This column has never met Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun, but can say one thing about the 2007 National League Rookie of the Year: He's not an optimist.

The second-year slugger signed an eight-year, $45 million contract extension Thursday that will keep him in a Brewers uniform through the 2015 season, which would have been his second year of free agency. The new deal includes this year's $455,000 salary, so it's really a seven-year, $44.545 million extension. That's an average salary of about $6.36 million over those seven years.

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