The Past, the Path Not Taken and the Present
Lookout Landing —
... Lets take another retrospective look, this time at our current projected first basemen, Russell Branyan. Branyan, under team control with Milwaukee at the time had his final two arbitration seasons in 2005-6. He had a team option exercised in 2007 and signed a minor league contract in 2008. All told, Branyan's earned about $3-4 million during that same four year period. In that span, Branyan accumulated 3.9 wins. Not bad for the amount of money paid him, but still quite a bit worse than Delgado, right? ...
BABIP: Progressing and Regressing Groundball Out Rates
Baseball Analysts —
... ratios.
Finally, we looked for any left-handed batters with high pull percentages, who would therefore be good candidates for the defensive shift. Nate McLouth had a pull/opp ratio of 10.208, but his speed statistic is quite high, explaining why teams probably choose not to shift him. If you’re fielding balls in short right field, you won’t get a fast player out. Nick Swisher’s pull/opp ratio 10.92 yet teams do not shift him. Russell Branyan and David Dellucci are also strong ...
Series Preview: 4/21-4/23 Tampa Bay Rays @ Seattle Mariners
DRaysBay —
... pump it up when needed. Look for a fastball heavy attack, with some sliders, curves, and changes tossed in for good measure. Felix doesn't walk a lot of batters nor does he give up many homeruns anymore, and if this improvement in strikeout rate is legitimate, then you're looking at a legitimate Cy Young contender. If you don't think you'll make it home by 6:40 Thursday night, take off early, Shields and Hernandez should be delightful.
C Rob Johnson 1B Russell Branyan/Mike Sweeney 2B Jose Lopez 3B Adrian ...
Series preview: Mariners @ White Sox
Baseball Digest —
After losing two of three to the surprising Blue Jays, the equally (and probably more) surprising Seattle Mariners come to town for a three-game series. Seattle is out to a 12-7 start in thanks to the classic baseball formula for success: pitching and defense. Mariners pitchers have a combined 3.50 ERA—third-best in in baseball, only behind Pittsburgh and Kansas City (yes, you read that right—although Pittsburgh’s team ERA is likely to rise as their team BABIP is a ridiculously low .251, among other reasons).
Combine that stellar pitching with a stellar 7.4 team UZR—fourth-best in baseball—and that’s why Seattle is leading the AL West ...
The Best Thing about the Seattle Series: Watching Big Russ
Friar Forecast —
by Daniel Gettinger
If you think I gush too much about Chad Gaudin, you should have heard me discussing Russell Branyan a few years back. He batted 0.197 for the Padres in ‘07, but I liked to point out the very reasonable (at least for that batting average) 0.748 OPS. I told everyone who would listen that all Russ needed was consistent playing time. Most thought I was crazy. To this day, I am still heckled by my friends about my weird Russell Branyan obsession.
This year though, it is me doing the laughing. Branyan is having a career year, and the media has picked up on it. The thing is, Branyan is not doing all that ...
Branyan And Gutierrez Continue To Produce
Around the Majors —
Russell
Branyan and Franklin Gutierrez each played a key part in the Seattle
Mariners' 8-4 win over the New York Yankees on Thursday night. Branyan continued his impressive breakout, going 2-for-4 with his 20th home run (a moon shot that hit the restaurant
in center field at Yankee Stadium). Gutierrez also went deep to cap off
a three-hit performance as the Mariners roughed up Yankees starter CC
Sabathia for six earned runs. Ichiro Suzuki, as usual, also got in on
the action, but it was fitting that Branyan and Gutierrez each played
such an instrumental role in the high-profile win, which ended
Seattle's 10-game losing ...
Roster Rumblings: Washburn, Clement?
Detroit Tigers blog —
I'm a day behind on this one, but the Tigers might have interest in trading for Seattle's Jarrod Washburn and/or Triple-A Tacoma catcher Jeff Clement.
Update: Well cross Clement off, he was acquired by the Pirates along with several others for Ian Snell and Jack Wilson.
Washburn is a lefty with an incredible ERA this year (2.64), and he's probably having a career season. He may be getting a bit lucky, but his FIP stat is still a 3.75. Any trade discussion for Washburn has been flying low under the radar, because until recently the Mariners were in the playoff hunt for the AL West. That, and ...
This Guy Is Playing Golf Right Now: Russell Branyan
Walkoff Walk —
As the playoffs and award season gets underway, we want to take a gander at some players who had outstanding seasons in 2009 but whose teams ended up just shy of making the postseason and who will (most likely) not pick up any fancy trophies. Quite a consolation prize: a round of golf and a write-up on a low circulation sports blog.
Previously, Ben Zobrist, Adam Lind and Prince Fielder.
Next up, Russell Branyan, as written by our pal J from 3:10 to Joba
You are Russell Branyan. In the Year of our Lord, 1998, you made your debut for the Cleveland Indians. Since that fateful ...
Discussion: Russell Branyan
MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com —
On December 3rd, new Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik made his first free agent signing: Russell Branyan on a one-year, $1.4MM deal with $350K in incentives. Zduriencik said at the time he was prepared to "give Russell as many at-bats as he's had in his career." That held true, as Branyan racked up 505 plate appearances in 2009. The ...
Rays Send Aki Iwamura to Pirates for Random Prospect
Royals Review —
... the field, drives away the fan base, and in the process lowers future revenues. There is a financial cost to losing that is magnified when teams are uniformly awful, and that cost can inhibit a team’s growth potential in the long run. Developing a fan base is in many ways like developing a farm system – it requires a present term investment that theoretically returns greater future value.
[...]
The key is to be smart about what kinds of investments you make. Russ Branyan’s signing by the Mariners last year is a perfect example of the kind ...
