Ryan Braun: From All-Star to NL MVP?

Jared Macdonald
September 28, 2011

As baseball’s regular season starts to wind down, talk of who will win the MVP awards heats up as the postseason approaches. In the National League, the first name that comes to many minds is Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun.

Whether it’s his video game-like slash line, above-average power numbers or clutch hits to keep innings alive, Braun has been the best all-around player on his team this season — a team that clinched the NL Central division title for the first time in 29 years.

Whether it’s home and away figures or numbers against lefties and righties, splits don’t register in Braun’s brain. He just works exceptionally hard and knows how to be one of the best at practically everything he does.

He was the MVP captain of his high school squad, an academic scholarship recipient and elite baseball player for a top-ranked D-I college. Early in his pro career he was ranked as high as the No. 2 prospect in baseball after leading almost every offensive category for every minor league team he played for.

Then in the majors, Braun captured Rookie of the Year honors for one of the most dominant debut seasons in the sport’s history, and he’s averaged 40 doubles, 32 home runs, and 108 RBI per season ever since.

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One might think that he can’t possibly get better, but according to the man himself, there’s always room to improve.

“I’m always challenging myself and competing with myself to be the best player that I can be,” Braun told The Good Point. “Defense is a priority, running the bases is a priority. Just paying attention to all the little things, you know? Like when you’ve got a runner on first base and you’ve got a big hole, there’s no reason not to take advantage of that and try to hit the ball to the right side.”

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If this season is any indication, opposing pitchers have already become increasingly fearful of Braun at the plate. Just 42% of the pitches he has seen in 2011 have been in the strike zone, which is a career-low. Pitchers have hoped that by keeping pitches out of Braun’s wheelhouse, he’ll chase them outside of the zone.

The only problem, though, is that even pitches outside the zone are having a tough time getting past the four-time All-Star. Not only is Braun’s 74% contact rate on those pitches this season a new career-high, but his swinging-strike percentage is also at an all-time low. Plus, once the ball is in play, Braun has cut down on his ground balls, severely cut back on his infield flies and hit more line drives than ever before in his career.

Needless to say, it’s easy to see that the California native continues to work hard on refining his skills to become an even deadlier threat at the plate.

“I always feel like I can improve in all aspects of my game,” he said. “I just feel like the longer I’ve played and the more I’ve learned, I try to apply everything to my game to continue to get better.”

Braun’s traditional numbers show that he’s growing increasingly dangerous at the plate as well — not exactly the best news for other teams around the league.

Entering Wednesday, Braun’s .335 batting average represented not only a career high but the second-highest mark in the NL, and it’s helped boost his on-base percentage to a career-high .400 this season. His 1.001 OPS is tops in the league and is third in baseball behind American League sluggers Jose Bautista and Miguel Cabrera. Heck, in addition to his 33 home runs and 111 RBI, Braun has continued to trim down his strikeouts and steal a career-high 32 bases in 38 attempts this season.

Braun’s MVP season has instrumentally helped the Brewers reach the postseason for the second time in four years, but he’ll concede that he has been far from the only reason why the Brewers are division champions.

“This year, from Day 1, we’ve had five quality starting pitchers who have really kept us in games, given us the opportunity to win a lot of games, and I think that’s probably been the biggest difference,” the 27-year-old said.

Two of those starters are Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum, the pair of arms Brewers general manager Doug Melvin emptied the team’s farm system to acquire over the winter.

In addition to the club’s front office and fan base, count Braun as one of the many Brewers players appreciative of the club’s off-season additions.

“They’re both competitors,” he said. “They find a way to compete every day, find a way to keep us in games, and they fit in really well to the dynamic of our clubhouse.”

With his convoy of competitors in tow as the regular season winds down, Braun is as ready as ever to play on into October. If Greinke, Marcum and Co. can come even close to matching the success that the NL MVP favorite has had in his fifth major league season, the Brewers are in for a treat.

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The Author:

Jared Macdonald