Andrelton Simmons Batting 2nd tonight (Unofficial GDT 9/2/'14 vs. Phillies)

50PoundHead said:
You think changing the order around is going to make any difference? And jeez, La Stella is hardly ripping it up. There's no fixing this without new players. There just isn't.

PS--And what is with the non sequitur regarding Bethancourt. He's not even in the game.
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I think grouping your better hitters together creates more chances to score runs. Putting double play machines in between your best players is never going to work out well no matter what kind of players are around them. And we agree with getting new players. A player like Johnson has no business being on this team and we obviously need a CF. But if you don't think getting bad players out of the heart of the lineup wouldn't create a little more consistency then we'll just agree to disagree.

I wasn't speaking to just this particular game. The Braves rushed Bethancourt through the minors even though he never hit a lick anywhere and they seem to be very high on him. So much so they sound like they are willing to move Gattis because they think he can contribute enough behind the plate. But you have a guy like La Stella who gets on base fairly well but has had his playing time cut into for no real reason other than the fact he's LH. If you can look his recent slump started after put into a platoon and being regularly replaced at the end of games costing him at least one ab.

I used Bethancourt and La Stella as player examples. I think the Braves prefer a nice looking batting average over other aspects of the game. It's why players like Gosselin and Johnson still get plenty of ab's despite neither knowing what a walk is and riding high babip's that always come back to normal. I prefer players that have other skill sets outside of getting the bloops to fall.
 
Rearranging the batting order isn't going to fix the team, but you're hardly putting yourself in the best position to win when you're often batting two guys who don't get on base at a .300 clip in the first 5 spots, and almost always batting one your two worst hitters in the 2nd spot. We're not getting new players any time soon, but I'd love to see Fredi at least doing the things that are within his control. No BJ/Tron at the top of the lineup, and don't bat CJ any higher than 6th, ever.*

*unless our top 4 are Jason, JUp, FF, Gattis, in which case there's not much choice.
 
BremanFan88 said:
I think grouping your better hitters together creates more chances to score runs. Putting double play machines in between your best players is never going to work out well no matter what kind of players are around them. And we agree with getting new players. A player like Johnson has no business being on this team and we obviously need a CF. But if you don't think getting bad players out of the heart of the lineup wouldn't create a little more consistency then we'll just agree to disagree.

I wasn't speaking to just this particular game. The Braves rushed Bethancourt through the minors even though he never hit a lick anywhere and they seem to be very high on him. So much so they sound like they are willing to move Gattis because they think he can contribute enough behind the plate. But you have a guy like La Stella who gets on base fairly well but has had his playing time cut into for no real reason other than the fact he's LH. If you can look his recent slump started after put into a platoon and being regularly replaced at the end of games costing him at least one ab.

I used Bethancourt and La Stella as player examples. I think the Braves prefer a nice looking batting average over other aspects of the game. It's why players like Gosselin and Johnson still get plenty of ab's despite neither knowing what a walk is and riding high babip's that always come back to normal. I prefer players that have other skill sets outside of getting the bloops to fall.
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Gosselin has a grand total of 60 ABs and I doubt very highly he's in the team's long term plans.

In 99 ABs batting second, La Stella has an OPS of .599. Batting seventh, he's at .822. What you fail to see is that when La Stella is in the 2-hole, he's going to be thrown strikes which will reduce his chances of getting a walk and he sure isn't going to dent many fences. The other team scouts our guys. They know what they can and can't do and while somehow La Stella's cumulative stats make him look like he'd hit well batting second, a deeper look shows that may not be the case. There is a game within a game that seems to bear that out. I'm not defending the use of Simmons or Chris Johnson or Gosselin in the second spot, but the statistics clearly show that La Stella hasn't done well there either. This is simply a bad set of hitters.
 
I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned, but in our last four games our offense has just been pathetically, embarrassingly awful:

1 Run
23 Hits (20 of those were in the 4-0 loss and 1-0 win against the Marlins)
.178 AVG

I'm sure this isn't unprecedented and there are other teams who have had similar 4-5 game stretches this year, but it's still terrible and I'm guessing any other team that's had a 4-5 game stretch where they were that putrid offensively doesn't have the talent we have.
 
1 run in 37 innings. It's remarkable that Kershaw can pitch every night like that.....

Just lost a series at home to the last place team in our division. In September, when we need to be winning ball games to get to the postseason.

That's baseball, though!!!!
 
