2020 Atlanta Braves: Four lessons learned

2.  The Bench Matters

This part was very difficult in this 2020 season for reasons that likely didn’t become clear until much later.

When the rosters were expanded from 26 players to 28 (it was 30 initially before being cut back), that had the effect of adding 60 major league jobs for players who — in years past — would not have made clubs otherwise.

When you’re getting down to the 27th and 28th men on your bench, you’re generally talking about AAA/AAAA-type players anyway.  But in giving them jobs, it effectively means that clubs needing more bench help must dig even deeper — to the 29th- and 30th-level guys.

Unfortunately, the drop-off at that point is significant.

You’ll note that during the playoffs, Brian Snitker kept running the same players out onto the field.  Substitutions and pinch-hitting roles were rare.  That’s because he didn’t have anyone on his bench that he knew could play as well as those already in the game.

This was simply a matter of not having enough viable options available… from any source, and that made playing ‘match-up’ games with Dave Roberts much more difficult.

For 2021, this is going to require a concerted effort on the part of Alex Anthopoulos to recruit and sign players who are good enough to play every day on some teams, but willing to join the Braves for a bench role.

That could be a Nick Markakis or Tommy La Stella or Jake Lamb or Logan Morrison as examples — over 30 players who are free agents and who might not see multi-year deals come their way… but they still know about hitting.

Regardless of who ends up being the answer, the Braves need to give Brian Snitker some viable offensive options at the end of games.  As we’ll see in a second, it doesn’t hurt to also have players who’ve already “been there and done that.”

1. Experience Matters

The more you’re there, the more you can ignore the bright lights, the extra media presence, the extra cameras, extra umpires, the banners, and the intensity.

At some point, you had to know that there would be a key play or two that the Dodgers would execute and that the Braves would mess up.

That came in Game 7 when Dansby Swanson broke the wrong direction on a grounder to third.  This was compounded when Austin Riley failed to immediately go on to third base without hesitation as Swanson did stay in his rundown long enough to get the runners moved up.

Except that Riley hesitated and panicked… and these things happen to inexperienced players in these situations.

I’m reminded of a play in which all-world shortstop Andrelton Simmons was in his first playoff game and air-mailed a throw home…. to the backstop (that goes almost forgotten during the ‘Infield Fly rule game’).

I’m also reminded of Lonnie Smith‘s hesitation to try and score in 1991’s World Series.  Players sometimes choose to act differently from normal because of the pressure not to make a mistake… and in so doing, they make mistakes anyway.

This year, however, a playoff-experienced Ozzie Albies threw a strike to Travis d’Arnaud to nail Chris Taylor at the plate.  He reacted well and made the clutch play — probably because he’d been there before.

Bad plays will happen in key situations.  They happen a lot less often to teams when they make return trips to the playoffs.  The Atlanta Braves were better this year than either of their past two playoff trips, and they will benefit from those experiences.

Sometimes, that experience can be enough to win.  Hopefully, this year’s experiences will result in a better Atlanta Braves team for 2021.