Milwaukee Brewers Plan for Time Without Ryan Braun

Ryan Braun has been caught (again) and now must face the consequences. Of course, his punishment for using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) hasn’t been decided yet, but the Milwaukee Brewers‘ slugger will undoubtedly miss at least part of the 2013 MLB season. So that means the Brewers, who finished third in the NL Central last year, will have to shuffle their outfield to compensate for the hole that will be left by Braun’s absence. And that doesn’t even begin to describe the void in their lineup that was just created.

Norichika Aoki is the Brewers’ starting right fielder, but he’s also the primary backup for center fielder Carlos Gomez and Braun in left field. So the initial thought would be that Milwaukee will move Aoki to left field and start journeyman Corey Hart, who had a decent 2012 season, in right field.

Of course, neither Aoki or Hart bring nearly the power to the Brewers’ lineup that Braun did. However, that power was illegally fueled, so we have to at least pretend like it was never there. (Braun was busted for illegal synthetic testosterone right after his NL MVP campaign in 2011, after all). In 149 games with the Brewers in 2012, Hart belted 30 home runs while driving in 83 runs. Not bad for a guy who was supposed to be a second-stringer this season. However, the pressure is now on him to perform, assuming Braun will be out for at least 50 games.

The Brewers will obviously have a bough time keeping pace with the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central and not having Braun will make that very difficult, but on the bright side, at least they’ll know what they have in Hart for the future.

Jeric Griffin is the Director of Content for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JericGriffin, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google