Ryan Braun, Left Fielder?

cgilmo · Mar 16, 2009

I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine today about one of Rob Neyer's articles on the Brewers. The article said that Braun needed to be playing first base, and that he was a liability in left. My gut tells me that Braun was more than acceptable in left last year, anyone care to provide more insight?

darocker80 · Mar 16, 2009

cgilmo said:
I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine today about one of Rob Neyer's articles on the Brewers. The article said that Braun needed to be playing first base, and that he was a liability in left. My gut tells me that Braun was more than acceptable in left last year, anyone care to provide more insight?

Bye-Bye Fielder?
(Come to the giants fielder, get us some splash hits!)

abncollectsautos · Mar 16, 2009

didnt he play 3rd his first season?

phillyfan0417 · Mar 16, 2009

cgilmo said:
I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine today about one of Rob Neyer's articles on the Brewers. The article said that Braun needed to be playing first base, and that he was a liability in left. My gut tells me that Braun was more than acceptable in left last year, anyone care to provide more insight?

Braun is a decent Left Fielder, not a great one. First Base is probably the ideal position for him but he can only improve if they leave him in the outfield. I saw him play about 20 times last year and he isnt exactly a butcher.

trevordchi · Mar 16, 2009

I only watched him when he played the Astros but it seemed as though he didn't try very hard out there. He just did enough not to embarass himself. He is by no means horrible out there, just not the most aggressive. If I remember correctly he had a hard time fielding grounders so 1B may not be a good idea.

Pine Tar · Mar 16, 2009

He moved from the infield to the outfield, did he not.
I thought he did fine last year. I can't see him at First base, Prince seems to
do a good enough job over there.

Who does Rob Neyer think should be there then?

All The Hype · Mar 16, 2009

His fielding % was 1.000 last year. Can't be doing too bad of a job, can he?

Autismic · Mar 16, 2009

after leading the league in errors in his rookie season at 3rd base to having 0 errors in left field last season with 9 assists I think they should leave him in left. can you imagine Prince in the outfield,now that would be funny.

darocker80 · Mar 16, 2009

ALL_THE_HYPE said:
His fielding % was 1.000 last year. Can't be doing too bad of a job, can he?

I guess, but he won't attempt saving home runs or driving for catches, running down loooong balls, but will catch the easy ones

All The Hype · Mar 16, 2009

darocker80 said:
ALL_THE_HYPE said:

His fielding % was 1.000 last year. Can't be doing too bad of a job, can he?

Click to expand...

I guess, but he won't attempt saving home runs or driving for catches, running down loooong balls, but will catch the easy ones

Right but this guy's argument seems to be not that Braun isn't a gold glove outfielder, it is that Braun is a liability in the outfield. To me, the term liability means you are having trouble making the routine plays, which he obviously has no problem doing as shown by his flawless fielding %.

Kevbo · Mar 16, 2009

Earlier in the year, he did try a couple aggressive plays, but that's his nature. He dove for one I remember, and missed it by about 3 feet. Not an error, but could have been played better. As the year went on, I didn't notice anything bad happen in LF, so he surely improved his jumps. He's a great athlete, and I'm sure he'll do a fine job this year. LF is probably the most "un-liable" position on the field, so I think he can handle it.
As for first base, the Brewers have plenty of options as to who takes Prince's spot eventually, but we don't have to worry about that anytime soon. I'd try Gamel there before I messed with moving Braun around again. The speediness of Cameron and Hart make LF a bit smaller for Braun too. I don't see how anyone would say he's a liability out there. Just a Braun hater, maybe.

pujolsjunkie · Mar 16, 2009

Stop messing with him and leave him in LF. He's a better outfielder than Manny Ramirez, who's played the OF his whole career. Left field is a position for a big bopper, and Braun fills that role extremely well. He is capable out there.

aw00d05 · Mar 16, 2009

abncollectsautos said:
didnt he play 3rd his first season?

Yea but he was terrible so they tried to hide him in left and Mat Gamel will be at third this year and I highly doubt he'll move to first since the Prince in there...

Craig - 21hawk · Mar 16, 2009

Neyer wants them to trade Prince, move Braun to 1B, move Weeks to LF, and use the top prospect (can't think of his name off hand) at second base.

His argument in the article is pretty strong, with the exception of not explaining why Braun is a liability in left.

Craig

mikekarlovec · Mar 16, 2009

Billy Butler is a liability in the OF!! :lol: Braun is steadily improving and was around average to start. he made a great sliding play last night for team USA and looked like an outfielder to me.

andyduke86 · Mar 16, 2009

He's slighty below average in left but his bat more than makes up for it. LF will probably be his position for a while.

sportscardtheory · Mar 16, 2009

aw00d05 said:
abncollectsautos said:

didnt he play 3rd his first season?

Click to expand...

Yea but he was terrible so they tried to hide him in left and Mat Gamel will be at third this year and I highly doubt he'll move to first since the Prince in there...

Matt Gamel at third this season? Are you sure Bill Hall is okay with that?

andyduke86 · Mar 16, 2009

sportscardtheory said:
aw00d05 said:

abncollectsautos said:

didnt he play 3rd his first season?

Click to expand...

Yea but he was terrible so they tried to hide him in left and Mat Gamel will be at third this year and I highly doubt he'll move to first since the Prince in there...

Click to expand...

Matt Gamel at third this season? Are you sure Bill Hall is okay with that?

Mat Gamel is just as bad at 3B as Braun was if not worse.

cgilmo · Mar 16, 2009

andyduke86 said:
He's slighty below average in left but his bat more than makes up for it. LF will probably be his position for a while.

what makes him slightly below average?

ThoseBackPages · Mar 16, 2009

cgilmo said:
andyduke86 said:

He's slighty below average in left but his bat more than makes up for it. LF will probably be his position for a while.

Click to expand...

what makes him slightly below average?

probably playing thirdbase from 1993 to 2007 lol

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