A Good Day in Cream City

By: Big Rygg

The title of this post would be "great", "stellar", or any one of a hundred other positive adjectives that are more positive than "great". How would today have attained one of those descriptive words? The Brewers would've needed to win the game.

But all that aside, something else happened today that makes this a good day all on it's own.

It was announced officially, at a 10am news conference, that starting left fielder Ryan Braun signed a brand new 8-year contract that will keep him with the Milwaukee Brewers through the 2015 season. The best part about this contract itself is the value...a measly $45 million.

(Yes, that value could up itself to $51 million if Braun's service time at the end of the 2009 season qualifies him as a Super Two player, and either way it's the richest contract in Milwaukee Brewers' history, but let's focus on what this signing means instead of how much this contract is worth.)

This contract is the longest is Milwaukee Brewers' history as well. It's kind of an obvious statement, but stop and think for a minute about what this means about Ryan Braun: the man.

Simply put, Ryan Braun wants to be in Milwaukee. Sure, you can be pessimistic and say that he was going to be here through 2011 at a minmum anyway, but the fact that he chose to sign on the dotted line to stay in Milwaukee through (at a minimum) two of his free agent years says a lot.

I could bore you with statistical comparisons to some of the great sluggers in the game today, I could even tell you where Braun ranks in several offensive categories since his arrival in the big leagues (it's pretty good, in case you were curious), but I won't because you can find that other places.

What I will do is tell you something that you can't hear anywhere else...

I, Adam "Big" Rygg, as a life-long Brewer fan finally am willing to buy a jersey with an active player's name on the back of it. As any long-time reader of this blog (at least since last summer) knows, my favorite player of all time is Robin Yount. Always has been, always will be. But there's a difference in buying a Yount #19 jersey or a Gorman Thomas #20 jersey or a Jimmy Gantner #17 and buying a J.J. Hardy #7, a Rickie Weeks #23 and even (at least for now) a Prince Fielder #28.

The first three jerseys will not change. They just won't. Yount played his entire career as a Milwaukee Brewer, Gantner likewise, and Thomas may as well have. The latter three? There's no guarantee in the game today, and far too often players are gone from Milwaukee before you know it.

Geoff Jenkins' #5? Nostalgic, sure, but also outdated and no longer accurate. Ben Sheets' #15? Could be gone this summer even. So many guys have come through Milwaukee on their way to good careers, it's frustrating.

But that culture, at least for a day, has shown signs of turning. Ryan Braun's contract not only keeps a good player in Milwaukee for a lot of years but hopefully is indicative of things to come with several more of the current core of this team.

Prince Fielder and Corey Hart ought to be next on the priority list for General Manager (and blog sloganized) Doug Melvin, in my opinion. After that, we'll see, but the bottom line is that Ryan Braun set the bar...

He set the bar for contracts for players with less than 2 years of Major League service.
He set the bar for Milwaukee Brewer contracts and possibly even for payroll projections.
He set the bar for for the teammates that he said he hopes sign with the Brewers as well.

Makes you feel good as a Brewer fan, doesn't it?

Good day...good day.