Not much different than what we’ve seen the last couple of years, you have to learn to handle the highs and lows of this Atlanta Braves offense.
I’ve gone on record several times now saying that I don’t exactly love the offensive style and approach of this Atlanta Braves lineup.
Mainly because I don’t think it’s consistent enough when going up against power pitching in the postseason.
It’s why I was so adamant about getting a guy like Michael Brantley this past offseason, or even someone like Justin Turner.
This offense needs more players throughout the lineup who are going to give you a professional at-bat consistently.
Right now the only player in the lineup who does that on a consistent basis is Freddie Freeman.
Dansby will late in games, but pretty much everyone else on this team is a free swinger just looking to drive the ball out of the ballpark.
And that’s why you’re going to see a ton of highs and lows throughout the season from this offense.
They’ll have series like they had against Philadelphia where they’re ice cold and everything they do it just seems like it goes right at somebody. And then they’ll score 30 runs the following series.
The BABIP for the Braves this past weekend was .175, which is currently second-worst in baseball. But they also weren’t putting the ball in play enough with the worst K% in baseball at 35 percent and the worst BB% at 5 percent (according to FanGraphs).
Braves: Avg. exit velo 90.8 (4th in MLB), .228 expected batting average (18th), .440 expected slugging percentage (10th). They hit .128 with a .223 slugging percentage.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 5, 2021
Phillies: 85.1 avg. exit velo (28th), .249 XBA (9th), .375 XSLG (21st). They hit .260 and slugged .344.
It’s no wonder the Braves only managed to score 3 runs on the weekend when you’re not putting the ball in play enough or drawing walks, and everything you do put in play goes right at somebody.
When they did make contact against Phillies pitchers they hit it solid or hard 81.3 percent of the time, which is really good and in the top half of baseball.
That’s why you don’t really worry about this offense too much, especially not after one weekend of baseball. They’re going to hit the ball hard, and as the weather warms up these balls will start leaving the yard more often.
But they have to do a better job of being more consistent and putting the ball and play in order to avoid what just happened with the Phillies from happening again.