NL Central

The Milwaukee Brewers today signed 27-year-old outfielder Ryan Braun to a five-year contract extension which will make him only one of two MLB players signed through 2020, the other being the Colorado Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki.

Ryan Braun cemented his place in Brewers history on Thursday, signing his second long-term contract with the Milwaukee Brewers in the last three years.

The Milwaukee Brewers have gone one step further to ensure they will be competitive for years to come by agreeing to a five-year contract extension with All-Star outfielder Ryan Braun.

It was first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday afternoon.

Braun released the following statement:

The Milwaukee Brewers announced that they have come to an agreement with left fielder Ryan Braun on a contract extension through 2020.

The Milwaukee Brewers farm system has been talked about all spring, but for all the wrong reasons.

After unloading a boatload of young talent to acquire two top-tier starters before Christmas, a common thought has been that the Brewers have the worst system in all of baseball. Yes, in order to acquire Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum, the Brewers had to shell over their top prospects in Brett Lawrie, Jake Odorizzi and Alcides Escobar, among others.

The Chicago Cubs may have thrown the 1918 World Series, an Associated Press report suggested Wednesday.

In fact, it appears that the 1919 White Sox—later known as the Black Sox after several players were found to have thrown their World Series a year later—maybe have gotten the idea from the Cubs the season before.

I promise you that this article isn't going to be one of those that simply reminisces about glory days and laments the passing of the 'good old days' when a postage stamp was 10 cents and outfielders shared baseball mitts.

Look, a lot of positive changes have occurred that have helped to improve the enjoyment of the game of baseball. But I must admit that some of the changes do have me occasionally longing for things I miss about the game.

OK, we're not saying we would trade the artist formerly known as Fat Elvis straight up for Super Joe, but here are 10 compelling reasons why Lance Berkman is more valuable than the reigning NL MVP.

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The thought going into the season about Pirates third basemen Pedro Alvarez was his glove not his bat.

While his glove has came around and performed decently well, his bat has been terrible.

He is batting an abysmal .183 with only four RBI’s.

Monday night Aroldis Chapman reached back and threw a pitch to Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates. The pitch wound up being high and tight, not a location necessarily to be proud of, and yet he received a standing ovation.

Why the standing ovation, you may ask? The stadium radar reading displayed a velocity of 106 MPH, a speed that has only been topped twice since baseball started recording pitch velocities.

So who else goes down in history for having a rocket for an arm?