By now, the deal is pretty well known, and here is a link for all the details. I love the idea of having Braunie on the team for the rest of the decade. In my opinion, the best part of the contract is Braun's decision to defer money in order to keep the Crew competitive and be able to sign big free agents. For a player to put his team over himself is the utmost example of class and shows me Braun is determined to bring a World Series winner to the Brew City.
It is a great feeling to know Brewer fans will never have to sweat out a late July deadline with the chance that Braun could be changing teams. Braun made the decision that playing in Wisconsin was good enough for him, and knows that along with Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, he can be the face of Wisconsin professional sports. I said this on Friday, but I will reiterate, having guys like Braun and Rodgers makes me proud to be a Wisconsin sports fan. Two ultimate class acts who want to win, and want to make themselves better.
I love that Braun had a killer series after his contract because the typical Brewer thing would be a horrific three games plus maybe he gets banged up since the Brewers have some voodoo curse on them at times. Braunie bucked that trend with a couple homers, and some big base hits. I would be shocked if he didn't net National League Player of the Week for his performance against Philadelphia and Houston. One of the biggest criticisms of Braun in the past couple of years was his slow starts to the season. To think he is doing without Corey Hart in the lineup makes it absolutely phenomenal. When Hart gets comfortable in this lineup, I cannot help but be giddy thinking this team should score five runs per night if not more.
The Ryan Braun deal is great for Major League Baseball because it gives all small market teams hope they can keep their home-grown superstars for life. Right now, Oakland A's fans hope that some of their young pitchers like Gio Gonzalez and Brett Anderson this time around are different than guys like Barry Zito and Tim Hudson. Kansas City Royals fans hope Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, and other promising prospects will stay in the blue and white for the next ten years.
We as Brewer fans hope the big guy who wears number twenty-eight reconsiders testing the market and stays put here in Milwaukee keeping the best one-two punch in baseball here in Milwaukee.
-Charlie.
