Braddock released

[1992casey]

I think that the Brewers (and other teams) are likely to be much move involved than it appears on the surface. The problem for us as fans is that teams can't say much publicly about players' personal problems; they definitely can't get into detail.

 

I recall that when the problem between Prince and Cecil first became public, the Brewers were able to say that they had a team in place for dealing with issues like that and that Prince was receiving assistance, but they couldn't really go beyond that.

[Baldkin]

A players diet, offseason workout plan, and in season workout plan are very much up to themselves. Much the same way it is for a European football team.

 

I am sure the team suggests things, and will put together a plan for any player who requests one, but the onus is still on the player to follow that regime.

[monty57]

I know it's not completely fair to put all of the onus on the player, but Gamel and Braddock have cost themselves a lot of money over the years. Gamel's admission that he cut back on junk food and worked out more may be a good indication that the team had a reason for keeping him in the minors, and that he finally did "get it" this year. If I were a newly drafted player in the Brewers' system, I would look at the Gamel and Braddock situations and think that would be enough incentive to do what the team asks.

 

That said, in this day and age teams do a lot of evaluation, both physical and mental prior to committing time and money into a player they're going to draft. "Mental makeup" and "character issues" are some reasons why you will often see players fall down further in the draft than you would expects based solely on their physical skillset. A team can't know for certain that a player won't discover an affinity for Big Macs, but they learn a lot about a player and their family prior to the draft.