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Atlanta Braves NL East positional rankings: third base

By Alan Carpenter

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JULY 08: TWO OF THE FEW LEFT... Justin Bour #41 of the Miami Marlins is congratulated by Martin Prado #14 after Bour hit a solo home run against the San Francisco Giants in the top of the fourth inning at AT&T Park on July 8, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JULY 08: TWO OF THE FEW LEFT... Justin Bour #41 of the Miami Marlins is congratulated by Martin Prado #14 after Bour hit a solo home run against the San Francisco Giants in the top of the fourth inning at AT&T Park on July 8, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /
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Nitram Odarp

I tried to locate the youtube video of when Braves’ pitcher Will Ohman beautifully gave the starting lineup in the voice of Harry Caray, but alas, it seems to be unavailable any longer.

In it, he included an occasional schtick of Caray’s – ‘you know, Martin Prado spelled backwards is ‘Nitram Odarp’.

That was hilarious, but there won’t be much fun for Prado in 2018.

I mean – imagine if you were him:  gets hurt in 2017 and can only get through just over 1 month of the season spread out through the first half of the season.  He’s looking forward to the idea of getting back on the field and joining this offensive force to see how he can help.

Except…

I hope that Marlins fans (both of them) really appreciate what Prado is as a ballplayer and a wonderful person to be around.

He’s going to have 2 years to endure in Miami.  He may have lost a step now, but he can still hit.  Unfortunately, he’s one of the few who can, and that’s going to make his life difficult.

It is because of all that, that I nearly moved Prado and the Marlins down a notch in this order.  But the uncertainty of the Braves’ 3B situation vs. the (more) certain personnel in Miami swung the decision here.

I like the ZiPS numbers for Prado… maybe a tick higher on the BA; a tick lower on the power, but that’s in the ballpark… and that’s where’s he’s been – around .280+ most of the time.

This ranking assumes that he’s healthy for the year, but if so, I like him in this position – if not on this team, exactly.

It’s just too bad that his entire supporting cast has been dispersed.  So that leaves him…

3rd in the NL East

The Rest

That leaves Frazier and Rendon for the Mets and Washington in positions 2 and 1, respectively.

There should be neither much doubt about these rankings, nor much debate.

More from Tomahawk Take

As previously noted, Rendon is the clear winner on both sides of the ball, and with the lineup around him, he will get plenty of pitches to hit.

Frazier will also hit well… er, he’ll make a lot of contact, and the hope is that his fly balls stay in the yard.  In the past 4 seasons, though, he’s popped 131 homers, so another 30+ can be expected.

Rendon continued a trend of adding loft to his hitting last year (33% FB in 2015, 44% in 2016, 47% in 2017), and his own homer count has jumped:  5 to 20 to 25 over the same seasons.  Combined with just a 13½% K rate (down ~6% from 2015-16) and that’s a formidable combination.

I wasn’t personally sold on Todd Fraizer for the Braves, but he should do well in New York, and that’s bad news for the Braves.  Thus these players are…

The 1st and 2nd 3rd basemen in the NL East

Next: Folty gets a W and an L on the same day

That’s all for now… we’ll continue with the series as time permits.

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