Going streaking
After Sunday’s Braunian three-hit effort, Braun carries a two-game
home run streak and a 54-homer pace into Tuesday’s series opener vs. the Reds at Miller Park.
As if he needed any extra motivation to lay the Braun down on NL
pitching, Braun has allegedly challenged cash-hungry Home Run Beat the
Streak players to pick him every day the Brewers play for the rest of the season.
If all
goes according to plan, Braun will simultaneously celebrate Tax Day and
break the Major League record by homering in his ninth straight game
next Tuesday, April 15, in St. Louis. From there, he will shatter the
all-time HR BTS mark two days later in the series finale at Busch
Stadium.
Braunspeed,
Dean
Dawn of Braun
“I can’t say anything bad about the Braun pick. He put up such Braunian numbers
and showed such Brauny ability at the plate that I can’t help but foresee him
reaching even a higher apex of Braundom this year.”
–Dave Feldman, MLB.com’s resident soothsayer, diarist, geriatrician,
handicapper, sociologist, lawyer, Russian judge and political correspondent, on
Chiungos’ Braunian selection
Speaking of Attorney Dave, he had some bold predictions of his own in a column we ran today. Read it if you like good jokes, and have a good weekend.
-ADDean
How 100 SBs for Bourn was Born
No one has swiped 100 bases since Vince Coleman pulled off the feat in 1987 (109 SBs). In fact Coleman and Rickey Henderson are the last two players to even reach the 80 mark, doing so exactly 20 years ago in 1988.
So why am I predicting a fairly unknown outfielder to become only the fifth player in MLB history to steal 100 or more bases in a season? A few reasons:
1) I like making insane predictions and always liked speedsters growing up. My first favorite player as a kid was Mickey Rivers, before Coleman became my guy from 1985-1990 and 1994-1995 (I try to block out the three years in between with the Mets).
2) I watched Michael Bourn for the first time last year on Sunday night baseball. The rookie came on to pinch run in the seventh inning and immediately stole second. On the next pitch, despite a bad jump, he was standing at third. Wes Helms then hit a grounder right at a drawn-in Omar Vizquel, yet Bourn somehow still managed to beat the throw home and scored. Might have been the most impressive display of raw speed I have ever seen.
3) Bourn, like Coleman, has little to no power. And while he didn’t put up the kind of stolen base numbers that Coleman did in the minors (Vince holds the record with 145 steals at Macon in 1983), he did steal 164 bases in 397 career minor league games. His on-base percentage was a very respectable .377 in the minors, a number higher than Coleman ever posted in 13 big league seasons. In fact, if Coleman could steal 107 bases in a season where he had a .301 OBP, as he did in 1986, why can’t Bourn reach the century mark this season, even if he only has a .320-.330 OBP? Doesn’t seem completely absurd.
Anyway, I made the prediction on Monday while chatting with Alex, Tim and Dean, and after two days of baseball, Bourn already has three steals and is on pace to finish the season with 243. And while Bourn could become the next Brian Hunter, Quilio Veras, Chuck Carr or Alex Cole, it should be entertaining to watch the speedy Astro on a nightly basis (as I did last night until 1 in the morning despite my wife’s protests to shut off MLB.TV on my computer.
– Gregg Klayman
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