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I'll beat this drum again... lower acuna in the lineup. Since the break, he has 16 HRs, 9 2b, and 1 3b. Great, huh? Absolutely, but he only has 29 RBIs with those 26 extra base hits. He needs to be hitting 3rd.
Markakis - .375 obp with little power
Camargo - .808 ops LH, .893 ops RH
Acuna - our best hitter
FF - he's got to snap out of funk (.172/.238/.293 last 15 games)
Suzuki
Albies
Ender
Swanson
The problem is the pitching, specifically the bullpen. They only gave up 1 run last night, but in 3.1 innings had 5 walks and 2 hits. That's a WHIP above 2.
Acu?a is fine where he is. Freeman and Markakis have been in a slump. We are averaging 4.5 runs scored a game over the last 7 games. Problem is we are giving up 5.25 runs per game over the last 7. In the last 14 games we've lost 6 games by either 1 or 2 runs.
We've hit a little slump which is not surprising. But we can't pitch the ball out of the pen right now. Gausman has a rough start too. But the team looks tired and the arms look fatigued. Have to grind through. Moving Acu?a doesn't guarantee he maintains his current success and there is no metric you can provide to tell me otherwise. He's getting on base, hitting homers, and scoring runs. Doing exactly what a lead off should do.
Fix the pitching, fix this team. But it's too late for that so we are what we are. A team that is a year early that is currently benefitting from the Phillies doing worse than the Braves over the last 14 games.
My night cap yesterday to a dang near perfect day was Dansby making one hell of a play to seal the win. Swanson is becoming a very nice player
4.5 game lead
19 games to go
Magic number at 16
Hell of a win today, I have zero confidence in our bullpen though
Hopefully Viz is gonna help stabilize it someQuote:
Originally Posted by VandelayIndustries
When is he coming back?
I heard it might be today. Should definetely be in SF tomorrow. He's pitched September 3rd, 5th, and 7th (3.0 ip. 0 h 0 er 1 bb 2 k).Quote:
Originally Posted by VandelayIndustries
Do you really think there is a snowball's chance in hell that Snit is going to move FF and Markakis from the 3-4 spots in the lineup?Quote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
Isn't a cleanup hitter supposed to "cleanup" the bases, i.e. RBI's? Markakis is 9th in the NL in RBI with 88. Acuna hits solo shots, that's what he does. Whether it's in the 1st inning or the 5th inning, almost all his HR are solo (except yesterday he hit a 2 run). His leadoff HR are a huge boost of energy, and he's been incredible since being moved to leadoff so I'm not sure why you'd mess with a good thing.
No, I don't think snit would.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matty Dispatch
Acuna doesn't hit more HRs with guys on bc, well, there's no one when he bats. Markakis always has guys on in front of him. This isn't some knock on markakis... I love him. I just want him on base in front of Acuna's extra base hits. Since the break, Acuna is .318/.402/.694, iso = .376, 10 2b, 2 3b, 17 hr... 29 extra base hits, and only 31 RBIs. Do you think if guys were on in front of him that he would turn into Rafael belliard? No, Acuna is the braves best hitter, and he will be until he leaves the braves
ETA... markakis and FF have 30 extra bass hits between them since the break. Acuna has 29.
Would you have a problem if Cohen had hit renfroe leadoff in 2013? This is exactly what we're doing with Acuna. Acuna is our best hitter... let guys get on in front of him
Freddie Freeman is the Braves best hitter. Let's see Acuna do it over 4-5 years first. Franchy, Heyward and several others looked pretty amazing after 1/2 year or 1 year or 2 years but then sank to average player after a few years. Acuna may be different but I'm not going to anoint him just yet.
FF is great. I just think the torch is being passed. Acuna is an absolute monster. .948 ops wasn't touched by frenchy or Heyward...Quote:
Originally Posted by Matty Dispatch
Good job throwing that shit sandwich in an otherwise good paragraph.Quote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
Frenchy had a .884 OPS in 2005 - nearly the same sample size as Acuna so far this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by msstate7
Heyward had a .849 OPS in 2010 - playing a full year.
Not quite .948 but pretty close and the point remains - with both of those two their rookie year was their best year. I hope Acuna is the most amazing player to ever where a Braves jersey but I'm not going to hold my breath.
P.S. Freddie turns 29 in two days. He's in his prime and will be probably for the next 2-3 years.....maybe longer if he can sustain like Markakis has. Maybe he'll pass the torch to Acuna, but not this year, and maybe not a a few years.
Well let's just throw out the future... Acuna is having the best offensive year of any braves THIS season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matty Dispatch
This is backwards thinking. Cleanup hitters are in the best position to get RBI, which is why Markakis has so many. And leadoff hitters bat with runners on less than any other position, which is a large reason why Acuna has hit so many solo HR. Switch them in the order, and you will see Acuna hit fewer solo HR and Markakis have fewer RBI. That's just the way it works.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matty Dispatch
14 of Acuna's 25 HR this year have led off an inning. 8 of those have been leading off the 1st, but the other 6 have come in some other inning later in the game...because he leads off innings and/or bats without runners on more than any other player in the Braves lineup, not because he just has some bent toward hitting solo HR. Just like Markakis gets RBI because he hits with runners on most, not because he is more bent toward RBI.
Wl this doesn't take into consideration two things...1) maybe acuna hits the way he has been BECAUSE he's in the lead off spot 2) the mental affect those lead off homeruns have on the psyche of the teamQuote:
Originally Posted by smootness
A player's place in the order has shown to not have any real effect over time. I do think there are times he can jump on a first pitch because it's usually a fastball thrown in and around the strike zone. And I'm not really even saying he should be moved down, I'm ok with him hitting where he is. I'm just saying that using the result of their spot in the order to justify their spot in the order doesn't make a lot of sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by shoeless joe
5-game lead
Magic number is 15
18 games to go
Let's go!! It be nice to build that lead to 7 or 8 before those 7/10 final final games against the Phil's. Though with how bad they've been the past month, surely we beat them a few times.