Ryan Braun Locked Up! Signs 7-year $45 Million Contract Extension

I don't even want to get into last nights awful loss when we blew the lead. And I certainly don't want to talk about today's loss when Ben Sheets pitched his first poor game of the season after getting lit up in the 7th inning. Today it's all about the franchise of the Milwaukee Brewers, my favorite current Brewers player LF Ryan Braun. Today Owner Mark Attanasio and General Managers Doug Melvin/Gord Ash made a huge and very important move for the future of this great franchise when they locked up Braun for 7 more years after this season. Braun will be a Brewer until at least 2015. This deal will take Braun through his prime and will probably end up looking like a steal in the end since the Brewers were able to buy out his arbitration and a few years of free agency. This made me very happy and trumps the shittiness of today's game. Now I do hope the Brewers are still able to re-sign Prince Fielder at some point, but if I could only sign one of the two there is not a single doubt in my mind Braun would be the choice. While I like Fielder and think he will be a very good player and multiple time All-Star in this league, I think Braun has that special talent that only comes around once in awhile and could be a Hall of Fame type player. Look what he did in his rookie year, one of the best in the history of the game and so far this season off to a another strong start. And I think he will be the last Brewer to wear #8 as it will be retired up in the rafters someday with the greats of Young, Molitor, Fingers and Aaron. Braun is that good, he has 5-tool ability. He will hit for average, hit the long ball, drive in runs, steal some bases and I think he will be close to a gold glove caliber LF when all is said and done. He has already made some nice catches and throws this season and will only get better at his defense as time goes on. Everything about him screams "superstar" to me and so many others in Brewers Nation. Another reason he was more important to lock up then Prince is because Matt LaPorta another young special talent down in AA is ripping the cover off the ball and is a natural 1B even though he is playing OF in the minors. So what did Braun do on his big day? Well he was only 1-4 but the one hit was his 10th HR this season deep to centerfield. I'm actually excited at the fact that my kids (will probably have one within the next year or two with my soon to be wife) will get to see Braun in a Brewers uniform. A great and historic day in Brewers history now it's off to Boston for the Crew, gonna be a tough 3 game series and just the beginning of a tough 10 game road trip.