FanPost

The 2011 Atlanta Braves Offense



We are about 25% through the season so far. The team sports a 21-19 record and is currently 5.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL East. I figured I would do a bit of a breakdown for the season so far.

The facts:

In all of MLB the Braves rank:

1st in the MLB in games played with 40

21st in BA with a .242 clip

22nd in OBP with a .304

16th in SLG with a .391 clip

4th in the league with 42 HRs

13th in the league with 129 Walks.

6th in the league with 286 K's. (The higher the number the better here)

Dead last in SBs with 6. 40 behind the 1st place Royals.

All these stats scream to me is, "What happened to the Braves from 2010 that were so patient?" Last year we were towards the top of the league in OBP and Walks this year we are more towards the bottom. To me that is probably the biggest area that our team needs to improve in.

The big elephant in the room is Dan Uggla. The guy has a slash line of .199/.256/.372. He is on pace to hit a respectable 28 Doubles but only 24 HRs. Far less than I believe any of us were looking forward to out of him. The one problem is he is essentially Fredi's player and Fredi won't bench him or move him down in the lineup unless the numbers just keep trending downward. Not to mention the team would like to not have to bat their 50milion dollar man low in the lineup.

The smaller elephant in the room is Freeman. He has been mainly getting off easy because he is the rookie however his performance so far hasn't helped the team any more than Uggla. The one good thing going for Freeman right now is he is taking some walks (currently on pace for 73). If Uggla starts hitting and Heyward comes back hitting then Freeman's performance wouldn't stick out so bad but right now with Heyward, Uggla, and Freeman all struggling its hurting us.

I don't forsee the team making any sort of trades baring an injury to someone which just leaves it up to our guys to perform to the level they are capable of.

Thoughts?

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Battery Power.