Official Around Baseball 2023 Thread

I'm obviously biased but the Braves are an interesting team. Oddly enough, 19-10 feels like they've underperformed and they could easily be 23-6 or close to it. They need one more BP arm (Iglesias?) and one bat (Riley?) to get right and I have a feeling they go on one of those patented win streaks.​
 
I knew CB was having a good year because I look at the xwOBA leaderboard frequently and was stunned to see his name so close to the top
 
I'm obviously biased but the Braves are an interesting team. Oddly enough, 19-10 feels like they've underperformed and they could easily be 23-6 or close to it. They need one more BP arm (Iglesias?) and one bat (Riley?) to get right and I have a feeling they go on one of those patented win streaks.​

Alot of our losses could have very well been wins too. But that's baseball unfortunately. BP needs Iggy and an arm at the deadline. Offense could use Arcia back, and probably a LF'er (Joc?).
 
I'm obviously biased but the Braves are an interesting team. Oddly enough, 19-10 feels like they've underperformed and they could easily be 23-6 or close to it. They need one more BP arm (Iglesias?) and one bat (Riley?) to get right and I have a feeling they go on one of those patented win streaks.​

Agreed. And outside of a surging Pirates team (wtf lol) the Braves are still the class of the NL in record and run differential.

This is with tons of injuries the first month and still not having a complete team yet.
 
IIRC, Rooker's strikeouts are way down, but his swing-and-miss % is the same. Probably a fluke start?
 
Bethancourt threw 41 innings in AAA in 2017
Yea. I think the Padres (?) were trying to convert him to pitcher.

This was during a time when Matt Bush converted among others so it was a bit of a fad so of course Preller was all over the idea.
 
I wonder if they changed CB's approach or if it is just a fluke.. he is hitting the ball harder than he ever has and by a good bit. But he isn't pulling the ball, his pull rate is lower than career, he seems to be hitting it up the middle and in air more. Something I wish Riley would do more instead of pulling off the ball..

It's mostly a product of SSS. While he definitely seems to be peaking as well, the 7% hr rate isn't sustainable unless he's morphed into Mike Piazza over the off-season.
 
Why could he have done that years ago?

I think the beaning really affected him more than people sometimes think. I'm an untrained eye, but it seems that when he was with the Cubs he was in the far southeast corner of the batters' box (almost outside the east edge). Pitchers could work him outside and he would still try to pull the ball.

Great athlete who has had some very productive years, but he's another guy that observers will think could have done more. He's never gone opposite field very well and not everyone can do that so it may have been counterproductive, but if you are way off the plate, you just can't try to pull outer half with much success.
 
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I’ve always thought it was either stay as far away from the plate as possible, or I’m not even going up there- “I’m lucky to be alive and that **** scares the ELF out of me - I coulda’ probably stood closer to the plate like a normal batter and maybe tried to chase down Hank Aaron — except for one little thing: I simply cannot do that.”
 
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