It’s been four games since his call up and that is all the time Russell Branyan needed to notch another home run.

The home run was the 122nd of Branyan’s big league career one that has shown enormous flashes of power, a ton of strike outs and a batting average that only a mother could love.

It does bring back the debate whether Branyan and similar hitters should be regulars in the lineups across baseball. Not the first player to do such things and yes we can all give a shout out to Rob Deer here.

Branyan a career .229 hitter is playing with the Milwaukee Brewers this season, his second stint with the team. Last season he spent time with the San Diego Padres compiling a .197 average but a .748 OPS.

For those not familiar with the story Branyan is one of those all or nothing kind of guys. Never one for making contact Branyan instead uses his power to swing for the fences and blast balls into orbit.

The Cleveland Indians knew about Branyan’s power when they drafted him in the seventh round of the 1994 draft.

During his days with the Columbus Red Stixx of the South Atlantic League Branyan hit 40 home runs as a 20 year old and the following season combined for 39 between Kinston and later at the Double-A level with Akron.

It wasn’t long from then that the Indians called him up to the big league level.

During his time with the Indians Branyan hit some long home runs but also struck out a ton. His batting average often made event he most faithful of tribe fans cringe.

To understand Branyan you can simply look at his HR/RBI totals.

2000 16 HR 38 RBI
2001 20 HR 54 RBI
2002 24 HR 56 RBI

For his career he totals 122 HR and 301 RBI.

Those who take into account batting averages see Branyan as nothing more then a poor hitter. Even looking at his on base percentage he’s a decent amount below even the league average.

However I’ve often wondered if those too stats took away from his slugging of baseballs. Seriously when the guy has a bat in his hand it’s assault. Branyan’s career slugging percentage is 47 points above the league average.

What does this all mean? Well OPS (on base plus slugging) is widely considered the stat in which players are judged amongst others at their position. Branyan playing third base ranks at .804 some 35 points ahead of the league average during his playing career of .769.

Think about this stat. If Branyan had of put of that .804 OPS this season it would rank sixth in all of baseball for third basemen. Not bad for a guy who “can’t hit”.

Am I saying that Branyan is the best player in the game? No. However considering some of the players who have been given the chance over him there’s no doubt you could do far worse.

In Branyan’s 11 year career he has played for seven different teams. After starting his career with the Cleveland Indians, he has since played for the Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Philadelphia Phillies, and St. Louis Cardinals.