Amidst all of the questions surrounding the Milwaukee Brewers entering the 2014 season, the biggest one has to be whether Ryan Braun will return to the Braun of old this season and be the player he was before all of the PED talk started circling around him.
He played just 61 games last season, after missing 46 games with a nagging injury and final 65 with the PED suspension and was on pace to have one of his worst seasons before the suspension, regardless. Hitting the restart button was good for him in that aspect.
This season, however, is going to be a different animal for him. If he thought he had it rough as the Brewers' best player on the road, he will hear it every time he jogs to right field and when he comes to bat.
Truth be told, the PEDs were to help come back from an injury and with his prolonged time off (missing 101 games last season), he should be back and healthy and if he can maintain his health, he will be a valuable part of the team.
The one thing the Brewers will need of him is mental toughness. It's something he's had from the start of his career. He has been one of the best players in the league since he came up from Nashville, winning a Rookie of the Year and MVP in his first five seasons. He'll need to answer the same questions from media over and over and get a few slights from players on other teams, at least for the near future.
As for the team around him, the Brewers are moving him to right field because of what they saw from Chris Davis who replaced him in the lineup during the suspension and other players on the team came into their own in the final two months of last season.
Carlos Gomez had his best season as a pro last year and won the first Brewers Gold Glove since the 80s and Jean Segura showed he is one of the top short stops in the National League with his showing. Get Aramas Ramirez healthy and add the upstart Scooter Gennett to backstop Jonathan Lucroy and things are solid for the Brewers lineup. That will take some of the pressure off Braun to produce in the Brewers lineup.
He will get some protection being in Milwaukee, a small media market, and from manager Ron Roenicke who seems pretty close to Braun.
That said, I can see Braun having an all-star year (not starting because of fan vote) and returning to form. Winning back the masses in Milwaukee and beyon will take time. If he goes out and produces, people will forgive and forget and he will rise again as the face of the Brewers franchise. Doug Melvin, Mark Attanasio and the Brewers are banking on it.
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