Improving the offense

[BremanFan88]

Not counting tonight's game here are the OBP's of our 8 everyday players:

.449
.374
.355
.350
.332
.295
.288
.282

When you throw in the pitcher's spot you have 4 spots in the lineup that are basically not giving us very good ab's or production. Obviously one of those is Simmons so you live with that because he's an elite defender. BJ shouldn't be hitting 2nd but his contract and no one else capable of playing better means you have to live with him but ideally way down in the order. So why are we putting up with Chris Johnson? The Bethancourt rumors just make little sense to me. His OBP is horrific in AAA and throughout his minor league career. Does anyone honestly think his OBP will be higher than BJ's? Sure his defense would be a plus but we all saw Gattis in LF last year. Yikes. I just don't understand why Kyle Kubitza isn't an option. Yes he does strike out a lot but so does Chris Johnson. At least Kubitza knows what a walk is and seems to be pretty good at it among other things. Isn't making less outs more important to this team right now? Just seems to me other than a miracle trade 3B is the most logical choice. Sure Kubitza may not be "ready" but is there really a better option? We talk about wanting a spark well how about calling up a player with some potential and some tools. Even though Kubitza seems to hit lefties well you can still have Johnson face some tough lefties in a platoon role where you could optimize one of the few things he can actually do well.

Of course lineup construction and Fredi using guys appropriately helps too.

[KB21]

There are a lot of issues. One problem is that the best hitter in the line up is currently on pace to play only 126 games and get around 480 plate appearances.

[NinersSBChamps]

The blame goes to the architect who constructed this team. Wren wanted a bunch of feast of famine type hitters and clearly didn't think getting on base was very important.

There isn't an immediate fix especially within the organization in my opinion. I agree lineup construction is vital for the Braves to have any sort of success from the offensive end. Additionally the mistakes our manager makes are magnified because the offense has little to no margin of error.

[KB21]

This isn't about offense, but watching Nick Howard from UVA go 4 shut out innings tonight out of the pen, throwing 95-98 with his fastball and a wicked slider, why don't professional managers adopt this philosophy from college. Have less specialized relievers that you run out there for one or two batters or pitchers who you have basically trained to be one inning guys. Start developing these guys to go multiple innings out of the pen. That way, you shouldn't be running into situations where you are bringing in an arm to pitch in 6 of the last 7 games.

Jacob Lindgren from Mississippi State averaged right at 3.5 innings or so per appearance out of the pen for MSU this year and had ridiculous strike out numbers with a fastball that sat 93-95 and a wipe out slider.

[NinersSBChamps]

This isn't about offense, but watching Nick Howard from UVA go 4 shut out innings tonight out of the pen, throwing 95-98 with his fastball and a wicked slider, why don't professional managers adopt this philosophy from college. Have less specialized relievers that you run out there for one or two batters or pitchers who you have basically trained to be one inning guys. Start developing these guys to go multiple innings out of the pen. That way, you shouldn't be running into situations where you are bringing in an arm to pitch in 6 of the last 7 games.

Jacob Lindgren from Mississippi State averaged right at 3.5 innings or so per appearance out of the pen for MSU this year and had ridiculous strike out numbers with a fastball that sat 93-95 and a wipe out slider.

I think in this day and age that's almost out of the question. Too many advanced stats that toy with a manager and pitching coach.

[Jay212033]

Here's a long term fix. Trade Justin Upton!

He's the only guy that would bring the Braves a nice return right now.

The Red Sox need OF help so I'd trade Justin to them for Mookie Betts and Anthony Ranaudo

[CyYoung31]

Here's a long term fix. Trade Justin Upton!

He's the only guy that would bring the Braves a nice return right now.

The Red Sox need OF help so I'd trade Justin to them for Mookie Betts and Anthony Ranaudo

My God son.

[stpeteirish]

Fire the hitting coach is the happy refrain but I'm skeptical. Is he the reason we cannot swing at strikes and not swing at balls? Because that's our problem in a nutshell.

Harnessing Simmons' obvious talent as a hitter into a hitter should be job 1. Maybe it is. I wonder how many man hours have been wasted trying to help BJ in the last year.

[Garmel]

BJ will never hit well until he gets that stupid waggle out of his swing.

[Tapate50]

BJ will never hit well until he gets that stupid waggle out of his swing.

He has cut way down though.

[57Brave]

BJ will never hit well until he gets that stupid waggle out of his swing.

