Braun, Fielder eager to hit

Every time a pinch-hit opportunity neared Tuesday night, Milwaukee's Ryan Braun was ready. He had his bat in hand, his helmet handy, and made sure he was in plain view.

And every time, his manager told the eager Brewer to relax.

"Not right here, son. Go sit down," Milwaukee's Ned Yost recalled telling Braun several times.

Yost added, "It's hard on those kids. They want in that game. They have to sit back and regroup a little bit."

Yost has a couple of those kids. And the season so far has been hard on them.

Braun and first baseman Prince Fielder — two of the finest young sluggers in baseball — are off to sluggish starts in their encore seasons. Braun, the reigning rookie of the year, returned to the lineup Wednesday toting a .226 average with 11 strikeouts and no walks. Fielder, who hit 50 home runs last year, had yet to hit one in his first 58 plate appearances. Yost is eyeing both to be sure their sputtering in April doesn't turn into a bona fide slump.

Their youth "has just about everything to do with it," Yost said. "They're going to play through it. You just hope that it doesn't last too long. When you have years like both of them did last year, your tendency — especially when you're young — is to come back the next year and even do better. You force it a little bit instead of just relaxing it and letting it happen like it did last year."

Yost sat Braun on Tuesday to calm what the manager called his young left fielder's "over-anxiousness." While tumbling to a .186 average over the previous 10 games, Braun, 24, had started to force his swing and fish for pitches.

Fielder, 23, refused to do that Tuesday. He took four walks from the Cardinals, an encouraging difference.

"For me, I know I definitely haven't been seeing the ball as well as I did last night," Fielder said. "It doesn't matter where your hands are or where you're standing in the box. If you don't see it, you're not going to hit it."

But hit is all the duo seemed to do last season.

Combined the pair launched 84 home runs, drove in 216 runs and made history. Fielder became the youngest player in baseball to hit 50 home runs. Braun's .634 slugging percentage was the highest ever by a rookie, shattering Mark McGwire's record .618 in 1987. A year after Fielder set franchise records with 28 home runs and 81 RBIs as a rookie, Braun bested those with 34 and 97 — in 118 fewer at-bats.

(stltoday.com)