Braves Lose to the Mets – But Why?

Jun 3, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher

(27) asks for a replay against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the seventh inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

The Other Reason

There’s another reason we lost today, Bethancourt played badly again. I’ve been a supporter of him since watching him in the minors but the guy playing now is not that guy. It can’t be a feeling of entitlement nor is it lack of skill because I’ve seen him be superb at the things he’s blowing now. Something’s wrong and needs to be fixed or he needs to be replaced.

We’ve seen the passed balls and seemingly lazy way he plays at times behind the dish but there’s another reason, some of the pitchers are just not comfortable throwing to him. Some of that stems from those miscues but we know Miller throws better to A.J. Pierzynski and I don’t think he should never catch Folty again the numbers with each catcher. I’m not a fan of catcher ERA as a stat but there are some pretty good indicators in the table below

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/14/2015.

When Folty pitches ot AJ he seems top have more confidence. Today he looked unsure when things started to go bad and he certainly wasn’t using his best weapons effectively.

Woods Numbers are slightly better when pitching to AJ as well while Julio and Perez throw better to Bethancourt. Even when Julio and Perez are on the mound however he’s a liability behind the plate. Somewhere something changed.

That’s A Wrap

In the end is was easy for the Braves to lose to the Mets, the pitching didn’t turn up either with th starter or the early relievers. There’s lot of sentiment that the Braves should bring some of the relievers from Gwinnett up; specifically Ryan Weber, David Carpenter mark II and Peter Moylan. I certainly have no trouble doing that but I doubt – and I think the front office doubts – that the relievers themselves are the problem.

The rumor about Jonathan Lucroy was a wake up call to Bethancourt. We have Wil Nieves and Ryan Lavarnway at Gwinnett but neither is on the 40 man roster. We should be able to make room for one of those two but neither is much of an upgrade. Lucroy isn’t going to happen. Another option might be to take to the Yankees about Gary Sanchez. Whatever we do it’s certain  AJ can’t catch everyday and in fact he isn’t a great defensive catcher anyway.

In order not to lose to the Mets (or anyone else) is such a frustrating way, we need to fix catching, the starters need to go deeper and the bullpen needs to be used less often. I wish it were as simple as it sounds.