Braves

[msstate7]

Pretty sure it's time to relieve walker of hitting coach. Although I'm sure this team would strike out with another coach too, walker just has this team taking way too many pitches IMO. No brave seems to cut down their swing with two strikes. I'm just really unimpressed with the offense and I'd like to a new approach at the plate

[shoeless joe]

Not that I agree with you since I think walker has done some good things since arriving in Atlanta...but there is a retired future hall of famer that has a desire to get into coaching and his expertise is hitting

[War Machine Dawg]

Pretty sure it's time to relieve walker of hitting coach. Although I'm sure this team would strike out with another coach too, walker just has this team taking way too many pitches IMO. No brave seems to cut down their swing with two strikes. I'm just really unimpressed with the offense and I'd like to a new approach at the plate

Almost no one is teaching this at any level of baseball anymore. Strikeouts are way, way up across MLB as a whole. Yes, the Braves strike out more than a lot of teams, but let's not act like the sky is falling because of the Ks. It has more to do with having too many RH batters in the lineup who are good power hitters, but not good hitters in general. If even an average RHP has his stuff, it's not hard for him to shut us down. Unless we hit the bomb, we'll hit a lot of at 'em balls.

And I'll say this for Walker: I think he does a damn good job considering who he's working with. I think there is literally no one capable of fixing Dan Uggla at this point. He never hit for average, but his power is all but gone now, too. I was able to make it to some of the Braves' BP before the Cards game on Friday night. One of the guys I saw was Uggla. Even watching him in BP is depressing now. He can't square up and drive fat BP pitches that he's supposed to be driving. BJ Upton has so many moving parts in his swing, it's a miracle he ever hit at any point of his career. I did notice his back into his bad habit of having his bat too far forwards and wrapped around his head during his stance. JHey popped up a ton of pitches. He's just off right now. Frankly, he's Jeff Francouer 2.0. I know that's harsh, but it is what it is.

We need to go back to the days of saying "F it" and load up on LH bats. That's when the Braves were at their best. Who gives a damn if a lefty *might* shut you down? It's not like you face that many anyway. Plus, I think for the most part, the "baseball gurus" have really overthought the RHP-LHP matchup stuff.

[Dawg61]

I think we're going to see a new demand for hitters that can't away from these shifts. Guys that don't strikeout and can slap the ball to all fields are going to go up in demand soon imo.

[Todd4State]

Part of it is how the Braves are built. They have a bunch of sluggers- and as I have said on here before when you have that a lot of times the downside is they strike out a lot. You look at MSU and you can see the weakness of small ball- which is it takes several hits to score a run sometimes.

Eventually Uggla is going to replaced this season by Tommy LaStella-who I loved when he was in Pearl. I also think Christian Bethancourt is going to help the Braves out a lot at least from the defensive side- I don't think his bat is quite ready yet, but it will get there. I think those two are going to help the Braves more than anything. LaStella will balance things out some on the defense and from a speed standpoint.

[Todd4State]

I think we're going to see a new demand for hitters that can't away from these shifts. Guys that don't strikeout and can slap the ball to all fields are going to go up in demand soon imo.

I think the exaggerated shifts might be a fad. People like Anthony Rizzo are already dropping bunts on them where no one is standing and getting easy hits, and Matt Adams is probably going to start doing that too. Once more and more people do stuff like that, it will force teams to stop using them.

[War Machine Dawg]

I think the exaggerated shifts might be a fad. People like Anthony Rizzo are already dropping bunts on them where no one is standing and getting easy hits, and Matt Adams is probably going to start doing that too. Once more and more people do stuff like that, it will force teams to stop using them.

Yep. I've been wondering why it's taken guys so long to start doing it. Just seemed like a super obvious way to beat the shift, imo. Hell, I saw McCann do it a couple of times as a Brave and get easy hits.

[CadaverDawg]

http://gifs.houseofthebluebird.com/wp-content/uploads/BJUptonIsNotImpressed.gif

[msstate7]

Part of it is how the Braves are built. They have a bunch of sluggers- and as I have said on here before when you have that a lot of times the downside is they strike out a lot. You look at MSU and you can see the weakness of small ball- which is it takes several hits to score a run sometimes.

Eventually Uggla is going to replaced this season by Tommy LaStella-who I loved when he was in Pearl. I also think Christian Bethancourt is going to help the Braves out a lot at least from the defensive side- I don't think his bat is quite ready yet, but it will get there. I think those two are going to help the Braves more than anything. LaStella will balance things out some on the defense and from a speed standpoint.

