Ryan Braun Rumors

Ryan Braun Contract Details

Tom Haudricourt has the details on Ryan Braun's new extension. It's a tricky one, because it's not yet known whether Braun will be arbitration-eligible after the 2009 season. It won't be known for sure until November of '09. If he is arb-eligible at that time he'll make an extra $6MM. It's looking like Braun will earn $4.5MM (including a signing bonus) for his three pre-arb years. Then he'll get $18.5MM for his three arb years (less than 80% of what Hanley Ramirez will get for the same slice of his career). After that Braun gave up his first two free...   Continue Reading

---

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Braun, Holliday, Kouzmanoff, Greene, Sabean

Let's take a look at what is being said about some recent rumors, trades and signings in the Blogosphere... Right Field Bleachers sees the signing of Ryan Braun and Corey Hart to long-term deals as a "must" for the Brewers. Brewers Nation sees the Braun deal as evidence that Prince Fielder will not sign an extension even if the two situations are very different. Oleanders and Morning Glories thinks that if Nats' management was hoping to sign Ryan Zimmerman to a Troy Tulowitzki-type deal, Braun's deal may have raised the bar. Squawking Baseball sees the recent trend in giving long-term...   Continue Reading

---

Ryan Braun Signs Extension With Brewers

10:50am: More details from Haudricourt. The deal includes a $2.3MM signing bonus that will be paid this year and added to the $455K Braun was already set to make. In addition, there is an escalator clause that would up the value of the deal to $51MM if Braun's service time were to fall under "Super-2" status following the '09 season. That is not likely to happen as Braun acumulated only 129 days of service time in '07 and "Super-2" status usually requires 130-140 days. Also, the first 4 years of the deal include a complete no-trade clause. 10:06am: Haudricourt is...   Continue Reading

---

Odds and Ends: Braun, Cueto, Pelfrey

An assortment of links... Ryan Braun's agent is in town to talk about extension scenarios with the Brewers. Perhaps the Brewers could get him for slightly more than the $30MM Troy Tulowitzki received. As Tom Haudricourt writes, a Prince Fielder extension seems less likely. The Blue Jays once offered Frank Catalanotto for Johnny Cueto, when Wayne Krivsky was new on the job. Nice try, J.P. Buster Olney believes tonight's start by Mike Pelfrey might determine the likelihood of the Mets pursuing outside pitching help. Claudio Vargas remains unsigned.   Continue Reading

---

Odds and Ends: Rauch, Fielder, Braun, Garcia

Some links for you to peruse... We suggested on Wednesday that Jon Rauch makes sense for Detroit. That same day, the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga wrote that the Tigers "will watch Rauch very closely." You have to appreciate Matt Morris' candor regarding his salary. We learned on Saturday that the Brewers made offers to sluggers Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun. Today the team's owner said talks with both are ongoing. Other multiyear offers have been made, though the players are not known. Tom Haudricourt speculates on Corey Hart, Yovani Gallardo, J.J. Hardy, and Rickie Weeks. Ken Rosenthal sees Freddy Garcia...   Continue Reading

---

Brewers Make Offers To Braun And Fielder

When the Brewers renewed Prince Fielder's contract at the beginning of the month, he wasn't happy about it. He told the press, "My time is going to come. It's going to come quick, too." He may have been more right than he knew. The Brewers have submitted multiyear contract proposals to Fielder and Ryan Braun. Each deal would buy out at least one year of free agency and include an option for an additional year past that. No word yet on how much money is involved. Bet on Braun getting at least as much as Troy Tulowitzki -- six years,...   Continue Reading

---

Brewers To Focus On Fielder, Braun

Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun form an awesome tandem; the two Milwaukee sluggers could combine for 90 home runs this year. According to Tom Haudricourt, they've been identified as the first two targets for contract extensions. Haudricourt says the Crew will want to buy out at least one year of free agency in either case. Fielder is set to reach arbitration for the first time next year. Scott Boras mentioned "general discussions" with Doug Melvin on the topic. I imagine Fielder's arb years could cost more than $35MM going year to year. Then he'd want at least $18MM for the...   Continue Reading

---

Attanasio Wants To Keep Core Together

Brewers' owner Mark Attanasio promises that Milwaukee will do its best to sign its core of young talent to long-term deals. At the same time, he washes his hands of any blame if Prince Fielder is feeling slighted by the $255,000 raise he got in a contract renewal earlier this year. Fielder, second baseman Rickie Weeks, left fielder Ryan Braun, and outfielder Corey Hart form the core of Milwaukee's young team that's expected to contend in the NL Central for years. "[W]e're interested in signing all of our younger players to longer-term deals," Attanasio told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday. Attanasio...   Continue Reading

---

Fielder Not Happy With Renewal

3:28pm: Fielder gets $670K, to be exact. Doug Melvin was surprised at Prince's public displeasure. 1:46pm: Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that Prince Fielder is not pleased with his contract renewal, executed this morning. Rumored to be in the $650,000 range, Fielder's agent, Scott Boras, indicated his client's displeasure. Ryan Howard's $900,000 contract for 2007 was cited as the figure the first baseman hoped to fetch for the season. Fielder made $415,000 last season. According to Haudricourt, the Brewers used a formula they go by for players with zero to three years experience, a formula which they also...   Continue Reading

---

Brewers Talk Extension With Braun

According to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, Ryan Braun's agent had preliminary contract extension talks with Brewers assistant GM Gord Ash recently. Troy Tulowitzki's recent deal may serve as a framework. Tulo received $31MM over six years with a seventh year option. For their cases to be comparable in terms of service time, Braun will have to qualify as a Super Two player. I spoke to ESPN's Keith Law on the topic. He said: Right now, given his service time and where the cutoff for super-twos has been for the last ~ten years, I don't believe he'll have enough service time after...   Continue Reading

---

Ryan Howard Fallout

Ryan Howard winning a $10MM salary yesterday was kind of a big deal. Let's examine this first-year arbitration record. A source of Jayson Stark's thinks the Phillies would've won had they submitted above Miguel Cabrera's $7.4MM. Seems that even slightly above would've done it, because then Howard losing would've still set a record. Tom Haudricourt talks about how Prince Fielder is now in line for the same $10MM for his '09 salary. And he doesn't see Scott Boras relenting and doing a multiyear deal. Stark adds Ryan Braun, Ryan Zimmerman, and Hanley Ramirez as other young stars who will be...   Continue Reading

---