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Ryan Braun Will Never Return to What he Once Was for the Milwaukee Brewers

By Josh Sippie

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Ryan Braun was one heck of a talent when he won Rookie of the Year in 2007. His 1.004 OPS and .634 Slugging Percentage were the highest he has ever tallied in his entire career, even during his steroid days. The Hebrew Hammer also slammed 34 home runs and 97 RBIs in that season.

Aside from a sophomore slump(ish) season, Ryan Braun has never hit below .300, 25 home runs and 100 RBIs. That is, until he got busted for doping, then lied about it, and then confessed.

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Ryan Braun indicated that his 2011 season was when he was introduced to banned substances (via USA TODAY). His 2012 season saw him put up the most outstanding power numbers since his rookie year. But then, after returning from suspension, Braun’s numbers became clearly hindered by his lack of performance enhancing substances.

In his return to baseball in 2014, he put up his worst numbers ever, including his worst ratio of hard and medium hit balls. While some pin this on his bad thumb, it would be tough to ignore that it was his first season off of steroids as well. Braun hit .226 in the second half of the season to cap off a tough year where he hit .266 with 19 home runs and 81 RBIs. Not terrible numbers by any means, but not Ryan Braun numbers.

This year has been a different story, as Braun looks like he is inching back towards the dominant numbers he has put up in years past. Despite the Brewers floundering around at the bottom of the NL Central, Braun has 15 home runs and 55 RBIs, right up there near the league lead.

However, Braun’s OPS is only at .823, the second lowest of his career next to last year.

Some have claimed that Ryan Braun is suffering from bad luck and that he is actually hitting the ball hard. But if you look at the stats, Ryan Braun has not placed in the top 40 in hard hit balls in play so far this season. That’s right, not in April, May or June. His BABIP is just above the league average as indicated by FanGraphs, so we can not blame the ball just “not falling” for Braun either.

It looks like Ryan Braun, now 31 years of age, spent his best years being ruined by performance enhancing substances. Now that he is finally off them, his body just does not have enough time to get back to where he was before he broke the rules.

This case has similarities to Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. All three of the dopers had plenty of talent to be Hall of Fame worthy players before engaging in steroids, but they wanted the extra edge and will pay the price. However, Alex Rodriguez’s situation can be used to figure out if Braun can ever return to those pre-steroid years.

A-Rod admitted to using steroids from 2001 to 2004. Whether he used them after that, we do not know. However, when A-Rod was the same age as Braun is now, in 2007, the Yankee third baseman clubbed 54 home runs, 156 RBIs and put up his best statistical year in his career. Again, was he still doping? Who knows, some say he was.

Since 2011, however, A-Rod has been a shade of his former self, never surpassing .300, 20 home runs or 70 RBIs. This year may be different, however.

So can Ryan Braun make it back to his former self? Probably not. But that does not mean he can not be effective. It is not like coming down off steroids eliminates all the talent you once had, but it does effect the body and so does aging, which Braun is now having to do at the same time that his body is without outside help. A-Rod gradually declined after his huge 2007, when he was 31.

Braun is not going to have a huge season at 31, but it appears he will have a decent one. Could he conceivably get better after that? Sure. But he will never return to what he had before he took steroids.

Again, comparing him to A-Rod is tough because we still do not know the full extent of when Rodriguez was on steroids or not. If he really stopped using them in 2004, then there was no fall-off between using them or not using them. That is hard to believe. If he used them up until 2007/2008 as some believe, then there was about a three year fall-off until he returned to the stat line that he is having this year. While it is nowhere near what he was doing before and during the ‘roids. It is still good.

Ryan Braun is already two years into being steroid free and it is steadily coming back to him. By the time he is 33, he may very well be putting up solid numbers yet again. But Braun wasted his prime years on steroids and now that he is older, he is going to find it impossible to get back to what he once was.

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