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By The Numbers: Atlanta Braves Lost 45% of Their Strikeouts from 2014, Let’s Celebrate!

By Fletcher Batts

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*This is the third installment of By The Numbers. Each installment is designed to be a conversation piece and focus only on one specific stat. We will deal with the sum of all of the installments prior to opening day after we are able to make better assumptions, predictions, and evaluations after watching THIS team in action in Spring Training

We’ve covered Hits and Homeruns.

Jul 11, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach

Kevin Seitzer

(25) prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Now let’s look at something we saw way too damn much of last year: Strikeouts
In addition to that we will look at something we saw very little of last year: Walks

Team Totals

In 6,064 plate appearances and 5,468 at-bats; all Atlanta Braves hitters walked a total of 472 times; which is right in the middle of the league average (14th overall) but we struck out a total of 1,369 times (4th worst in the league); that is a lot of free air conditioning.

League worst: Chicago Cubs 1,477 K | Kansas City Royals 380 walks

League best: Kansas City Royals 985 k (fewest) | Oakland Athletics 586 walks (most)

Now wait a minute Batman, are you telling me that the same team that only had 95 Home Runs last year also walked the least in the majors (which is bad) and also had the fewest strike outs (which is good)?

Yes, Robin that is correct… But let’s see what’s under Catwoman’s suit for a minute…

By the numbers for Braves Hitters (a hitter is anyone who went up to bat, pitchers were included):

  • Struck out 22.5% of their plate appearances and 25% of their at-bats.
  • Walked 7.7% of their plate appearances

*yes other factors come into play, sac fly, sac bunts, interference calls or obstruction, caught stealing while at bat, etc etc. but we are ONLY looking at hard NUMBERS

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Conversely:

In 6058 plate appearances, the Kansas City Royals (you know the team that hustled their way into the World Series) struck out 16.2% and walked 6.2%.

Sidebar…We were:

  • hit by a pitch 43 times (25th worst) – take more for the team fellas

    • Intentionally walked 31 times (tied for 15

    th

    ) – expect for Freeman to get a LOT of these

    Sep 25, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher Evan Gattis (24) grounds out in the fifth inning of their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Turner Field. The Pirates won 10-1. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

    The Players

    That is the team data. Let’s look at the players.

    In fact let’s look at what we gained by losing… (One might call this addition by subtraction; wait, didn’t I say that could NOT be done?)

    *if a player was DFA their stats were not added into the above; they are still on the team and still considered assets.

    Collectively the group above is no longer with the organization.

    Here is what we lost… by the numbers and what the above teams have to look forward to:

    • Evan Gattis: 22 BB| 97 k | 401 PA —– walked 5.4% of his at bats | struck out 24.1% of his plate appearances
    • Tommy La Stella: 36 BB | 40 k | 350 PA —– walked 10.2% of his at bats | struck out 11.4% of his plate appearances (still don’t know why these number warranted a trade)
    • Jason Heyward: 67 BB | 98 k | 649 PA —– walked 10.3% of his at bats | struck out 15.1% of his plate appearances (or these…yes, I’m still mad)
    • Gerald Laird: 14 BB | 30 k | 167 PA —– walked 8.3% of his at bats | struck out 17.9% of his plate appearances
    • Ryan Doumit: 7 BB | 49 k | 166 PA —– walked 4.2% of his at bats | struck out 29.5% of his plate appearances (actually better than I thought, lol)
    • Ramiro Pena: 13 BB | 38k | 165 PA —– walked 7.8% of his at bats | struck out 23% of his plate appearances
    • Dan Uggla: 10 BB | 40 k | 145 PA —– walked 6.8% of his at bats | struck out 27.5% of his plate appearances
    • Emilio Bonifacio: 10 BB | 36 k | 128 PA —– walked 7.8% of his at bats | struck out 28.1% of his plate appearances
    • Jordan Schafer: 10 BB | 20 k | 93 PA —– walked 10.7% of his at bats | struck out 21.5% of his plate appearances
    • Justin Upton: 60 BB | 171 k | 641 PA —– walked 9.3% of his at bats | struck out 26.6% of his plate appearances

    Collectively we lost 249 walks | 619 k | 2905 plate appearances.

    We did not sign, cut or traded away 47.9% of our team total plate appearances for 2014. That is text book rebuilding, sorry front office; let’s call a spade a spade.

    In those appearances 52.7% of our walks (472 team total) went farting in the wind and another 45.2% of our strikeouts (1369 team total) got crop dusted onto the next guy.

    Now I could begin to speculate who was replaced with what, where, when and how but quite honestly since my last By the Numbers writing, we’ve signed everyone who still has a pulse and not taking Viagra (allegedly).

    We do know that the following will be on the team (all things considered, they stay healthy and make the opening day roster):

    • A.J. Pierzynski: 6636 career MLB at bats | 829 k (damn good number) | 283 BB | career .281 hitter
    • Alberto Callaspo: 3326 career MLB at bats | 331 k (I like that number) | 322 BB | career .267 hitter
    • Jonny Gomes: 3231 career MLB at bats | 1007 k (I don’t like that number | 386 BB | career .244 hitter
    • Nick Markakis: 5331 career MLB at bats | 774 k | 553 BB | career .290 hitter
    • Eury Perez: 23 career MLB at bats | 6 k | 5 BB | career .174 hitter
    • Dian Toscano: no stats

    I can not begin to show how full of joy I am by reviewing the above numbers.

    Ok, I am lying. I am full of something… it ain’t joy.

    But outside of Broke-Neck Nick, everyone else is projected to be either minor league assets or part-time platoon players. To begin to plug in projections and probabilities will only make things worse and give me a bigger therapy bill than I need.

    So let’s look at the glass half full…

    We got rid of a huge part of our problem last year with our inability to get on base via base on balls and we also purged ourselves of an epidemic level of strike outs.

    Now what?

    Fredi G has always had the philosophy of “moving the line” aka “get em on, get em over”. Are all of the new additions a part of that philosophy, yes but there is more to the team than a 60 year old back-up catcher with an attitude problem, a scrappy platoon guy who looks like he’s an extra on duck dynasty and a walking paraplegic.

    We’ve added a LOT of pieces …. I mean A LOOOOOOOOTTTTT of pieces. By the time I hit publish, we will probably add 2 more (Roy Halladay is still alive right?)

    Sep 25, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves manager

    Fredi Gonzalez

    (33) sits in the dugout in the seventh inning of their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Turner Field. The Pirates won 10-1. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

    This year will test the skills of the skipper to actually manage the team. Contrary to what he has had the last 2 years, he’s been given an abundance of pieces to play with to get the job done. This is his team. There will be NO excuses… it’s time to produce.

    But in the event that the air condition does go out in the stadium, or you happen to catch a day game and the Georgia Heat is getting too much to endure; just move a little closer to the field every time number 2 comes to the plate, you are guaranteed a good whiff…

    In 582 plate appearances, he struck out 173 times… that is a solid 29.7% rate of swinging and missing per plate appearance. Nothing like free Green Energy from B.J. Upton.

    And those are By the Numbers….

    Til next time.

    ~UnBiased Brave

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