Did Ryan Braun ever actually recover from his ribcage injury?

[DougJones43]

Ryan Braun has been in a free fall during the past month. It seems to have coincided with the injury to his ribcage. His power numbers really plunged. I'm not making any excuses for this team, but basically being without their best hitter for a month hasn't helped the Brewers.

 <span> [u]AVG[/u] [u]OBP[/u] [u]SLG[/u] [u]OPS [/u]Before August 9th (497 PA): .300 .340 .587 .927 July 4th - August 9th (126 PA): .357 .407 .722 1.129 <font color="#FF0000">After August 9th (129 PA): .235 .318 .417 .735</font> </span> 

[Weeks4MVP]

Ever since that happened it seems like he has been falling out of his stance or twirling the bat over his head on his follow through. Maybe he did this before and I didn't notice but that just stuck out to me.

[hawing]

I've wondered the same thing, if for no other reason because media mention of the injury seemed to go from "frequent" to "zero."

[BrewCrewForever]

I was almost going to start a similar topic. He has to still be feeling some effects of the injury or because of the injury his swing mechanics are all screwed up. Any way you slice it this is not the Ryan Braun we are used to seeing nor do I think this is the real Ryan Braun. He is a much, much better player then he has been over the past month to month and a half. Hopefully he can get somewhat back on track here and then just come out on a tear in 2009.

[bklynbrewcrew]

He doesnt seem to be swinging freely and easily anymore. Braun has a rather violent follow through normally and I just havent seen the same swing from him this month. I definitely think he is injured because he isnt this bad.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

There is just no way he's healthy. My guess is they tried to get him healthy with days off and in the end told him there was no way it would fully heal, so he's been trying to gut it out. If Kapler was healthy, maybe they'd have an option, but they really had no choice. That injury has had a major impact on the season.

[olsonnet]

From TH's blog post today:

 

"Braun basically admitted to us after the game what we already suspected, that he still is experiencing discomfort from the ribcage strain he incurred back in August. It has been evident from watching a great hitter struggle so much for weeks that something was wrong but he just wouldn't admit to it.

 

Braun didn't specifically mention the ribcage injury but said "it's obvious I'm not feeling that good." All of us who heard it knew he was finally putting it out there that he's not 100% physically. That has been pretty obvious from watching him but now he finally let it out. He did swing the bat a bit better today, however."

[dadofandrew]

It does seem odd he looks like he can run like heck and field fine (though he looked a bit stiff on the liner Thursday), but is having trouble swinging. However, when you consider he hurt himself on a swing, I suppose it makes more sense.

[JohnBriggs12]

I thought he looked like his old self yesterday for the first time in ages. He was taking very good cuts and making good contact. Hopefully that translates in to a monster week just at the right time. A hot Fielder and Braun together could carry this team right on in.

[kiwi brewer]

isn't this irresponsible to the greater good of the team? i know younger players tend to do it (gamel) but shouldn't he have manned up and sat for a week and come back healthy, knowing the situation of the team? i understand the passion to play, but what about the smarts?

[jjfanec]

isn't this irresponsible to the greater good of the team? i know younger players tend to do it (gamel) but shouldn't he have manned up and sat for a week and come back healthy, knowing the situation of the team? i understand the passion to play, but what about the smarts?

No star player sits when they can still play. Who would have been better for the team? I ask that knowing full well how bad Braun has been but does anyone really jump out at you as an option? Gwynn, Dillion, and maybe Nelson. I would have to go with Nelson in terms of hitting but I have no idea what that mammoth is like in the field since I never watch minor league games, but he is a big boy. Braun needs to stay in the lineup because if he can get good swings in this team can be tough. Without him the lineup looks similar to the last two weeks.

[DougJones43]

isn't this irresponsible to the greater good of the team? i know younger players tend to do it (gamel) but shouldn't he have manned up and sat for a week and come back healthy, knowing the situation of the team? i understand the passion to play, but what about the smarts?

No star player sits when they can still play. Who would have been better for the team? I ask that knowing full well how bad Braun has been but does anyone really jump out at you as an option?

I think the point is, maybe if Braun had sat out another couple of weeks, he might be more healthy now. I think guys play hurt too much, and I think that the pressure to "play though it" is just more of the sporting culture's archaic tough guy crap. Usually, all it does it lead to a lot of injuries getting worse, and/or players just never fully recovering which leads to poor seasons. How many times have you seen a normally good player struggle through the majority of a season, only to find out later on that he was never healthy. It sure seems to happen a lot.

 

So, take Braun for instance. Obviously this is just a hypothetical, but would you rather he played the last 6 weeks of the season at 60%, or took more time off and played the last 3-4 weeks of the season at 90% health? Again, I'm not saying that I know the exact circumstances of his injury/recovery, but you get my drift.

