JS- Braun tells it like it is

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/43404877.html

 

He may have beaten a high fastball tonight, but the man did not beat around the bush.

[ELCABALLO45]

That's why I love this guy being our franchise player for years to come.

 

He even made a comment about the pitching which I love.

[SenatorShriv]

I appreciate the candid response, but I don't really love the idea of him throwing his teammates like Parra under the bus like that. There are other ways of saying "we all need to step it up" without ridiculing the pitching staff after one of the least experienced players had a bad game.

 

edit: Just to clarify, I agree with his statements. I just don't want this team to deteriorate into a situation where there is bad blood and infighting in the clubhouse.

[SeriesFinale]

Agreed, Senator...I kind of like how he tried to say it was the entire team, not just the pitching, but he was awfully specific in his complaints about the pitching.

 

Maybe he assumes Julio won't be around much longer--all the same, pretty inappropriate, I think.

[JoeHova]

It was just the same cliches that everybody says when a team is playing poorly. I don't think it's a sign of either great leadership or possible discord in the locker room.

[pmallon]

sorry this does not do it for me. This is the first time all year he hits the ball and he now feels it's time to step up and call out teammates? I would not be suprised if this rubs more than one teammate the wrong way.

[SeriesFinale]

It was just the same cliches that everybody says when a team is playing poorly. I don't think it's a sign of either great leadership or possible discord in the locker room.

"It's frustrating," said Braun. "If you don't make them swing the bat, you don't keep your defense in the game. You don't give yourself a chance to get anybody out. It's not just the walks. We're falling behind every hitter."

 

That's awfully specific for a cliche. Can you imagine if, after the Brewers lost a series of low-scoring games where Braun and Hart struck out several times (just try real hard to imagine!), one of the pitchers said, "If you keep swinging at that high fastball or that slider, you're not gonna give your pitchers a chance to help you win the game. And it's not just the being caught stealing. We're falling behind every count when they swing at that first pitch."

 

I don't think it's a sign of discord (indeed, maybe the locker room is so tight that he feels comfortable saying it), I just think it's kinda inappropriate.

[JoeHova]

"You gotta keep your defense in the game" is the hoariest of baseball cliches. I can see where a pitcher may be upset but it's a pretty standard thing to say.

[phxMILWfan]

I liked reading his comments and I thought it was the right thing to do. However, after reading some other comments on this page, I look at it a little differently. It's true, Braun had done next to nothing for 12 games. He finally puts the bat on the ball and now he's commenting on the pitching? Honestly even the defense comments sting a little bit. How would he have felt in 2007 if someone would have said something along the lines of "If we could just make the throw from 3rd base to 1st base, we'd be in more games." I love Braun but maybe he should have waited until he put together a good week before making these comments.

[cnycerveceros]

He's right, I'm not usually one to say 'sometimes the truth hurts,' but sometimes it does. He was asked a question by the media and gave a response, it's not like he went out of his way and posted this on his own blog somewhere. I also don't think it's fair to say he finally broke out and he says this. Sure, he hasn't played up to his level, but he's walked quite a bit and he's been pitched differently this year than in previous years (very few strikes). To me, this is leadership because he's pretty much right on, and he went out of his way to call out every aspect of the team, not just the pitching. And anyway, the pitching has been terrible. Only 3 teams have allowed more runs than the Crew. You can't win that way regardless of how powerful your offense might be.

[Brian the Automator]

Well, the "up and atom" speech worked last year in Boston, so why not, I guess.

[sgtcluels]

throwing his teammates like Parra under the bus like that.

That was NOT Braun calling out Parra for a bad performance. It was Tom Hardricourt.

 

"It's frustrating," said Braun. "If you don't make them swing the bat, you don't keep your defense in the game. You don't give yourself a chance to get anybody out. It's not just the walks. We're falling behind every hitter.

"The pitching obviously has been pretty bad but the offense has been pretty bad, the defense has been pretty bad. I don't think we've really done anything well the first 13 games of the season. We've got to find a way to turn it around.

Braun said that pitching needs to throw strikes and make them swing. He basically said enough of this walk stuff, which he is right. Beyond Coffee/DiFelice/Looper/Gallardo, the rest of the staff can't find the strike zone.

[Invader3K]

He didn't say anything no one already knew. He said the team is playing all around bad. I'm glad to hear someone on the team speaking up.

 

"The Franchise" Ryan Braun is basically the leader of this team at this point, so it's not surprising to hear him make comments like this.

[BrewCrewForever]

Just another reason I love Ryan Braun. He's a team leader. I don't think he really threw anyone under the bus because he said no one is doing anything right now really.

