Braun's Back Stiffness Related to Intercostal

[PrinceEatMeat]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/44237497.html

 

This is terrible news. This seems like it will just keep nagging and nagging. Now he might not even play on his bobblehead day.

[TheCrew07]

I wonder if that AB where he K'd corkscrewing himself into the ground on Friday night hurt him? My initial reaction was "that had to hurt" and as far as not doing anything different... well that's just dumb and I'll leave it at that.

[rm121978]

"I don't care anymore, I don't worry about it" Braun said with a laugh. "It does me no good to be concerned about it. I'm not going to change my swing, I'm not going to change my workouts, I'm not going to change anything.

 

Great plan, Ryan. It's been working great so far... ugh.

[RyDogg66]

Braun is out again today. I think his intercostal is related to his back, not the other way around.

[nate82]

If Braun has to go on the DL do the Brewers bring up Gamel? Would Gamel play 3B or LF? or would Hall play LF and Gamel at 3B. The other option is to have Nelson play LF and then replace him with Duffy later in the game.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Gamel wouldn't come up because he wouldn't get any playing time. He has never played outfield so that won't happen. Hall wouldn't be jsut thrown out there after not playing it for over a year, and has been playing well. Sadly, Nelson and Duffy would play. Gwynn might get the call-up.

[endaround]

If Cole Gillespie can get going he'd be a call up but right now Irribarren makes the most sense.

[BrewCrewForever]

If Braun goes on the DL that would be awful. It is probably my worst fear, well maybe Gallardo going on the DL could be worse. Hopefully it is not too serious and he is back out there tonight.

[Fatter than Joey]

If Braun has to go on the DL do the Brewers bring up Gamel?

 

If the Brewers knew Braun was going to miss serious time -- I'd probably hope they find an unemployed corner OF, before throwing Gamel into the lineup. Hall is playing a good 3b, I am not sure how Gamel helps us out here.

 

If Braun misses a lot of time, it may be time to close the curtain on 2009, and I would rather see Gamel working on his D in AAA.

[Invader3K]

I don't know...if Braun is going to miss significant time, it would suck, but I think it's too early to "throw in the towel." Maybe they could move Hall to LF and have Gamel play 3B, or get someone like Geoff Jenkins as a stop gap solution until Braun could return.

 

I'm just saying while missing Braun would hurt a lot, I think they still have enough pieces to make a go of it and stay in contention. They could always make a key trade before the deadline if they are still in it, too.

[jeffy]

"I don't care anymore, I don't worry about it" Braun said with a laugh. "It does me no good to be concerned about it. I'm not going to change my swing, I'm not going to change my workouts, I'm not going to change anything.

 

Great plan, Ryan. It's been working great so far... ugh.

 

Nice selective editing there, you left out the part where he says:

"If I could pinpoint exaclty why it was happening, obviously I'd stop doing that. But it does me no good to be worried or concerned."

[Fatter than Joey]

http://images.yuku.com/image/png/f3b35a4491927e29fc8aeff7117dcea4cd83a4e.png

 

 

[Invader3K]

Funny, but depressing at the same time.

 

We're all jumping the gun a bit here, though. Hopefully the last couple days off helped him and he'll be right back out there today or tomorrow in the Pittsburgh series.

[Never Outhustled]

This thread just highlights the rediculousness of Mat Gamel not having played the OF yet. After 4 years of HS baseball, 2 seasons of JuCo ball, and 4 seasons of pro ball, they think somehow a fifth pro season is going to be a sudden cure all? Gamel's bat is ROTY worthy, and we have a quality 3B signed through next season. Some positional crosstraining can't hurt anymore than everything else they've done with him defensively that hasn't worked.

[strawbossisevil]

Ridiculous is spelled with an I, not an E, so it is not rediculousness, but ridiculousness, sorry the misspelling of that word is perhaps my biggest pet peeve, I still don´t know why people constantly misspell it to begin with (maybe it has to do with people that mispronounce it as well).

 

There is no long term spot for Gamel in the OF as long as we have Braun and Hart (I don´t think our organization views Hart as a CF anymore either). There is a long term spot for him at 3b, however, so it makes perfect sense that he would continue at 3rd.

 

Plus add to that the fact that Gamel has great range at 3b, and you see why he hasn´t been moved. While he´ll never be a gold glove guy, the fact that his problems are more related to throwing rather than fielding suggest that with time he´ll likely get better. He just needs repetitions. Moving him away from 3b to fill a temporary hole is going to deprive him of the repetitions he needs at 3b.

[endaround]

One year difference between RF and 3B isn't enough to keep forcing Gamel 3B especially since Hart has decent trade value.

[JJHardy7]

This thread just highlights the rediculousness of Mat Gamel not having played the OF yet. After 4 years of HS baseball, 2 seasons of JuCo ball, and 4 seasons of pro ball, they think somehow a fifth pro season is going to be a sudden cure all? Gamel's bat is ROTY worthy, and we have a quality 3B signed through next season. Some positional crosstraining can't hurt anymore than everything else they've done with him defensively that hasn't worked.

