Ryan Braun PED Supsension Overturned: Is He a Top-5 Fantasy Baseball Pick?

While some members of the MLB brass may be a bit grumpy about Ryan Braun's lifted 50 game suspension, fantasy baseball managers are about as giddy as a 12-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert.

For the past few seasons, the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder has been a worthy top-five draft pick, and that hasn't changed heading into 2012.

In a 2011 season where many managers were burned by first round picks like Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez and Evan Longoria, Braun earned his early departure from the draft pool.

Even Albert Pujols wasn't his usual robotic self last season, posting his lowest home run and RBI output since 2008. While some usual fantasy studs struggled, the leader of the Brew Crew just kept making his owners smile, finishing as the third best player last season according to ESPN's player rater.

Braun isn't just a top-five pick on my draft board, he's the third best fantasy player you can get your hands on. Maybe I'm drinking too much of the Kool-Aid on the California-born slugger, but considering Pujols is entering a new stadium, new league and new team, Bruan could be the safer bet. Which would place him as the second best player on my draft board.

Excluding 2010 (the one year I owned this guy), Braun has never hit less than 30 home runs over his five seasons in the bigs, and 2011 marked his first year with 30-plus steals.

Everyone loves Miguel Cabrera, Pujols and Jose Bautista. That's fine, I do too; but Braun has the potential to get close to their output in homers and blow those names out of the water when it comes to stealing bags.

The former Miami Hurricane is rated at sixth overall by Yahoo!'s fantasy baseball team and fourth by ESPN's team, but don't let yourself be a slave to these rankings. If you've owner Braun before, you've watched your whole team whiff at the plate on offense, only to have your favorite Brewer get you a steal and a homer to ease the pain. 

If you've played against a Braun owner in a head-to-head scenario, you've probably pulled out large chunks of your hair watching him kill you in RBI, walks, home runs and steals.

Many owners believe that it's difficult to go wrong in the first round, but if 2011 showed the fantasy baseball world anything, it's that your first round stud can let you down. I enjoy going for the high upside guys and sneaky sleepers later on during the draft process, but in the first round consistency is the key.

Going high upside in the first round last year left a lot of frustrated owners with Crawford who put together arguably his worst season in the majors, while the owners who played it safe and went with consistency likely drafted Miggy, Pujols or Braun.

What Milwaukee's left fielder gives you is day in and day out production with little cold streaks to rattle your brain about. Miggy and King Albert are great, two of the best even. That being said, it's much easier to find a first basemen that gives you similar production to those guys than it is to find an outfielder who can put up speed and power numbers.

Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles is one of the only guys that come to mind, and he'll be gone halfway through the first round as well.

Braun should a top-five, if not top-three pick for any fantasy owner. At the end of the day, he's one of the safest bets to deliver the numbers you expect out of your first round investment.