Thank goodness for our starting pitching, and that's without Medlen, Beachy and Floyd, or we'd be fourth- or last-place team.

We are only capable of turning things around a for four or five games. Then we go right back to the crap. We're a mediocre team. Outside of a 17-7 start and 9-game winning streak late in the first half, that is what we are and what we'll continue to be the final 23 games. Best hope is to play around .500 the rest of the way, have Milwaukee collapse completely and win that series with the Pirates in Atlanta.

Then we'll go to San Fran and see what happens.
 
Going .500 the rest of the way isn't really reasonable with this team.

53-43 at the break.

Current record of 72-67. That's a 19-24 record in the second half. I thought all along 86 wins was the ceiling. Looks like I was probably a little high on that. 83 seems more likely.
 
Julio3000 said:
Rearranging the batting order isn't going to fix the team, but you're hardly putting yourself in the best position to win when you're often batting two guys who don't get on base at a .300 clip in the first 5 spots, and almost always batting one your two worst hitters in the 2nd spot. We're not getting new players any time soon, but I'd love to see Fredi at least doing the things that are within his control. No BJ/Tron at the top of the lineup, and don't bat CJ any higher than 6th, ever.*

*unless our top 4 are Jason, JUp, FF, Gattis, in which case there's not much choice.
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vs LHP

Boni CF
Justin LF
Freeman 1B
Gattis C
Stella! 2B
CJ 3B
Simmons SS
P
Heyward RF

vs RHP

Heyward RF
Gosselin 3B
Freeman 1B
Justin LF
Stella! 2B
Gattis C
Simmons SS
P
BJ CF

That's probably the best we could do right now. Heyward is terrible against lefties, but this allows the team to protect some against that without platooning him (and pretty much puts him at the top later in the game against righties). It also takes advantage of Stella! doing such a great job driving in runs (RISP = .308 .378 .415 .794, RISP 2 Outs = .333 .405 .424 .830). He is just clutch.
 
Dalyn said:
vs LHP

Boni CF

Justin LF

Freeman 1B

Gattis C

Stella! 2B

CJ 3B

Simmons SS

P

Heyward RF

vs RHP

Heyward RF

Gosselin 3B

Freeman 1B

Justin LF

Stella! 2B

Gattis C

Simmons SS

P

BJ CF

That's probably the best we could do right now. Heyward is terrible against lefties, but this allows the team to protect some against that without platooning him (and pretty much puts him at the top later in the game against righties). It also takes advantage of Stella! doing such a great job driving in runs (RISP = .308 .378 .415 .794, RISP 2 Outs = .333 .405 .424 .830). He is just clutch.
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This, except for batting Heyward anywhere but leadoff.
 
50PoundHead said:
Gosselin has a grand total of 60 ABs and I doubt very highly he's in the team's long term plans.

In 99 ABs batting second, La Stella has an OPS of .599. Batting seventh, he's at .822. What you fail to see is that when La Stella is in the 2-hole, he's going to be thrown strikes which will reduce his chances of getting a walk and he sure isn't going to dent many fences. The other team scouts our guys. They know what they can and can't do and while somehow La Stella's cumulative stats make him look like he'd hit well batting second, a deeper look shows that may not be the case. There is a game within a game that seems to bear that out. I'm not defending the use of Simmons or Chris Johnson or Gosselin in the second spot, but the statistics clearly show that La Stella hasn't done well there either. This is simply a bad set of hitters.
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Agreed but who he is taking the ab's from concerns me. They let Johnson be God awful against RHP but La Stella who has done well against LHP is being platooned. It tells me that the Braves still see Johnson as a long term solution and TLS as just someone filling a need at the moment.

I never mentioned putting La Stella in the two spot but for the sake of the discussion I wouldn't mind it. I like hitting hitting with RISP though and he seems to thrive in those spots but the problem is he's hitting behind an inning ender in CJ. It's like Julio said, changing the lineup around won't make a huge difference but you don't have to hurt your team even more with really terrible lineup construction too. Heyward, Freeman and Justin need to bat together in the lineup one way or the other. If that means Justin in the two spot than do it. You can bat Gattis cleanup and put TLS 5th. Johnson shouldn't be any higher than 6 with Simmons and the CF in final spots.
 
CyYoung31 said:
This, except for batting Heyward anywhere but leadoff.
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He is so awful against lefties. All it really does is protect some against that. He will likely have just as many at-bats against righties in the game and perhaps one less against lefties.
 
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