Ryan Braun relishing a calm off-season this year

A year ago, Ryan Braun was in limbo.

In the midst of appealing his 50-game drug suspension, the Milwaukee Brewers' leftfielder basically dropped out of sight until the start of spring training.

That meant no media exposure in the weeks and months following his 2011 National League most valuable player award and no appearance at the "Brewers On Deck" event in downtown Milwaukee.

But with all that and a productive 2012 season behind him, Braun returned to the team's annual event Sunday at the Delta Center.

Relaxed and all smiles, Braun not surprisingly said he has been enjoying this off-season much more than his last.

"This is nice," he said during a break. "It's definitely a lot different for me. It's just nice to be able to relax, to have a regular schedule, a regular routine, know exactly what I'm getting myself into. More than anything else, it's far more relaxing."

Braun will head into spring training a little bit ahead of the curve having begun long-tossing in November and hitting in earnest in December, a month earlier than usual.

Much of this early work is to help him get prepared for the World Baseball Classic. Braun, along with Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy, is a member of Team USA, which will begin training in Phoenix on March 1. Team USA's first game is March 8 at Chase Field against Mexico, which will have a pair of Brewers starting pitchers in Yovani Gallardo and Marco Estrada.

Unlike some of the other big American stars who passed on the opportunity to play for Team USA, Braun said he relishes the opportunity.

"First and foremost, it's an honor," he said. "It's a tremendous honor to represent your country. You don't know how many opportunities you'll get to do that - this tournament only happens once every four years, and four years from now who knows - for all of us - what our health situation will be, where we'll be in the game, whether we'll even get an opportunity to be invited.

"For me, I think it was a no-brainer. As long as I was healthy, it was something I was definitely going to do."

Braun was asked about playing alongside Lucroy for Team USA, and got in the zinger of the day.

"It's amazing - I didn't even know Team USA had a bullpen catcher," he said with a grin. "It's really cool to have a teammate. It's going to be really fun for both of us. We've talked about it and we're pretty excited. It's definitely a cool opportunity, and we'll get a chance to play against some of our teammates, too."

As far as the Brewers' chances this year, Braun, like everyone else, is interested in seeing how the team's rotation shakes out. Aside from Gallardo and Estrada, Chris Narveson is attempting to return from rotator-cuff surgery, and youngsters Mike Fiers, Mark Rogers and Wily Peralta will also be trying to win spots.

"I think the talent is there; it's about going out there and doing it over the course of the season," he said. "We have some guys that are relatively inexperienced (in the rotation) - we don't know exactly what they're going to be able to do. But aside from that, I think we're certainly going to be competitive again.

"And as long as you're competitive, that's all you can ask for."


(jsonline.com)