Archive for the ‘Ryan Braun’ Category

Roto-Relevant Research: Hitter’s Ground Ball Rate

Posted by Eno Sarris under Roto Relevant Research, Ryan Braun on Jun 06, 2013

Kansas City Royals v Chicago White Sox

You can sing the small sample size song all day — thanks to Ted Berg — but we’re creeping up on some real samples now that we’ve got two months in the book. And one of the most recent things to stabilize for hitters (at 200 plate appearances) was their ground ball rate.

Some recent interviewing, spurred by Joey Votto‘s love of the level swing, and stoked by Alex Gordon‘s changes early in his career, has me wondering about the ideal ground ball rate for hitters. I ran a correlation between ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio and wRC+, and could not find a peak. That’s because you trade times on base (with the ground ball and the line drive) for times walking around the bases (with the fly ball and the home run).

But if we’re talking power, it gets much easier. Fly balls good. Fly balls very good. Fly balls are well correlated with any power metric out there, and you really do have to get them up in order to get them out. It *is* that simple, at least here.

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Ryan Braun’s Legacy of Glass Urine Containers

Posted by Scott Lewis under Drugs, Ryan Braun on Mar 25, 2013

Houston Astros v Milwaukee Brewers

Rookie of the Year, five All-Star appearances, a National League MVP award, and glass urine containers. These are all items currently ingrained in the legacy of Ryan Braun. As Major League Baseball continues to funnel time, money, and energy into the Biogenesis clinic and the players who allegedly hold ties to the PED house, at least one of the names implicated in the scandal is leaving a lasting impact on the landscape of scary sports drugs. According to a report from Andy Martino at the New York Daily News, MLB has made a switch from plastic urine containers to glass in light of Ryan Braun’s successful challenge on a 50-game PED suspension.

Braun overturned his suspension by challenging the sample collection process. The Milwaukee Brewers star’s urine sample remained in possession of the collector for two days before it was sent to the lab for to be tested. Prior to Braun’s victory, MLB used triple-sealed plastic containers to collect and transport urine samples. Now, as Martino reports, glass containers are used:

Now, the collectors use glass bottles, made by the same manufacturer, but considered even more secure. The bottles have a locking mechanism on the top, as opposed to tamper-proof stickers on the plastic version. The only way to open the glass bottles is to smash the top with a hammer, which the lab does in what a person familiar with the process described as a “controlled manner.”

Martino notes the new glass containers will be more difficult to tamper with. While there was no announcement on the change, it was part of several changes made to the league’s testing program over the last year.

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The Getting Blanked Podcast #99: Strop the Insanity

Posted by Drew Fairservice under Podcast, Ryan Braun, World Baseball Classic on Mar 21, 2013

World Baseball Classic - Championship - Puerto Rico v Dominican Republic

Welcome to rock bottom. The World Baseball Classic is over so only the ass-end of Spring Training stands between us and the real beginning of real baseball season. FOR REAL! To get you there, we talk about the WBC final and the resulting Hanley Ramriez injury, moving Aroldis Chapman back to the bullpen and the chase of Ryan Braun.

Hit the mp3 link for direct download right here.

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2013 Milwaukee Brewers: Propping the Window Open on a Budget

Posted by Travis Reitsma under Milwaukee Brewers, Preview, Ryan Braun on Mar 20, 2013

Milwaukee Brewers v Arizona Diamondbacks

2012 Record: 83-79, 3rd NL Central
2012 Pythagorean Record: 85-77
Impact Player: LF Ryan Braun
Impact Pitcher: RHP Yovani Gallardo
Top Prospect: RHP Wily Peralta

Significant Acquisitions: LHP Mike Gonzalez, LHP Tom Gorzelanny, RHP Burke Badenhop

Significant Departures: RHP Shaun Marcum, RHP Francisco Rodriguez, OF Nyjer Morgan, IF Cody Ransom, 1B Travis Ishikawa

Over the last few years, the Milwaukee Brewers emptied their farm system in order to acquire quality Major League talent understanding that they had a window to win. During the 2010-11 off-season, they dealt Brett Lawrie to the Blue Jays to acquire starting pitcher Shaun Marcum and then dealt a package of prospects and established young players such as Alcides Escobar and Jake Odorizzi to acquire Zack Greinke. They decided to go all out in the final season of Prince Fielder’s tenure with the team and it worked. In 2011, they won 96 games and went to the playoffs for the second time in four years.

Coming in to last season, the Brewers still had high hopes even with the departure of Fielder to Detroit. A strong pitching staff anchored by Greinke, Marcum and Yovani Gallardo was coupled with a deep lineup consisting of the likes of Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and newly minted Aramis Ramirez put the Brewers in good shape on paper. Then the season started and the wheels almost immediately fell off. By May 22, the Brewers were 17-26 and falling fast.

On July 28, with the team sitting 15 games out of the division, General Manager Doug Melvin waved the white flag and sent Greinke to the Angels for a package of prospects headed by shortstop Jean Segura trying to replenish a barren farm system. He had plans to trade Marcum and Randy Wolf as well, but ineffectiveness and injuries kept them on the team a little while longer. Then, because of course, the Brewers started winning.

In August and September, the Brewers went on an inspired 24-6 run that landed them with a 78-72 record and suddenly they were just a game-and-a-half behind the Cardinals for the second wild card spot in the NL. They would come back down to earth a little in the season’s final weeks, but they still finished with a winning record on a year that looked totally lost in early August.

Whether or not the late season run changed the strategy of Melvin and company heading into the winter is unknown, but the Brewers were not busy this offseason, adding little more than some useful pieces to their bullpen. If they are going to contend in 2013, they’ll be doing it with nearly the same roster that finished last season and therefore are counting on the continued good performance of some serious regression candidates.

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Ryan Braun Traded To Salem for Warlock to be Named Later

Posted by Drew Fairservice under Drugs, Ryan Braun, Scorn on Mar 20, 2013

Milwaukee Brewers v St Louis Cardinals - Game Five

Nothing beats a good, old fashioned, witch hunt. According to Bob Nightengale of the USA Today, MLB’s PED posse pursues Ryan Braun with dogged determination, eager to tie the former National League MVP to a PED conviction that will stick. Nightengale uses plenty of inflammatory statements meant to demonstrate how “badly” they “want” Braun after his positive test was overturned due to improper handling of the sample in early 2012.

At first blush it is sort of embarrassing that the league or the investigators would fixate on one player simply because he escaped their clutches through a loophole a year ago. But then again, maybe shouldn’t chasing down cheats be the exact reason this task force exists?

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Boring Old Ryan Braun

Posted by Drew Fairservice under Analysis, Milwaukee Brewers, Ryan Braun on Aug 29, 2012

It is probably in the best interests of Ryan Braun that he maintain a low profile this season. After all the fireworks resulting from his leaked positive drug test/botched test result snafu, that Ryan Braun just came out and played baseball was a good choice.

Any extra “DRUGS made him good!” scrutiny quickly went away as Ryan Braun promptly starting posting Ryan Braun numbers. Somehow the defending NL MVP doesn’t get the same amount media attention devoted to the Giancarlo Stanton’s or Mike Trout’s of the world yet here Braun sits: the best offensive player in baseball.

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