Kevin Millar generally drives me to drink. However the other day he slow motioned BJ's swing and said the same thing. His desk mate mentioned Sheff had a similar waggle Millar brought up how strong ones hands and forearms must be to "get away" with that. Sheff was, Bj not so much

Wonder if he had that waggle when he first came up.
Yes, it is not as pronounced as it was last summer - but still too many moving parts

[KB21]

Kevin Millar generally drives me to drink. However the other day he slow motioned BJ's swing and said the same thing. His desk mate mentioned Sheff had a similar waggle Millar brought up how strong ones hands and forearms must be to "get away" with that. Sheff was, Bj not so much

Wonder if he had that waggle when he first came up.
Yes, it is not as pronounced as it was last summer - but still too many moving parts

With as many moving parts as BJ has in his swing, everything has to be perfect for him to be able to hit. If one thing is off, his timing is off.

[57Brave]

I have always been fond of the approach of a pretty much square stance and just a delicate toe tap. No step -- I don't even care seeing exagerated open stances. La Stella has a nice approach. Get into the hitting position and rip.


How can BJ and Justin be so dissimilar? My understanding is they are both very influenced by their father yet one looks like a slinky going down the stairs and the other looks like Aaron
Weird

[Garmel]

I can't figure how anybody gets into the waggle habit in the first place. I've tried it before and it's uncomfortable as hell.

[stpeteirish]

Kevin Millar generally drives me to drink. However the other day he slow motioned BJ's swing and said the same thing. His desk mate mentioned Sheff had a similar waggle Millar brought up how strong ones hands and forearms must be to "get away" with that. Sheff was, Bj not so much

Wonder if he had that waggle when he first came up.
Yes, it is not as pronounced as it was last summer - but still too many moving parts

That was Kruk on the ESPN Sunday Angels game, unless "great minds think alike" has reached a new, creepy level.

[cajunrevenge]

Here is how I would fix the offense. I would trade Santana and use those prospects along with some of our own to get Daniel Murphy and Ben Zobrist. Santana makes more than both combined and should net enough in trade to atleast get one of them without giving up any of our current prospects. Santana's salary is more than both combined so that offsets. Ideally BJ would become the 4th outfielder and CJ starts vs lefties and would give us a good bat off the bench vs lefties when he sits. Let me go over in depth how this improves the offense.


For the season so far BJ swings at 28.1% of pitches outside of the strike zone and 70.9% of pitches in the strike zone. All together he makes contact 67.5% of the time and swings and misses on 15.8% of pitches.

Ben Zobrist who would effectively replace BJ either by playing RF with Heyward in center or playing 2B and La Stella playing LF. Zobrist is a plus defender at both positions but can play many others in a pinch. Zobrist swings at 22.4% of pitches outside the strike zone and 59.9% of pitches in the strike zone. All together he makes contact on 86.5% of pitches and only 5.3% of his strikes are swinging strikes.

Chris Johnson swings at 44.5% of pitches outside the strike zone(close to worst in the majors) and 72.9% in the strike zone. Overall he makes contact 74.5% of the time which is decent for how many bad pitches he swings at. He also swings and misses 14.5% of the the time.

Daniel Murphy swings at 27.1% of pitches outside the strike zone and 65.8% of pitches in the strike zone. Overall he makes contact 90.4% of the time and only 4.4% of his strikes are swinging strikes. And he is a plus defender at 3B.



TLDR - Zobrist works the count more, makes contact 20% more often and swings and misses about 1/3rd as much as BJ. He is also a switch hitter ideal for second spot.
- Murphy swings at 40% less pitches outside the strike zone, makes contact 15% more often, and swings and misses almost 1/4th as much as CJ.

If we want a better offense we need players with better plate discipline. La Stella/Zobrist/Murphy(CJ vs lefties) is a great complement to the sluggers we have in Heywood/Freeman/Justin/Gattis. How about a lineup of La Stella/Zobrist/Freeman/Gattis/Heywodo/Justin/Murphy/Simmons. Thats a winning lineup right there.

[BremanFan88]

If we want a better offense we need players with better plate discipline.

Exactly. I know some want to blame the hitting coach but a hitting coach isn't going to fix the fact that Simmons and Johnson refuse to take a walk. CJ has a 2% walk rate. 2%. Just abysmal. I have to imagine when you take fielding and baserunning into the equation that we have the worst 3B in all of baseball. At least with Simmons and BJ they bring other things to the table. This team needs players that make less outs.