Atlanta Braves hoping Orlando Arcia can play left field add punch to lineup

Atlanta Braves chances recede daily

As iI write this, Fangraphs gives the Atlanta Braves an 11.6% chance of winning the division, 3.6% chance of earning a Wildcard berth, a 15.3% chance of making the playoffs, and a 0.9% shot at winning the World Series.

The front office doesn’t look at things quite that way, but we’re at the point where the club is unlikely to go all in to win this year. Any move they make must also make the team better for 2022 and beyond.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why the club wants to find out if they can catch lightning in a bottle with Arcia before spending prospect capital in a trade.

Arcia’s had two games in left, and I suspect they’ll let him reach double digits before they decide whether they should bring him up.

That’s a wrap

The Atlanta Braves did the roster — and Arcia — no favors by waiting so long to try the move to the outfield. Despite their batting average and OPS as a group, anyone looking could see that the lineup is at least a good bat short – two if d’Arnaud doesn’t hit when he returns.

After routing the Mets on Wednesday night, some interesting numbers highlight exactly why the traditional line doesn’t tell the whole story. Including the Mets game, 17% of the Braves runs this season came in four games that make up 5% of the games played. The Braves have a +56-run differential in those games; the clubs run differential in the remaining 75 games is –41.

Five players are carrying the load for the lineup; when they are all hitting at once, the Braves are tough to beat. However, that hasn’t happened consistently, and the role-players on the roster haven’t stepped up and done enough to fill in the blanks.

In the 79 games played so far, the team scored three runs or less 33 times (or 41% of the games played).  That’s no way to run an airline.