After yet another embarrassing performance on Tuesday, this time against the Angels, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker was obviously frustrated. It didn't take a genius to realize that the offense was once again the main culprit as they came out completely flat especially with Ronald Acuña Jr. struggling all of a sudden. However, Snitker went a step further and lashed out at analytics and the role they have played in Atlanta's troubles at the plate.
When asked after the game about whether Braves hitters' prolonged slump was mental, Snitker was quick to agree, but not in the way you would expect. In quotes given to the media including The Athletic during the post game scrum, Snitker said, "I think we probably overwhelm ourselves with mechanics and video and all that kind of stuff. We’ve made it a really mental game, I think, in the industry. They didn’t have all this information, they didn’t have all the video and whatever, and those guys put up unbelievable numbers and made it to the Hall of Fame. But now we’re kind of overanalyzing everything.”
Snitker does have a point to a certain extent. "Paralysis by analysis" is a real thing and there is a long history of overthinking things leading to less than desirable results in the game of baseball. However, Atlanta has been one of the game's more analytics-driven teams for years now and now they are all of a sudden bad? Unfortunately, the problem is both much more basic as well as somehow more complicated than that.
Analytics may be Brian Snitker's boogeyman, but it is the Braves' total lack of direction and focus that is the real problem
Analytics and stats are popular scapegoats when things go sideways. There are those out there that have been rendered obsolete who are extremely quick to blame the numbers when a team struggles, but are suspiciously quiet about them when they are playing well like the Braves were from 2018 through the middle of last season when the injury bug became too much to handle.
However, there is no denying that the Braves have stunk this season. Instead of just blaming a reliance on numbers, there seems to be a better, more complete explanation. With all of the departures the Braves have experienced both from their clubhouse as well as their front office, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of clear leadership.
The Braves have a lot of people with varying specialties weighing in from special advisors, coaches, former players, biomechanics experts, baseball operations, and data analysts. If we can garner anything from Snitker's comments, it is that there isn't so much an organizational "plan" in place for guys as much as a bunch of people throwing well-meaning ideas at the wall. Right now, Atlanta just doesn't know who they are or who they want to be at the plate at all.
This is obviously a problem. With everyone having their own ideas as to what is the problems are, there is going to be conflicting advice and also some strictly bad ideas. This problem started when Kevin Seitzer was still the Braves' hitting coach, but has seemed to get worse under Tim Hyers. To start with, perhaps Atlanta needs to take a hard look at how Hyers communicates this information to his hitters or change how they operate entirely before it is too late, because what they are doing right now just isn't working.