House That Hank Built
Fansided

Atlanta Braves season in review: 1st baseman Freddie Freeman

By Alan Carpenter

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 30: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Atlanta Braves stands on third base due to an error by Leury Garcia #28 of the Chicago White Sox after hitting a RBI single in the eighth inning at SunTrust Park on August 30, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 30: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Atlanta Braves stands on third base due to an error by Leury Garcia #28 of the Chicago White Sox after hitting a RBI single in the eighth inning at SunTrust Park on August 30, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
Atlanta Braves Freddie Freeman
TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 28: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Atlanta Braves rounds the bases on his home run against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ninth inning at the Rogers Centre on August 28, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images) /

Start With A Bang

Freeman still has never hit a Grand Slam over 99 trips to the plate while the bases were loaded (he does have 26 hits, 63 RBI and a .280 batting average – albeit a .679 OPS – in those situations.

On March 6, he did launch a slam… but that was in Grapefruit league play against the Detroit Tigers.

While that didn’t translate into a regular season event, it did indicate Freeman’s readiness to get started into action that counted.

Freeman started hot this year, holding a .400+ average and 1.100+ OPS for the first couple weeks of the year.

Death, Taxes, Freeman’s Hitting

He continued to rake consistently, building his average and his production into June:  peaking on June 22nd in a game against the Nationals.  At that point, Freeman was hitting .318 with a .407 OBP and 1.016 OPS.

The ‘MVP’ talk was real then – despite the impressive work already being done by Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger.

After this, Freeman experienced a gradual fade in his production that slid his OPS to .956 before the season’s last week in which elbow issues dropped him to .938 and a batting average below .300 (.295).

— data compiled from Fangraphs.com game log exports

Freeman finished up 2019 with a .295 average, .389 on-base percentage, a .549 slugging percentage and .938 OPS.

Freeman whacked 34 doubles, down from his league-leading 44 in 2018 and had 15 fewer hits in 15 fewer plate appearances.

He added a career-high of 38 home runs, besting his previous high mark of 34 in 2016… but then didn’t everybody break their own personal best this season?

The biggest contribution this year was a whopping 121 runs batted in… destroying his previous best of 109 that was set back in 2013, and only the second time exceeding 100.

This number was good for third in the majors and 2nd in the National league (to Anthony Rendon‘s 126).

Freeman’s best games (by increased Win Probability Added) in 2019 were these:

June 13 vs. PITT.  6-5 victory; 2 for 5 with a triple and 2 RBI.  +.279 WPA
Aug 20 vs. MIA.  5-1 victory; 3 for 4 with 2 homers and 4 RBI.  +.303 WPA
July 14 @ SDP. 4-1 victory;  1 for 4 with a 3 run homer.  +.324 WPA
June 22 @ WSH.  13-9 victory; 2 for 3, 2 walks, double, 5 RBI.  +.443 WPA
Sept 1 vs. CWS.  5-3 victory;  3 for 4, 2 runs scored, 2 homers, all 5 RBI in the game.  +.448 WPA

Home/Braves News