[rluzinski]

Braun really knows what to say to get the fans to like him. The perfect American athlete.

 

Me? I prefer that the players play and coaches dole out the public criticisms. Braun should stick with criticizing his own play, when the situation justifies it. Until last night's game, he had a sub .700 OPS, so he's certainly had the opportunity this year.

[trwi7]

Me? I prefer that the players play and coaches dole out the public criticisms. Braun should stick with criticizing his own play, when the situation justifies it. Until last night's game, he had a sub .700 OPS, so he's certainly had the opportunity this year.

 

Yeah, I find it rather odd that he waits until his stats don't look bad and then decides to say something.

[rm121978]

He didn't schedule a press conference to say these things. He was asked a question and responded. No coincidence. Braun's probably regretting signing the deal for several reasons (not enough cash, might want to play for a winner) and is doing whatever he can to make the most of a bad situation.

[theavrock]

I highly doubt Braun was thinking about how his stats looked when he made these comments. He is completely right. He didn't say he was playing amazing and everyone else should catch up. He said we in pretty much every sentence and made sure to mention every aspect of play. Pitching, hitting and defense. Its great to hear someone tell it like it is. He could have said "we are just out there battling and sooner or later the breaks are going to come our way, but golly gee we are out there giving it out our all." Puke in my mouth to those kinds of comments. He basically said we are pros and we have not been getting it done its time for us to get it done. Loved it.

[RightFieldCoder]

"Saying 'it's early, there' s no need to panic" -- none of that means anything now. We just need to come out and play better."

This is my favorite quote. If Yost was still around you would have heard the "it's early, no reason to panic".

[SeriesFinale]

No one's saying Braun's analysis isn't correct; it's whether it was appropriate as a teammate (and one who hadn't been quite stellar himself this year so far) to call out other team members about their specific play.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, he responded to a question that was asked of him. I would much rather hear an honest answer like the one he gave then some sugar coated thing like someone else pointed out.

 

I really don't think anything he said could be construed as "throwing his teammates under the bus." He is plainly saying what is publicly evident...that the team is playing bad as a whole right now, and needs to improve.

[JJHardy7]

I really like Braun, but he seems to make these comments after he has a good game (Boston last year). He's not making the comments when he struggles.

[CheezWizHed]

I read the article, read the comments here and went back to read the article again. Braun didn't call any ONE out, he called everyone out including himself. Everything he said, he said as "we". I couldn't find one comment where Braun indicates he is fine, but others are not. I think just because he had a great game yesterday, everyone thinks he is calling people out.

 

I found his comments to be:

1) Spot on. We are walking way too many. Our offense hasn't been terrible, but its not good.

2) Cliche as others have said.

3) Team centric. Everything was a "we" statement. He said ALL aspects of the team need to improve, not just pitching.

 

People can always take statements the wrong way (which is why some athletes don't talk to the media), but I appreciate him stepping up and taking a leadership role and calling a spade a spade.

 

That beats a fight in the dugout.

[rluzinski]

Yost was so wrong in suggesting last year that much of the panic lwas premature and disproportionate to the situation? The Brewers made the damn playoffs!

 

I think every Brewer fan (including myself) thought the season was over at least once last year. And some fans found especially aggressive ways to express their frusrations. But in the end, even though Yost wasn't allowed to finish season as manager, his was somewhat vindicated by the post season birth.

 

Fans will flip out over a 3 game losing streak and want their emotional responses validated by the media, players and coaches doing the same. I think that's a big part of it, at least. They don't want to be told to calm down.

 

"Calm down!? YOU calm down!!!"

[phxMILWfan]

I read the article, read the comments here and went back to read the article again. Braun didn't call any ONE out, he called everyone out including himself. Everything he said, he said as "we". I couldn't find one comment where Braun indicates he is fine, but others are not. I think just because he had a great game yesterday, everyone thinks he is calling people out.

He did say "we". However, when you go 5 for 5 with 2 home runs in a 11-4 loss, he has to know full well that fans will view him as doing everything he can. If he had said those comments a few days ago it would be more of a "we" statement. When you go 5 for 5 with 2 home runs and say "we" it really sounds like "they". That's just my opinion. I hope it fires up the team and they start winning. I don't think anyone is debating whether or not the comments were accurate. The issue is with the timing.

Perhaps Ryan would be upset if a teammate said "I think we are off to a rough start because we decided to promote ourselves by playing in the wbc instead of preparing for the season. We should have done everything we could to insure that our timing was ready for the season to start. We need to start puting the team first and ourselves second. Had we started off the season as hot as we were in tonights game we probably wouldn't be 4-9".