Why Ryan Braun is MVP and Other Random Baseball Thoughts

Ryan Braun - Straight-up killer.  And MVP.

So, most of this past week I had been thinking about writing some posts on the end of the baseball season, thinking about what to write, thinking about how to do it, and - as I have been wont to do ever since I started this blog - doing nothing about it.

One of the posts I wanted to do involved making my case why Ryan Braun should win the NL MVP instead of Matt Kemp (as I fear is going to happen).  I was also going to touch on the other major awards from my vantage point, though they are generally not too controversial this year.  I promise that I will get to those ideas briefly near the end of this post.  I also do need to go back and review my preseason predictions as promised (note: that is NOT going to be pretty - thanks a bunch, Twins!). 

However, I would not be a baseball fan with a blog or any outlet of writing words down if I let what transpired on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 go by without saying a little about that most magical of nights for any true fan of the game.  Although all Braves and Red Sox fans would probably use different words to describe it.

Milwaukee Brewers 2011 Season Preview

Hopefully we'll be seeing more of this in 2011 - both the walk-off bomb and the home run (get it?)!

Otherwise known as "Way more words than you ever wanted to read about the Milwaukee Brewers."  I figured a good way to wrap up my baseball preview extravaganza would be to profile my favorite team and talk about their chances this season.  Partially this is because, for the first time in my living memory, the Beermakers actually have a reasonable chance to contend for the World Series this year.  I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this - obviously, as a fan I'm thrilled, but this is a lot of pressure that I'm not used to come Opening Day!

I'm also a little late on my schedule this week.  It turns out that writing small novels each night when you're not used to it is somewhat taxing, and Wednesday night I needed to recharge the sleep batteries a little bit.

If you haven't already, check out my AL and NL season previews from earlier in the week.  For the most part, I did those without reading a whole lot of the myriad season previews by other sportswriters and bloggers, which I have done since.  This means that you could look at my previews in two lights: 1) they are pure, unbiased, uncontaminated, fresh perspectives on all of the teams, or 2) they are a bunch of baloney and WAY different that what a lot of the experts are predicting.  Probably a little bit of both - I guess we'll find out at the end of the year!


One more thing - as with all of my opinions and analysis, most of this is pretty much off the cuff and shoddily researched, though I have done SOME sifting through stats and such.  If you want a more balanced, reasoned, and researched preview of the Brew Crew, I would recommend checking out a lot of content at BrewCrewBall or one of the other myriad baseball blogs floating around.  One more administrative item before I begin - I pulled any and all images here off of Google Image Search, so don't sue me if they're yours!


With that, let's get into it!