Ryan Braun

BREWERS OUTFIELDER

YES, BRAUN hit .324 with 34 homers, 97 RBIs, 91 runs and 15 steals in just 113 games last season, his first in the big leagues. Yes, he was the National League Rookie of the Year and he was invited to a Victoria's Secret fashion show and to have dinner at the White House during the off-season It turns out, too, that his mother, Diane, is employed as an actual brewer. A perfect story, right? Alas, Diane's employer is Anheuser-Busch . "That's something that the fans at Miller Park wouldn't be too fond of," the 24-year-old Brewer confesses.

Then again, Braun can be forgiven for just about anything these days in Milwaukee . After being called up from Triple A in May, he simply mashed the bail, breaking Mark McGwire's record for slugging percentage by a rookie (.643) along the way. In a lineup in which the first five hitters last season were under 27, the addition of Braun made for the perfect brew. "I couldn't envision coming into a much better situation," Braun says. "My teammates are young, all very close, and it was awesome to have people to talk to about the same things you were going through."

This spring Braun moved from third, where he led the majors in errors (26) despite his abbreviated season, to left-field. He admits that "everything about the switch"—the routes, the sun, the wall—"has been hard because it's all so new." (Initially a shortstop at the University of Miami , he played the outfield in just two games in high school.) After some early miscues, Braun , with some tutoring from new centerfielder Mike Cameron , has been "looking like a veteran," according to manager Ned Yost . Not that life as a rookie was that bad, either.