Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Trouble Starts With Freeman

Braves pitching was supposed to be worst in baseball, but it’s the offense causing most ‘offense’

Negative 2.6 WAR.  3 home runs.  61 runs scored.  .283 slugging percentage.  57 wRC+.  .056 ISO.  0 triples.  52.0% ground balls; 29.6% fly balls.

All of those stats are worst in baseball… save for the last two:  those rank 29th and 28th.

In many cases, it’s not like those number are even that close to the rest of the teams.  For example, if Atlanta were to hit 8 home runs in tonight’s game, they would still rank last.  They have hit 3 of them.  The Cardinals and Diamondbacks have each hit 30.  To be average (15th), a team would need 20.

No more sugarcoating this:  if the Braves could not even challenge Rick Porcello, then there’s a serious problem.  Here’s a guy who has given up 5 homers already and the Braves could only muster 4 hits – one of those a bunt – into the seventh inning.

The cause is virtually everyone in the lineup, but let’s pick on Freddie Freeman for a minute.  He had two hits last night – one of those being the aforementioned bunt – to raise his average for the year to… the Mendoza line.  Details on the next slide…

Next: The Troubles With Freddie