in major-league history by any player in his first four years.
posted by tommytrump to baseball at 05:06 PM - 8 comments
I'd also point out that while the salary is backloaded, I'm going to guess that Ryan Braun at !6 million in 5 years is going to be a total steal.
posted by rocketman at 02:48 PM on April 22, 2011
And maybe Prince Fielder will get the message, and sign a hometown-friendly extension.
posted by rocketman at 02:52 PM on April 22, 2011
Yeah, it would be nice if they could hold on to Fielder as well but I'm not optimistic. It's pretty exciting the Braun is likely a Brewer4life.
posted by tron7 at 03:58 PM on April 22, 2011
No doubt Fielder will end up elsewhere - I'm guessing the Cubs will fill 1B with either him or Pujols, but a fan can hope.
Still, Braun through 2020 guarantees he'll go into the HoF as a Brewer.
posted by rocketman at 04:08 PM on April 22, 2011
Those selective endpoints trim a few players from the comparison. If you drop homers to 120, and average to .295, you can then add Orlando Cepeda (122 HR) and Frank Robinson (.299).
Of course, those endpoints are set up specifically to catch Braun in that group. The other 4 players have averages more than 25 points higher than Braun, and in Pujols' case, he also had 22 more home runs. (In summary, Pujols = WOW)
As well, that career batting average thing is a bit silly in the sense that he's only put together 2500 plate appearances. The two closest ones on the list (Cirillo, .307) and Molitor (.303) have an extra 1000 and 6200 plate appearances (respectively). Let's see how Braun's downside affects his average.
That said, he's a fantastically talented player and one that any team would love to have.
posted by grum@work at 06:51 PM on April 22, 2011
Those selective endpoints trim a few players from the comparison. If you drop homers to 120, and average to .295, you can then add Orlando Cepeda (122 HR) and Frank Robinson (.299).
Of course, those endpoints are set up specifically to catch Braun in that group. The other 4 players have averages more than 25 points higher than Braun, and in Pujols' case, he also had 22 more home runs. (In summary, Pujols = WOW)
I don't understand your argument here. Everyone on that list (even extended to being one of 7 all time) is a hall-of-famer or a Pujols. Being one of 5 or one of 7 all-time to do something of substance is still an amazing thing. Also, .300 is a typical marker for people to use, not .295, so you can understand why someone might use that, can't you?
s well, that career batting average thing is a bit silly in the sense that he's only put together 2500 plate appearances. The two closest ones on the list (Cirillo, .307) and Molitor (.303) have an extra 1000 and 6200 plate appearances (respectively). Let's see how Braun's downside affects his average.
He's 27; I think it's safe to assume that Cirillo's 1000 plate appearance lead is outside of the range of Braun's decline, given that he'll pass that before he's even 30.
posted by dflemingecon at 07:33 PM on April 22, 2011
I don't understand your argument here. Everyone on that list (even extended to being one of 7 all time) is a hall-of-famer or a Pujols. Being one of 5 or one of 7 all-time to do something of substance is still an amazing thing. Also, .300 is a typical marker for people to use, not .295, so you can understand why someone might use that, can't you?
Sure, I understand the .300 end point. I also understand the "first four seasons" end point, and the 125 HR end point. It was designed to make sure that Ryan Braun landed in that group. If you can shift one of the end points a significant amount (from .300 avg to .330 avg), and the only person who drops out of the group is the one person that isn't the hall-of-famer (or Albert Pujols), then it looks pretty manufactured as well.
I also thought the "first four seasons" was an odd designation. Why not age? For example, Williams, Pujols and DiMaggio were two or three years younger than Braun when they had their "first four seasons".
So I decided to change the "first four seasons" to "age 23 to age 26" (as calculated by baseball-reference.com) and run the same criteria (.300/125HR).
You end up with 20 players on that list.
It's still an impressive list (Ruth! Aaron! Mays! Mantle!). When the worst player (other than Braun) is Jim Rice or Juan Gonzalez, you're dealing with some elite company.
If this is the list that was presented, it wouldn't diminish Braun's performance at all. In fact, that's a much more impressive (and realistic) group.
posted by grum@work at 09:45 PM on April 22, 2011
Obviously health will determine how this plays out, but as a Milwaukee fan, I'm very pleased by this.