Meat and Potatoes 7: Analyzing the Braves’ Week, April 9-16

Welcome to the 7th edition of Meat and Potatoes, a weekly serving of the good stuff: analysis of the past week in Atlanta Braves baseball, complete with stats and links.

The Lead

We’re on a winning streak! Ok, that’s true, but the big story this week is actually… bad luck. Or just badness in general, when you consider the level of play that we witnessed this week and the fact that I’m mentioning a domestic violence incident in The Lead this week. Let’s break it down.

Olivera arrested, charged. 

As you’ve probably read, Hector Olivera has been placed on administrative leave by MLB after allegedly assaulting a woman that he had some previous relationship with. It goes without saying that this is terrible news that transcends the fate of our team. I hope this situation is somehow not as nasty as it seems. I hope that in the near future we won’t hear so much about these disgusting incidents, which truly represent a disturbing trend in MLB and other pro sports.

That said, Olivera’s impending suspension leaves a bigger hole in LF than, well, he was proving to be at the start of the season already. This is fodder for another article, but it didn’t help that Alex Wood turned in a sparkling outing for the Dodgers within 24 hours of the Olivera arrest. Jose Peraza hasn’t blossomed yet, but that trade is looking depressing.

Here’s a link to the MLBTR post that has the news so far, and will likely be updated as this unfolds.

Injuries. 

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• Braves News: Atlanta Braves acquire Eli White from the Texas Rangers

Just as we were getting used to him, Ender Inciarte went and strained his hamstring. He was officially placed on the 15-day DL. As I discussed here for Modern Pastime, I’m worried that this injury is going to follow Inciarte around this year. He is a speed guy, after all.

Daniel Winkler fell victim to a gut wrenching injury this week, as well. In a rare twist of fate, the young right hander fractured his elbow while delivering a pitch. He will undoubtedly face an uphill battle getting back to the game, after having only returned from Tommy John surgery late last season. What a bummer for a guy who had worked hard to get where he was and was looking great. What a bummer for our so-far-terrible bullpen.

Gordon Beckham was putting in a surprisingly productive April until Saturday. The past tense is necessary in that sentence because the UGA product also injured his hamstring running out a ground ball during yesterdays game, in a scene that looked offensively similar to the Inicarte tweak. Dave O’Brien reports here and on Twitter that Beckham’s looks like the less serious of he and Inciarte’s dual hammy issues. Fingers crossed:

If you add these injuries to those that we endured earlier this Spring (Paco Rodriguez and Andrew McKirahan) and those that some of our key players are still recovering from (Jason Grilli to an extent, Mike Foltynewicz, Shae Simmons, possibly Freddie Freeman and Jace Peterson to an extent), you could make a pretty darn solid argument that the Braves are being dragged down by some bad voodoo in the early goings.

If you then factor in our schedule, you’ve really got a strong case: the Braves have faced starting pitchers that averaged an ERA/FIP of 3.21/3.37 during the 2015 season. That’s tough.

My top story is bad luck and badness, but here is my best attempt at some optimism to take into next week. Our schedule doesn’t get easier soon, but it does in the second half. The laws of averages seem to suggest that we should have better injury luck during that time frame. Shae Simmons should help the bullpen when he returns, and we may get a boost from midseason call-ups if all goes well.

The scourge that is the Hector Olivera situation will hopefully be merely an unfortunate memory at that point, too.

So onward!

Please click ahead to the next slide for Braves Statistics for the week, plus much more analysis of the season so far! 

Next: Braves Statistics and More Analysis from Meat and Potatoes