Ryan Braun
Braun's 2011 MVP campaign remains one of the most dominant offensive seasons by a left fielder in recent memory, posting a .994 OPS that carried Milwaukee to within one win of the World Series. That peak represented the culmination of a remarkable early-career run where he became just the second player ever to win Rookie of the Year in both leagues.
The Wisconsin native's career arc tells the story of sustained excellence over 14 seasons, all with the Brewers. His .296 career average and 120 OPS+ reflect genuine hitting ability, while five Silver Sluggers demonstrate consistent offensive production from a corner outfield spot.
What made Braun special was his ability to combine power and average during baseball's offensive renaissance of the late 2000s. His 352 home runs rank among the top left fielders of his generation, and that 2011 season remains a high-water mark for clutch hitting in Brewers franchise history.
Career · Batting
14 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | MIL | 113 | 451 | 34 | 97 | .324 | 1.004 | 132 |
| 2008 | MIL | 151 | 611 | 37 | 106 | .285 | .888 | 119 |
| 2009 | MIL | 158 | 635 | 32 | 114 | .320 | .937 | 125 |
| 2010 | MIL | 157 | 619 | 25 | 103 | .304 | .866 | 119 |
| 2011 | MIL | 150 | 563 | 33 | 111 | .332 | .994 | 138 |
| 2012 | MIL | 154 | 598 | 41 | 112 | .319 | .987 | 136 |
| 2013 | MIL | 61 | 225 | 9 | 38 | .298 | .869 | 122 |
| 2014 | MIL | 135 | 530 | 19 | 81 | .266 | .777 | 111 |
| 2015 | MIL | 140 | 506 | 25 | 84 | .285 | .854 | 118 |
| 2016 | MIL | 135 | 511 | 30 | 91 | .305 | .903 | 122 |
| 2017 | MIL | 104 | 380 | 17 | 52 | .268 | .823 | 110 |
| 2018 | MIL | 125 | 405 | 20 | 64 | .254 | .782 | 107 |
| 2019 | MIL | 144 | 459 | 22 | 75 | .285 | .849 | 112 |
| 2020 | MIL | 39 | 129 | 8 | 26 | .233 | .769 | 104 |
| Career | 1766 | 6622 | 352 | 1154 | .296 | — | — | |
Every ball this hitter has put in play — how hard it left the bat, and at what angle. The red field behind the dots shows how much damage that kind of contact does, league-wide: the darker the red, the better things go for the hitter.
The field — league-average xwOBA (what a batted ball is typically worth: 0.0 is a sure out, ~2.0 a sure home run) for every exit-velocity × launch-angle combination, measured from 1.3 million regular-season balls in play since 2015. The dark ridge — balls hit 105+ mph at 25–30° — is the barrel zone, where contact becomes near-automatic extra bases.
The dots — this hitter’s career regular-season balls in play, grouped to a fine grid; a bigger dot means more batted balls at that exact combination. Dots piled onto the red ridge are damage; dots low on the pale field are weak or mishit contact. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.