 

There's not a spot for him now in the OF. My guess is this is his last 'shot' at 3B. We've gone over this many times X. The Brewers wilfl have to make a decision sooner or later with him. His bat is great, but it's early May. If they move him to OF now, that means Hart is gone. In the ideal world, I think this all happens at 'the same time'. Hart is traded and Gamel is moved.

 

I would think signing a guy like Edmonds for the rest of the year would be the answer if Braun is out for a long time.

[TooLiveBrew]

We're all jumping the gun a bit here, though.

You said the following on 4/15/09, when I posted some pretty reliable info from a well-informed source (Chris Neault, DL Informer blog) --

"I hope we can just get patient instead of panicking about what phantom injury he may or may not have."

"I'm saying that people need to quit grasping at straws."

Now, Braun himself has identified back stiffness, which matches up with what Neault had to say in April... and you're still going with, 'We're jumping the gun'? Seems like being concerned is a pretty reasonable frame of mind right now.


"All these injuries are related," Braun said. "They're all similar, everything I've gone through. Rib cage, back. They are all in the same general area and have the same general feeling."

Yeah, sorry, I'm worried about this.

[Never Outhustled]

There is no long term spot for Gamel in the OF as long as we have Braun and Hart (I don´t think our organization views Hart as a CF anymore either). There is a long term spot for him at 3b, however, so it makes perfect sense that he would continue at 3rd.

Hart is a FA after 2011, Hall 2010, so a longterm need exists at both positions.

 

If they move him to OF now, that means Hart is gone. In the ideal world, I think this all happens at 'the same time'. Hart is traded and Gamel is moved.

I would sure hope Gamel would be playing the OF before the Brewers open a spot for him in the big league line-up. Calling him up to the Bigs and switching him to the OF at the same would be terrible planning.

[JJHardy7]

I would sure hope Gamel would be playing the OF before the Brewers open a spot for him in the big league line-up. Calling him up to the Bigs and switching him to the OF at the same would be terrible planning.

 

I'm talking about the off-season...not during the season. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. My point is if you move him now Hart's value goes down in any type of trade. If you trade Hart in the off-season and then move Gamel to the OF you might get a bit more for him.

 

IMO there's no way they ever move Gamel during the season to a new position.

 

Again, a lot of Mat's errors are mental. So he's going to go to the OF and not have any errors?

[GormanHarvey]

I'm guessing the Brewers are waiting to see about Braun for tonight at it is 3:30 CDT and they have yet to post a lineup for a 6 PM game. I don't know if thats a good sign or a bad one...

[TheCrew07]

A metal error would be throwing to the wrong base or trying to make a play when he should eat the ball.

 

While he does some of the latter, I would qualify the majority of his errors as physical in nature as he's doesn't set himself properly to make the plays. Since he has good instincts in the field, I think he could be a MLB quality 3B in time, but how long will it take? Is he going to get enough perfect repetitions in to relearn his movements properly? Remember in a game there's no time think, there's only time to react, which is why he continues to struggle. When you're pushed, your body works off of muscle memory. There may be some "I hope I don't air mail this throw" going on, but generally his issues are tied to his feet.

 

Originally I thought Braun was a such a superior athlete that he could have made a decent 3B, but in hindsight he probably never had the instincts for the position. I'm not sure what's best for Mat, he's shown he has very good range, but he makes a ton of errors, there's a better chance for him than there was Braun, but without a certain table on defensive improvement, I'm really not sure what the best move is for him.

 

My guess? If he fails at 3B in AAA then Hart moves to CF and Gamel goes to RF for next season. I don't see Fielder going anywhere, I think Melvin is going to ride him out and I would hope they don't let Gamel's bat rot in AAA for another season.

[Invader3K]

Latest from Haudricourt's blog is that Braun stayed in Milwaukee after yesterday's game and had an MRI "which was negative for structural damage." Bill Hall will be starting in LF tonight in Pittsburgh. Casy McGehee will play 3B.

 

Well, at lease the news on Braun is positive so far.

[strawbossisevil]

What proof do you have behind the idea that they´d move Hart to CF? Where has the organization even hinted at the possibility of that happening? After having two full seasons in right, I really would be shocked to see the Brewers move him to a more challenging defensive position.

 

I think the Brewers are very high on Cain, and that we may see him as early as next season, assuming that he puts up the numbers that he is capable of. I could also see the Brewers giving Cameron a one year extension to provide Cain the time to develop.

 

Our minor league system has a lot of promising OF talent, putting Gamel out there would essentially block one of our minor league system´s biggest strengths, while exaggerating our system´s biggest positional weakness (3b).

 

Edit: I think it is very telling that management decided to put Hall out in left. If Braun goes on the DL long term, it appears like the team would call up Gamel to play 3b.

[Invader3K]

I just read something recently (I think it was on Haudricourt's blog, or maybe it was here) that made it sound like the Brewers had dropped any idea of Hart possibly moving to CF eventually.