Braves Morning Chop – The Kids are Raking
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- Show the bullpen some love
A curious trend seems to be developing with the hitting stats after Atlanta’s first nine spring games: the “kids” seem to be doing better than the “regulars” in many cases.
Check this out:
- Mycal Jones (AA CF): 2/4 (.500)
- Seth Loman (AA/AAA 1B): 2/4 (.500)
- Jesus Flores (AAA C): 2/5 (.400)
- Jace Peterson (2B): 6/15 (.400)
- Mallex Smith (A/AA CF): 4/10 (.400)
- Daniel Castro (AA SS): 3/8 (.375)
- Joey Terdoslavich (AAA LF): 6/16 (.375)
- Pedro Ciriaco (AAA 2B): 5/16 (.313)
- Eury Perez (CF): 4/13 (.308)
Meanwhile, aside from Freddie Freeman (.429) and A.J. Pierzynski (.375), the rest are struggling:
- Jonny Gomes (LF): 2/12 (.167)
- Philip Gosselin (UTIL): 3/18 (.167)
- Alberto Callaspo (2B): 2/15 (.133)
- Chris Johnson* (3B): 1/8 (.125) – injury
Ah, but there is a reason for these numbers – the veterans are getting the innings earlier in games and thus are facing the better pitching. But even so, there are some notable exceptions. Mallex Smith went 3-for-4 the other day while playing the whole game in center field. Jace Peterson has been starting most of the games he’s played in. Pedro Ciriaco had himself a bust-out game (including a homer). So not all of those numbers are smoke-and-mirrors, though are still small sample sizes at this point.
Better Trends
- STRIKEOUTS – Atlanta ranks 5th in the majors for fewest K’s so far… and 3 of the teams ahead of them have only played seven games (vs. 9 for Colorado/48K and Atlanta/50K).
- WALKS – Atlanta ranks 3rd in the majors with 37. Oakland has 38 (9 games) and San Francisco has 43 (10 games)
- STEALS – Atlanta is #1 on the chart with 10… tied with Seattle. Still trying to figure out how Mallex Smith got thrown out on his first attempt.
- The overall on-base percentage (OBP) is still in the middle of the pack (.330, 14th) and run-scoring is lagging a bit (32 runs, 22nd ranked), but that’s because the hitting hasn’t kicked in yet (.242, 23rd ranked). But the other aspects of the Seitzer philosophy are generally working (the contact hitting and OBP part).