While Alex Anthopoulos has done a great job in supporting the Atlanta Braves roster during his tenure, there is no denying that the groundwork for the Braves' dominance was done before his arrival. Say what you want to about disgraced former general manager John Coppolella, but the guy did go out a grab a grab a lot of talent in his short time in charge. Unfortunately, one area that Braves seemed to excel at under Coppolella has thus far eluded the Braves under Anthopoulos: the ability to develop and coach hitting at the organizational level.
Now, this might seem a bit silly given all of Braves' success under Anthopoulos and manager Brian Snitker. Atlanta famously went on a run of division titles as soon as Anthopoulos took over with the offense led by homegrown talents Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, and Ozzie Albies being a big reason why.
However, between the notable regression we have seen from a number of Braves' hitters the last couple of years as well as some of the personnel decisions Atlanta has made, fans should be concerned. In fact, these factors point to a fundamental flaw in the Braves' organizational philosophy.
Braves' approach to developing and coaching hitting seems to have finally caught up with them
Obviously there are no absolutes here. Anthopoulos did sign Josh Donaldson who was awesome for his season with the Braves and both Marcell Ozuna and Matt Olson are acquisitions of this front office who have found success with Atlanta. However, both Ozuna and Olson have been rollercoaster rides during their Braves tenures and with a huge portion of the lineup struggling for over a season now, one wonders if Atlanta really knows how to coach consistent hitting well over time or how to develop complete hitters.
Things get even more interesting when you look at how they acquire talent. While Anthopoulos has added some big names who have helped on offense, he has also had some notable failures including Cole Hamels and Jose Bautista. Combine that inconsistency with a reluctance to draft bats and some expensive busts on the international free agent market and it feels more and more like the Braves' ability to develop and maintain pitchers vastly outpaces the hitting side.
Perhaps the Braves just don't value hitters as much as the rest of the league which could explain why they allowed the Freddie Freeman negotiations to get as contentious as they ended up being. There is also the chance that losing Ron Washington as a coach and motivator was a bigger deal than anyone initially thought. There are no simple solutions here, but it is becoming abundantly clear that Atlanta's offensive woes seem to run deeper than simply not having good hitters on the roster.