Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Excuse Me Your Flaws are Showing

It hasn’t taken long for the Braves’ issues to be exposed. The question now is this: what are they going to do about that?

Six games down… and a good three of them should have been won. But in the process, the Atlanta Braves have been found out for what they are… a team that can struggle to get on track.

There are some reasons for these failures in the season’s first week, and it will take some interesting maneuvering to get to a point of correction for some of the issues.

Let’s go through the list:

Leading Off

Ender Inciarte is hitting .143 with a .172 OBP. More disturbing are the 8 strikeouts.

Dansby Swanson – despite Sunday’s homer – is at .179/.207. While he has 7 strikeouts, I think he’s been a umpire victim a couple of times, plus he’s spraying the ball all around the field, so this could be a temporary thing.

But ladies and gentlemen, these are your table-setters.

Now it should be noted that Inciarte started out slowly last year as well. That and an injury had him hitting .250 in April, .216 in May.

I don’t know if the Braves can wait that long. Their offense has to be derived from getting runners on base ahead of Freeman, Kemp, and company. Thus far, this pair simply is getting that done.

You could argue (successfully, even) that this is an aberration; that the Mets’ pitching helped keep both Inciarte and Swanson in check.

Maybe, but if you check the hitting from all non-pitchers (which includes this pair), the team is hitting .260.

In fact, of the regulars , only Adonis Garcia is doing this poorly (.174). The rest of the RBI crew is doing their thing… with few available to drive in.

How to fix this? Both players are also the best the Atlanta has at their respective positions defensively, so they will stay on the field. Both bats will most likely come around eventually.

My belief is that there will be no changes through next weekend – it’s certainly possible that facing the pitching of Miami and San Diego has the potential to cure all ills. If not, then some lineup position changes could be in the offing.

Watch for it.

The Bench

It may be surprising to complain about Chase d’Arnaud and Jace Peterson when both are hitting .333 (though Jace did all of his damage as a starter), but the bench will remain an issue for the foreseeable future.

Recker and Bonifacio? Batting .000 in 5 plate appearances. I won’t belabor the point.

How to fix this? This will be interesting, for Coppy had indicated a reluctance to use “retreads” for the bench.

Then he went out and signed Ryan Howard.

The Bullpen

Just one line will be sufficient here… and it’s from Josh:

How to fix this? I don’t know that help is truly on the way here, but the signing of Jason Motte certainly should send a message.

Defense

The Braves have seven official errors in 6 games. That doesn’t count double plays not turned (at least three) nor other miscues either ruled to be hits or otherwise left off the scoresheet.

It isn’t terribly surprising that Adonis Garcia has two of these errors. It is that Brandon Phillips has a pair are well. Likewise, even Freddie Freeman has joined this parade.

How to fix this? Third base is going to be an issue so long as Garcia is there. Hopefully the rest will fix itself.

What’s Been Going Right?

The starting pitching and the RBI producers… except that it hasn’t been enough, even with Matt Kemp hitting .500.

Next: Reviewing Opening Week ... for the Minors

Hopefully with a favorable schedule this week, the team can relax a bit and turn this around. Not all of these issues need fixing immediately, but 2 of the 4 probably do before “winning” can become a thing.

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