By James Bailey
The Russell Branyan experiment is looking pretty good for Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik right about now.
Zduriencik, who came over from the Brewers in the offseason to replace Bill Bavasi as the head man in Seattle, knew Branyan from their time together in Milwaukee. He lured the corner infielder to the Northwest with a $1.4 million, one-year deal and an offer of playing time. The money could have been topped by a deal in Japan, but the opportunity was something the 33-year-old Branyan hadn’t seen stateside. Ever.
Branyan has hit in five different spots in manager Don Wakamatsu’s lineup, with the bulk of his action in the five-hole, though he’s recently been moved up to second. He leads the team with 15 home runs and is hitting .308, more than 50 points above his previous career best. Though he has played primarily against righthanders throughout his career, he’s facing all comers this season, and hitting them all. In 63 at-bats against lefties he has a .902 OPS. That’s not bad until you compare it to his awesome 1.066 OPS against righties.
Branyan credits an eye-training program for some of the improvement. He claims he’s seeing the ball better since incorporating eye exercises into his daily routine last year. He’s still striking out at a healthy clip (once every 3.35 AB), though it’s a significant improvement over his ratio of 2.5 AB per strikeout prior to this season.
At this pace, Branyan will shatter every previous career best he’s ever posted. Here are his 2009 numbers compared to his previous high marks:
| Previous | 2009 | |
| Avg. | .257 (’05) | .308 |
| OBP | .378 (’05) | .413 |
| SLG | .583 (’08) | .602 |
| AB | 378 (’02) | 201 |
| 2B | 16 (’01) | 14 |
| HR | 24 (’02) | 15 |
| R | 50 (’02) | 37 |
| RBI | 56 (’02) | 30 |
| BB | 51 (’02) | 34 |
| SO | 151 (’02) | 60 |
A seventh-round pick by the Indians out of high school in 1994, Branyan came up through the Cleveland organization with a reputation as a big power hitter who didn’t get cheated. He pounded 40 home runs in his first full season, at low-A Columbus in ’96. The next year he crushed 39 more, split between two minor league levels.
When he ranked fourth on Baseball America’s Indians Top 10 Prospects list prior to the ’97 season they wrote: “Branyan has awesome power, as good as any prospect in the game, to all fields. … Contact is a problem. Branyan has struck out 286 times in 759 at-bats over the last two years. But it’s a problem the Indians might just live with as a tradeoff for Branyan’s power.”
The lefty-hitting slugger teased the Tribe with his longball prowess for another five seasons, never getting more than 315 big league at-bats. Finally, in June 2002, they dealt him to the Reds for first baseman Ben Broussard. Branyan hit just .232 with 25 homers in 393 at-bats for Cincinnati over the next season and a half. He was non-tendered in December 2003 and moved on to Atlanta as a free agent. He was dealt twice the next year, for progressively smaller returns, winding up the season in Milwaukee. His first stint with the Brewers lasted through the end of 2005, by which time he’d hit 23 homers for them in 360 at-bats. He’d also struck out 148 times.
Branyan played for four teams over the next two seasons, moving from Tampa Bay to San Diego to Philadelphia to St. Louis. Everywhere the same story: home runs and strikeouts. His power was just tantalizing enough to offer him a chance in a new town, but the poor contact rate and weak batting average weren’t enough to keep him there.
Zduriencik, however, saw something last year when Branyan hooked back up with the Brewers. Branyan filled in for Milwaukee at third base and came off the bench, hitting .250 and driving 12 homers in 132 at-bats. He hit several tape-measure bombs, including a 465-foot blast shortly after joining the team in May. He also spent time at Triple-A Nashville, where he hit .359 with 12 homers in 153 at-bats.
When Zduriencik took over as Mariners GM he had several holes to fill in a poor-hitting lineup. Last year’s first basemen frequently looked and hit like Richie Sexson and Miguel Cairo. Branyan was well worth a gamble as an upgrade. One of Zduriencik’s top challenges this winter could be re-signing him.
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