The hashtag was born in early 2016.
The Milwaukee Brewers were in the early stages of what most fans believed would be a long and painful rebuild. A growing list of trades had been made starting the previous summer with Doug Melvin’s final trade deadline and carried into the winter with new GM David Stearns, who turned over half the 40-man roster. But I bristled at the idea of trading away franchise icon Ryan Braun.
As we now know, Braun survived the rebuild. He received MVP votes that year in 2016 and has aged rather gracefully in the years since; he still has never posted a below-average batting line and continues to be a legitimate power-speed threat, reaching the 20+ home run, 10+ stolen base plateau for the 10th season of his career in 2019.