A Solid Year Considering

[Enscheff]

Anyone that says anything other than, "the 2015 Atlanta Braves offense was putrid", is wrong. Period. There was zero silver lining or positive takeaways from the 2015 offense. The point of an offense is to score runs, not to hit more singles or K fewer times...or for fans to "have more confidence they can score runs".

All we can do is look for improvements in 2016. A full year from Olivera, a healthy year from Freeman, a bounce back in the power department for Markakis, a full year of a Castro/Peterson platoon at 2B, any improvement in LF, and repeat performances as a whole from the other positions should bump the offense up to at least a respectable level (meaning not bottom 5 of the NL).

An offense that scores 650+ runs should be good enough to make a push for .500 next year when coupled with the expected improvements in the pitching staff.

 

[Horsehide Harry]

Anyone that says anything other than, "the 2015 Atlanta Braves offense was putrid", is wrong. Period. There was zero silver lining or positive takeaways from the 2015 offense. The point of an offense is to score runs, not to hit more singles or K fewer times...or for fans to "have more confidence they can score runs".

All we can do is look for improvements in 2016. A full year from Olivera, a healthy year from Freeman, a bounce back in the power department for Markakis, a full year of a Castro/Peterson platoon at 2B, any improvement in LF, and repeat performances as a whole from the other positions should bump the offense up to at least a respectable level (meaning not bottom 5 of the NL).

An offense that scores 650+ runs should be good enough to make a push for .500 next year when coupled with the expected improvements in the pitching staff.

Also need to cut down on the number of times you get shut out. You can have fantastic pitching but if you get shut out you can't win.

 

[sturg33]

Olivera didn't give me a lot of confidence

 

[thewupk]

Olivera didn't give me a lot of confidence

It's all a small sample but his defense was much mor concerning to me. -1 DRS in only 24 games. That doesn't bode well but it could just be a blip thing. I think he be an above average hitter. 273 BABIP isnt horrible but I'd expect it to be closer to league average in a full season. 150 ISO isn't horrible and the 13% K rate is good. The walk rate is poor but that's generally expected for a hitter like this. Again I think he will end next year with a WRC+ around 110 or so which is fine and will certainly help the offense.

 

[Enscheff]

Olivera didn't give me a lot of confidence

Me neither. It looks like he throws the ball across the diamond with that loopy sidearm toss like Zimmerman used to, which lead to him moving to 1B. He also seems very fragile, specifically coming out of a game after being hit directly on his elbow guard (seriously, WTF?). His bat wrap seemed to get worse and worse, which makes me wonder if he will be able to catch up to premium velocity, especially on the inner half. I never saw him take a good swing at an offspeed pitch, he was always fooled and lunging at it...probably because his bat wrap caused him to commit too early to recognize the pitch was offspeed.

Hopefully some mechanical work with the coaches and a full spring training to get back into the swing of things will get him to the .280/.350/.450 hitter the Braves need him to be. If he ends up being the .250/.310/.400 guy he was in his small sample so far, the offense is in real trouble next year.

 

[50PoundHead]

As the Twins showed this year.

I actually thought the Twins would contend before the season. I revised my view when Santana was suspended, but a lot of things came together for them. Sano is the real deal.

 

[50PoundHead]

I'd also add that with the renewed focus on continuing to add arms, building a deeper and stronger pen SHOULD become much easier going forward. My hope is that adding Hart's experience and Coppy's more analytical focus will lead to at least somewhat quicker decisions as to who we're really comfortable believing could be contributors to a rotation at the big league level sooner, while transitioning some of the "well, maybe" types into relievers earlier. Guys like A. J. Minter, Anthony Guardado, Josh Graham, Chase Johnson-Mullins, etc. could become really cheap late-inning options that could move fast if they show signs of trouble as starters. I'm not advocating a quick trigger finger when it comes to transitioning them mind you, but when you already have Wisler, Banuelos, Perez, Weber, Folty, Jenkins, Sims, Fried, Toussaint, Allard, and Soroka ahead of them, don't be shy about making a few of those guys relievers earlier in an effort to help the big club. We're likely going to continue to draft at least a couple guys every year with higher ceilings as starters.

I wouldn't be surprised if they started the season by doing some "piggy-backing" in Rome with guys both starting and relieving until things settle out. Allard and Soroka will likely be full-time starters, but I could see them trying to get innings for Jones and Johnson-Mullins (and a few other guys).

 

[Carp]

It was.

It was essentially the same.

 

[thewupk]

It was essentially the same.

But technically worse which is what matters, right? Both were beyond bad so I don't really see the point.

 

[Carp]

But technically worse which is what matters, right? Both were beyond bad so I don't really see the point.

[video=youtube;hou0lU8WMgo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hou0lU8WMgo[/video]

 

[clvclv]

Anyone that says anything other than, "the 2015 Atlanta Braves offense was putrid", is wrong. Period. There was zero silver lining or positive takeaways from the 2015 offense. The point of an offense is to score runs, not to hit more singles or K fewer times...or for fans to "have more confidence they can score runs".

All we can do is look for improvements in 2016. A full year from Olivera, a healthy year from Freeman, a bounce back in the power department for Markakis, a full year of a Castro/Peterson platoon at 2B, any improvement in LF, and repeat performances as a whole from the other positions should bump the offense up to at least a respectable level (meaning not bottom 5 of the NL).

An offense that scores 650+ runs should be good enough to make a push for .500 next year when coupled with the expected improvements in the pitching staff.

