5 Burning Questions to be Resolved

Mar 11, 2014; Lakeland, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes (7) talks with hitting coach Kevin Seitzer (25) prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Q5: Where Will the Offense Come From?

Here’s what we do know:

• When this question is asked, most people are thinking about “home runs and people who drive in runs”
• Don’t lose sight of this:  the Braves are re-tooling in an effort to reduce strikeouts, increase average, and increase OBP.

The building blocks for this are:

• The table-setters:  Jace Peterson, Nick Markakis
• The thumpers:  Evan Gattis and Freddie Freeman
• The Wild Cards:  Chris Johnson, Alberto Callaspo, Andrelton Simmons
• The recovery project:  B.J. Upton

I would project that Markakis and Peterson hit 1-2… unless Upton somehow hits in place of Peterson.  Freeman and Gattis would follow in the 3/4 slots, which should get Freddie some pitches to hit.

The season’s offensive performance may hinge on that next group:  particularly Johnson and Simmons.  Anything B.J. provides has to be viewed as a “plus”.

So there are 7 positions in the order that should all hit at least .250 and get on base at a collective .330 rate.  Last year, the Braves’ non-pitchers hit .249 (10th in NL) with a .315 OBP (10th in NL) with 1227 strikeouts (3rd worst in NL).

The goals?  The best run-producers in the NL (Rockies, Dodgers, Nationals) had numbers akin to these from their non-pitchers:

• Batting:  .261-.284
• OBP:       .330-.340
• HR:         150+ from Nats and Rox, but the Dodgers only had 133

Also:  the Cardinals proved that you can win without the homer (105 – lowest in the NL).  Their OBP was .327 with the lowest strikeouts in the league (1011).  By the way, they did that with a defensive liability in left field.

SLACK AT THE BOTTOM

It turns out that once the Braves got to the end of the batting order in 2014, any semblance of a rally died right there.

• Batting 8th:  .227
• Batting 9th:  .137 (Pitchers’ offensive WAR was 14th in the NL)

Of course, that ignores the .245/.231 coming from the first two batting order positions in 2014.  Sixth hitters were also horrible:  .228.

Can this cobbled-together group of slap hitters best those numbers?  I would frankly have to say that they can’t do worse.

In short, as the numbers above show: get on base, put the ball in play… runs happen.  This group has a chance to do just that.

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