Braves Are Wasting Hot Start From Ronald Acuna Jr.

Ronald Acuna Jr. is off to a ridiculous start in 2021, but unfortunately, it hasn’t led to a lot of wins for the Atlanta Braves to this point. 

We’re 12 games into a 162-game season, so it’s certainly not time to panic about this Atlanta Braves team that is off to a 4-8 start.

But what’s most disappointing to me about this slow start is that they’re wasting the unbelievable start that Ronald Acuna Jr. is having.

If they want him to be and feel like Mike Trout, the Braves are doing a great job. For years Trout has proven that one man can’t take a team to the promised land, and the Angels have essentially wasted his prime years.

And as good as Ronnie has been to start this season, the Braves are still four games under .500 and are in the middle of a four-game losing streak — including three losses at home to the Miami Marlins.

Some of the blame can be placed on the back-end of the bullpen not being as sharp to start the season, and Huascar Ynoa is the only starter with an ERA under four at this point.

I put the majority of the blame on the lineup who hasn’t been able to back up Ronnie’s great performances.

Freddie Freeman has got it going lately with 4 hits in his last two games, and moving him back to the two-hole should help get the offense going.

Travis d’Arnaud is hitting .231, but can’t play every day as a catcher with no DH.

Everyone else in the lineup is hitting .211 or lower.

Marcell Ozuna and Dansby Swanson have combined to strikeout 35 times in 90 at-bats.

Of the regular starters, only Acuna and Freeman have an OPS over .800. The next highest is TDA at .627.

I get there has been some bad luck in there, it’s early, and the Braves have faced some really good pitchers to begin the season. But at some point excuses because excuses — this lineup has to step up and be what we thought they could be.

Braves: Acuna’s Hot Start

I felt coming into this season that Acuna had something to prove. A lot of people seemed to be overlooking him, constantly ranking Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto ahead of him.

Ronnie took that personally and has come out to prove he’s the best young player in baseball, he’s the face of this league, and he’s the next Mike Trout.

The early numbers certainly prove that as he’s slashing .447/.500/.1.000 with a 1.500 OPS (yea, you read that right).

In his march to a 40/40 season, he currently has 6 home runs and 3 stolen bases. The only reason he doesn’t have more stolen bases is because 13 of his 21 hits this year have gone for extra bases.

And he’s walked 6 times with just 8 strikeouts. The one negative you could point to on Ronnie in the past was that he struck out too much. He had a 26.3 percent K-rate in 2019 — right now he’s at 14.8 percent in 2021.

He has a much better feel for the strike zone and is just completely locked in at the plate right now. I only wish the rest of the Braves lineup was locked in as well.