Braun’s 1B debut comes in a special place
SAN DIEGO – Petco Park always has been a special place for Ryan Braun.
It’s the ballpark where the Milwaukee Brewers star made his major-league debut on May 25, 2007, the beginning of what would be his National League rookie-ofthe-year season. The next night, Braun belted his first career home run off the Padres’ Justin Germano.
On April 30, 2012, Braun became the first player to slug three home runs in a game at Petco Park, and this was before fences were moved in at the spacious venue known as a pitcher’s paradise.
“It’s always been one of my favorite places to play,” said Braun, who lives a couple hours to the north in Malibu, Calif., and therefore usually has a sizable contingent of family and friends on hand to watch.
“The city is incredible; the ballpark is beautiful. For me, personally, I’ve had some special moments there. Your debut is something you never forget. We only go there one time a year, so I always have a big pass list, a lot of people there.”
When the Brewers open the 2018 season against San Diego on Thursday afternoon, Braun will experience another memorable moment at Petco Park. He is scheduled to make his first professional start at first base.
The plan to give Braun starts at first base against left-handed pitchers (Clayton Richard is starting for the Padres) was hatched after the Brewers acquired outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich on the same day in late January. The thinking was to open outfield time for others, such as slugger Domingo Santana, with Braun making starts at first base in place of left-handed-hitting Eric Thames.
But there was one little detail to get past: Braun never had played first base at any level. He began his career as an error-prone third baseman (26 in that rookie season), moved to left field the next season, then shifted to right field for a couple of seasons (2014-’15) before returning to left.
Spring training this year became a baseball laboratory for Braun as he took ground ball after ground ball at first base during workouts, learned the nuances of the position during defensive drills and, eventually, saw game action there during exhibition play. All told, he saw 47 innings of action at first base spread over nine games. In the first three games, Braun continued to use his outfield glove while breaking in a new first baseman’s mitt.
Despite Braun’s athleticism and baseball instincts, the grand experiment did not go without hiccups. Halfway through camp, he admitted to reporters he was “not remotely comfortable” at the position.
Braun, 34, continued to work and make progress at the position, and one play in particular during an exhibition game Monday evening in Houston showed he was getting the hang of things. In the first inning, left-hander Brent Suter caught speedy Jose Altuve breaking off first base and threw over to Braun, who deftly made the relay to second baseman Jonathan Villar for the out.
Pickoff plays with the runner breaking to second base can be tricky for first basemen because the runner is between him and the defender covering the bag, creating an obstacle to clear with an accurate throw.
“It’s one of the toughest plays you have as a first baseman,” Braun said. “Obviously, Altuve is about as fast as anybody in baseball. That was a tough one, too, because the second baseman is covering, so basically you have to throw it over the runner’s head.
“It’s one of those things that even if you practice it, you can’t duplicate it unless it happens in a game. I was happy I was able to have that play. Some of the throws are the things that are newest to me.”
No one expects Braun to play Gold Glove-caliber defense at first base. But neither he nor manager Craig Counsell wants it to become stressful, or even worse, embarrassing.
“Ryan made a lot of progress in a pretty tough challenge this spring,” Counsell said. “We feel like he’s ready to go at first base. It was kind of a crash course that we had to do really fast. He has done well.
“The learning is still going on there but he has done really well. That was one of the big questions we had coming in to camp.”
When the plan was first broached with Braun, he never imagined he’d be the Brewers’ opening day first baseman. But that’s where he will be in lineup No. 1 for 2018, beginning a new chapter of his long career.
“I didn’t really think that far ahead,” Braun said. “My thought process from the very beginning was to try to get as comfortable as I could at the position, see how it went. I continued to have dialogue and conversation with (Counsell and the coaches).
“Overall, I feel like I’ve played well. I’m a lot more comfortable there than I was six weeks ago, obviously. With that being said, there’s still room for improvement, and there’s a lot of things that will come up in games that I’ve never experienced.
“As I said from the beginning, I don’t have any unrealistic expectation of being perfect or expecting to feel like I’ve been there my whole career. So, I’m just going to do the best I can, continue to learn, continue to get better.”