[jjfanec]

I think the point is, maybe if Braun had sat out another couple of weeks, he might be more healthy now. I think guys play hurt too much, and I think that the pressure to "play though it" is just more of the sporting culture's archaic tough guy crap. Usually, all it does it lead to a lot of injuries getting worse, and/or players just never fully recovering which leads to poor seasons. How many times have you seen a normally good player struggle through the majority of a season, only to find out later on that he was never healthy. It sure seems to happen a lot.

 

So, take Braun for instance. Obviously this is just a hypothetical, but would you rather he played the last 6 weeks of the season at 60%, or took more time off and played the last 3-4 weeks of the season at 90% health? Again, I'm not saying that I know the exact circumstances of his injury/recovery, but you get my drift.

Players do play injured a lot and maybe too much so I see your point there. I don't know the extent of the injury but maybe a couple weeks off really would not have helped, I am not sure. Different sport and different injory but look at what Kobe played through last year and even in baseball what Pujols is playing through. Good players often try to play through injuries and sometimes the results are very good. Let's just hope Braun gets hot the next 6 days.

[fondybrewfan]

With the Kapler injury he really had no choice but to suck it up and play IMO. Yeah maybe the Brewers could have given him an extra week when it originally happened but the only thing we heard back than was that it was feeling good. Perhaps it has flared up again. Despite his struggles I don't know if we have a better option to throw out their at this point.

[crewcrazy]

I'll agree that never really recovered, or even if he is healthy now, he fell into some bad habits compensating for the injury. He probably could've used another week off, but there was a lot of pressure for him to play after that Dodgers series, especially when he hit a pinch-hit HR in that series. The Kapler injury did kind of force him to stay in the lineup, because Braun at 60% is still better than Gwynn at 100%. Hopefully he takes enough time off in the offseason to get fully healthy and he'll come back for Spring Training ready to go.

[jhart05]

Rib cage injury or not, that still doesn't excuse those kind of numbers.

 

I didn't expect him to keep up those July numbers, but I also didn't expect him to basically turn into TGJ at the plate.

[tyguy20204]

"I'll never make an excuse to justify my performance but physically I've been unable to do what I'm used to doing. I haven't gotten close to being as comfortable as I was prior to the injury. Thank God we've got No. 28 (Prince Fielder) on our team because he has carried us the whole month."

 

"It's a feeling I've never experienced before," he said. "I can't stay on the ball. I can't stay through the ball. I'm not explosive enough. It's just something I've got to deal with and compensate for."

 

"It's the most frustrating thing I've ever been through as a baseball player,"

[sheetswannabe]

As of his performance yesterday. I think so.

[DougJones43]

Tom H. made a blog post about Braun's health in the JS. I was concerned last year, and am beginning to believe again that it is still something to be concerned about. The fact that he re-aggravated the injury this spring makes me doubt it ever healed properly or completely. There could be other explanations for Braun's dropoff in production, but it sure seems as though his injury coincides with the beginning of the tailspin...

 

 <span style="font-size:large"> <span style="text-decoration:underline">AVG</span> <span style="text-decoration:underline">OBP</span> <span style="text-decoration:underline">SLG</span> <span style="text-decoration:underline">OPS</span> Pre Injury (990 PA): .311 .355 .610 .965 Post Injury (219 PA): .238 .324 .420 .744</span> 

 

It doesn't even look like the same player. I sure hope this issue doesn't become a nagging problem that affects his play for a really long time.

[Invader3K]

Well, at least he's been drawing walks like crazy. That used to be one thing people complained about with him, and he already has five this season.

[BrewCrewForever]

It is for sure something to be concerned with. I still think he will start hitting, just in a slump right now.

[endaround]

Was he hurt last April too? (.273/.296/.432)

[JohnBriggs12]

Was he hurt last April too? (.273/.296/.432)

He's going to have to rally to get to those numbers. He's just not hitting period. His outs are weak ground balls or pop ups. A couple of his hits have been of the infield variety or bleeders just through the infield. He's fanned 8 times in 30 AB's That's a rate of 160 in 600 AB's and isn't good.

 

The good news is he's too good a hitter to keep this up, but as long as he does, this team will have trouble winning games.

[HOF4canrake]

From my experiences playing and coaching, it simply looks like his timing isn't quite there yet. Remember, he didn't get a ton on in-game reps in the Spring because of the World Baseball Classic and the tweak of his intercostal. If you recall, even Macha made mention to getting him as many ABs as possible once he got back from the WBC to catch up....so I'd say he's just a touch behind.

 

Secondly, while he has great bat speed, his swing is a little longer than you'd like, further compounding the timing issue. Combine those two things and that's why teams have been able to get him out on pitches on the inner half of the plate. Give him a week or so and he should find his groove...barring injury.

[Invader3K]

The guy did hit over .300 in the post-season (granted, that was only 20+ ABs). Funny how that gets overlooked, though.

 

He may be hurting a bit yet, but I think he just has some rust from not getting a lot of spring training practice in, like HOF alluded to.