If I'm wren, I'm quietly shopping justin upton for a leadoff hitter.

Then I'm going to this lineup:

Lf
Pastornicky
FF
Johnson
Gattis
Heyward
Bj
Simmons

[MetEdDawg]

Almost no one is teaching this at any level of baseball anymore. Strikeouts are way, way up across MLB as a whole. Yes, the Braves strike out more than a lot of teams, but let's not act like the sky is falling because of the Ks. It has more to do with having too many RH batters in the lineup who are good power hitters, but not good hitters in general. If even an average RHP has his stuff, it's not hard for him to shut us down. Unless we hit the bomb, we'll hit a lot of at 'em balls.

And I'll say this for Walker: I think he does a damn good job considering who he's working with. I think there is literally no one capable of fixing Dan Uggla at this point. He never hit for average, but his power is all but gone now, too. I was able to make it to some of the Braves' BP before the Cards game on Friday night. One of the guys I saw was Uggla. Even watching him in BP is depressing now. He can't square up and drive fat BP pitches that he's supposed to be driving. BJ Upton has so many moving parts in his swing, it's a miracle he ever hit at any point of his career. I did notice his back into his bad habit of having his bat too far forwards and wrapped around his head during his stance. JHey popped up a ton of pitches. He's just off right now. Frankly, he's Jeff Francouer 2.0. I know that's harsh, but it is what it is.

We need to go back to the days of saying "F it" and load up on LH bats. That's when the Braves were at their best. Who gives a damn if a lefty *might* shut you down? It's not like you face that many anyway. Plus, I think for the most part, the "baseball gurus" have really overthought the RHP-LHP matchup stuff.

Rea and Detz have not had the 2 strike approach they did last year. Rea especially. Not looking oppo at the plate anymore and it's why he's striking out so much. Last month of the season last year he was possibly the best in the country at going oppo on 2 strikes. Pirtle has a very noticeable difference in his stance with 2 strikes and it's why he's been so successful.

As far as the Braves go, there is a reason guys like Gattis, the Uptons, Heyward, and Uggla backwards K a lot. They have zero change from their normal approach to their two strike approach as far as swing mechanics go. Mentally they think two strikes, but unless you adjust your stance and your hand position on the bat too, a two strike mental approach actually hurts you because you haven't adjusted your mechanics to stay alive with two strikes. So they get beat on inside FBs because they are looking offspeed or FB away and can't get the bat there in time. They can't pull the trigger on an offspeed because they are looking FB but haven't adjusted their hands, so they can't get to it once they've processed offspeed not fastball. And when they do swing with 2 strikes it's a full swing. Just stupid. Not looking oppo. Looking pull side. So they whiff on anything over the plate.

This team needs Chipper as a hitting coach something awful. He's the guy that they respect and have played with that they can trust to tell them exactly what they need to do and think. And you are right WMD. Lot of teams don't teach two strike approach. We did as a staff at the high school I teach/coach at, but a decent number of teams we played didn't do that, especially with their better players. Would rather take the chance of getting solid contact than risking higher strikeout % and weaker contact.

[msstate7]

Jordan Schafer (.115 ba) and Dan uggla should be cut ASAP. It's time to just eat the money on uggla. You can't tell me there isn't a better option than Schafer out there.

Sorry JS. After my post, JS has had two really good at bats resulting in walks

[War Machine Dawg]

Jordan Schafer (.115 ba) and Dan uggla should be cut ASAP. It's time to just eat the money on uggla. You can't tell me there isn't a better option than Schafer out there.

Sorry JS. After my post, JS has had two really good at bats resulting in walks

I'm still on the Schafer bandwagon. Hard to be "right" at the plate when you *might* get one start a week and no more than 5-6 ABs a week. Being a pinch hitter is one of the toughest jobs in all of baseball. If the money weren't part of the equation, I'd start Schafer over BJ. We played some of our best ball the last 2 seasons when Schafer was a regular part of the lineup. Dunno what it is about him, but he just seems to provide a spark for our offense when he gets regular ABs.

[msstate7]

I'm still on the Schafer bandwagon. Hard to be "right" at the plate when you *might* get one start a week and no more than 5-6 ABs a week. Being a pinch hitter is one of the toughest jobs in all of baseball. If the money weren't part of the equation, I'd start Schafer over BJ. We played some of our best ball the last 2 seasons when Schafer was a regular part of the lineup. Dunno what it is about him, but he just seems to provide a spark for our offense when he gets regular ABs.

JS certainly came thru after missing the sun ball yesterday. He had two really good at bats late in the game