Just nitpicking, but Markakis and his 110 OPS+ (even without hitting balls over the fence) and 52 multi-hit games was far from "putrid", and anyone not willing to admit that just doesn't get it. Like him or not, the guy can still just flat-out hit. Will a full offseason with improved conditioning for his neck and back turn him back into a 15+ HR threat? Who knows, but more importantly who cares? He was brought in in hopes he could provide an acceptable offensive replacement for Heyward so they could get a rotation upgrade, and he was exactly that. Even with the better season Jason had in St. Louis, his OPS+ was only 117. This isn't meant to spiral this into another useless Heyward/Markakis debate - simply to state the obvious - other than a little extra pop you'd like to see, Markakis was a success this season.

Was the offense bad? Of course. But stating that "There was zero silver lining or positive takeaways from the 2015 offense." is pretty ridiculous.

 

[cajunrevenge]

Its funny. Before the season most people said it would take a miracle to score as much in 2015 as in 2014. Now the year ends and they scored the same exact amount of runs with half the talent and now that miracle is a disaster? You know you have unreal expectations when your team trades 3 of its best 4 hitters and you expect the number of runs scored to go up.

 

[nsacpi]

Now the year ends and they scored the same exact amount of runs with half the talent and now that miracle is a disaster?

It was both a miracle and a disaster. In other words if not for a miracle (in the form of cluster luck in the first half) it would have been a catastrophe.

 

[thewupk]

Its funny. Before the season most people said it would take a miracle to score as much in 2015 as in 2014. Now the year ends and they scored the same exact amount of runs with half the talent and now that miracle is a disaster? You know you have unreal expectations when your team trades 3 of its best 4 hitters and you expect the number of runs scored to go up.

Before the season there was a group of folks who said our offense would be better since we were going away from the strikeouts and focusing on putting the ball in play. How did that work out? And yes in the term of raw runs scored the two offenses were the same. And that was mainly due to the cluster luck the team had in the first half of the season. But when you compare the teams WRC+, their placement comapred to other teams in 2015 in team WRC+ and runs scored, it's clear this offense was worse. I mean it was the worst offense in baseball. That is a fact. And that's what many people on here, including myself, said at the start of the year. Guess what? We were right.

 

[thewupk]

Just nitpicking, but Markakis and his 110 OPS+ (even without hitting balls over the fence) and 52 multi-hit games was far from "putrid", and anyone not willing to admit that just doesn't get it. Like him or not, the guy can still just flat-out hit. Will a full offseason with improved conditioning for his neck and back turn him back into a 15+ HR threat? Who knows, but more importantly who cares? He was brought in in hopes he could provide an acceptable offensive replacement for Heyward so they could get a rotation upgrade, and he was exactly that. Even with the better season Jason had in St. Louis, his OPS+ was only 117. This isn't meant to spiral this into another useless Heyward/Markakis debate - simply to state the obvious - other than a little extra pop you'd like to see, Markakis was a success this season.

Was the offense bad? Of course. But stating that "There was zero silver lining or positive takeaways from the 2015 offense." is pretty ridiculous.

I think if your are looking at this objectively. If you expect Nick's power to return you would have to assume his walk rate and BABIP would go back closer to his career norms as well. So with that being said the overall product would likely be the same in terms of offensive production.

His WRC+ the last 5 seasons have been 105, 126, 86, 106, and 107. Going into the 2015 season I expected something in the 105-110 WRC+ range based on past seasons. That's what we got. I expect the same in 2016. Not great but not horrible. I personally think paying market value prices for that kind of performance is not good bang for your buck.

 

[Heyward]

Julio pitched well late in the year, Miller wore down.

Some others showed some promise, need a veteran SP.

Other than Freeman, there isnt much to be excited about offensively, need some long-term bats, wonder if Chi would trade Castro or Baez, cant have all of Bryant, Russell, Castro, Baez long-term.

 

[cajunrevenge]

Before the season there was a group of folks who said our offense would be better since we were going away from the strikeouts and focusing on putting the ball in play. How did that work out? And yes in the term of raw runs scored the two offenses were the same. And that was mainly due to the cluster luck the team had in the first half of the season. But when you compare the teams WRC+, their placement comapred to other teams in 2015 in team WRC+ and runs scored, it's clear this offense was worse. I mean it was the worst offense in baseball. That is a fact. And that's what many people on here, including myself, said at the start of the year. Guess what? We were right.

Ok, so the offense was better than anticipated in the first half. Then they traded KJ/Uribe and Freeman got hurt and the offense was as bad as expected. This was all about Seitzer getting more out of the offense than we expected as a positive. I bet if Seitzer was the hitting coach in 2014 we score 600+ runs.

 

[thewupk]

Ok, so the offense was better than anticipated in the first half. Then they traded KJ/Uribe and Freeman got hurt and the offense was as bad as expected. This was all about Seitzer getting more out of the offense than we expected as a positive. I bet if Seitzer was the hitting coach in 2014 we score 600+ runs.

Did Seitzer get more out of the offense? I think some people put too much emphasis on a hitting coach overall. If an offense is good they we have a good hitting coach. If the offense is bad then the hitting coach has to go. The Blue Jays seemed to do just fine after he left.

 

[cajunrevenge]

I would say recent history our offense has always seemed to under perform and hitters randomly fall off cliffs like McLouth, Melvin, Uggla etc. I think some players benefit more from a hitting coach than others. I like Seitzer's hitting philosophy. I think our previous hitting coaches philosophy was "swing hard in case you hit it" and "Swing early, swing often".