Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Not Getting any Better

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Braves anemically thwart trend of home-run increase

The term “slugging percentage” largely is a misnomer when applied to the Atlanta Braves. After their first 28 games, the Braves’ slugging mark of .289 was lower than any team ended the season at in 106 years. That’s when the 1910 Chicago White Sox, who bashed seven homers, finished with a .261 slugging percentage.

Atlanta, with six homers in its first 28 games, was on pace to hit 35 for the season. That would rival the war-year 1943 Philadelphia Athletics, who had 26 homers. But, worse, yet, was the Braves’ pace in triples. They were on pace to hit none, their last three-base hit having come on Oct. 2 of last year in Atlanta when Daniel Castro tripled off Cardinals reliever Jonathan Broxton.

The Braves could certainly use a few of these (uncredited internet graphic). /

With seven wins, the Braves still were in position to become the first team in 25 years, since the 1991 Cardinals, to hit fewer homers (68) than games won (84). Todd Zeile led with 11 that year.

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With home runs up throughout much of baseball, it is stunning that the Braves would be so far in arrears. The next closest team, Los Angeles, had 20.

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[Whitey] Herzog, ever curious about the game and how it is conducted, has concluded the baseball is “jacked up” this year, the Braves’ totals notwithstanding.

“I see it jumping off the bat. Now I’m not trying to take anything away from the Cardinals,” Herzog said. “They’ve got seven pinch-hit home runs and they hit five the other night and they’ve got 40-something for the season. It’s just not the Cardinals. Every game, I watch good teams hit home runs and the (lousy) ones like Atlanta can’t. I can’t believe the way it’s jumping off the bat.”

Like “Mr. Wizard” of black-and-white-TV fame, Herzog performs experiments in his garage every so often. The most recent was to take the cork center out of a 2015 baseball and out of the 2016 baseball and bounce them.

He found that they reached the same height — a reporter also bounced them and saw the same result. But Herzog determined the 2016 ball had a different wrapping around the cork center. The 2015 twine unwrapped easily, Herzog said, but he showed a reporter a different color of twine that had been glued to a 2016 ball that he had to scrape off with a razor blade.

He recalled that commissioner Rob Manfred had said at the Hall of Fame festivities last year that he was concerned about offense having declined in baseball.

Herzog wasn’t putting two and two together and getting five. But he was just offering up a theory that a potentially tighter ball had some juice to it.

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In any event, little of this seems to have involved the Braves.

Ed. note: yes, Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog thinks that the ball is juiced this season… and despite that, Atlanta can’t hardly buy a home run. Not much more you can say to that, except perhaps this:

While we’re expecting/hoping that the team can get a shot in the arm from rookie call-ups like Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, and Rio Ruiz… don’t expect a sudden change in the offense, for the game these guys play is about hitting in general – not hitting the ball over the wall. Ruiz and Swanson are gap hitters and Albies can slap it anywhere between the foul lines. But none of them are ever likely to become real home run threats. .270-.320 hitters? Perhaps… and certainly that would be useful right not.

Meanwhile: the Tennessee Valley Authority has decided to put their Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant up for sale. Was never finished despite starting construction 42 years ago – never used. Maybe the Braves could use the power?

Next: A Ray of Hope?

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