Atlanta Braves quietly have one of the best offenses in the MLB
By Tyler Wilson
Every fan wants nothing more than to see their team hit a ton of home runs, and for the most part, the league’s best offenses usually do. This isn’t the case for the Braves, however, as they’re 25th in all of baseball with just 66 homers this season. Dont let that fool you though. The Braves’ offense is for real this season.
The Atlanta Braves have seemingly been overlooked when discussing Major League Baseball’s top offenses… and with good reason. They rank 20th in the MLB with 190 extra-base hits, and sub-par starting pitching has kept the club below the .500 mark all year.
The Braves are playing a lot of small ball this season. While they’re in the bottom-third of the MLB in home runs and extra-base hits, they rank 4th in the National League with a .265 batting average, and trail only the Washington Nationals with a .332 on-base percentage.
Keeping the bat on the ball
The key to offensive success this season has been simply putting the ball in play. While the Braves do lead the NL with 69 double plays (nice), they’ve amassed the 4th fewest strikeouts in the MLB, which means they’re at least making productive outs (okay, except for the GIDP’s).
Of the 11 guys with 75 or more at-bats this season, 6 Atlanta Braves are batting .290 or better. Of these 6, 5 are batting at least .300 (Ender Inciarte, Brandon Phillips, Tyler Flowers, Matt Kemp, & Freddie Freeman).
It’s also worth mentioning that Matt Adams is batting .290 since becoming a Brave.
The team had just 3 guys above .290 last season, and one of them was Dansby Swanson, who only had 129 at-bats.
A run-scoring bunch
The Atlanta Braves were 29th in baseball last year when it came to scoring runs, with just a hair over 4 a game. This season, they’ve bumped that number up to 4.4, including a whopping 6.2 runs per game in the month of June.
While their run total on the year is very run-of-the-mill, it’s a nice improvement from last year. In all honesty, it’s an excellent mark when you consider their extra-base hit totals.
Moving forward…
The Braves are going to figure out this whole pitching situation sooner or later, and I’ve got my money on them continuing to swing hot bats throughout the season. If we can figure out a way to get Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey out of here soon, there’s a fairly good chance for the Braves to have a winning season, and even play spoiler to teams later in the season.
Next: Who's leaving & who's staying at the trade deadline?
With Freddie making an eventual comeback, and Dansby Swanson continuing to swing a hot bat, Atlanta Braves fans are in for a treat for the remainder of the season. While guys like Brandon Phillips and Nick Markakis won’t be around too much longer, it’s nice to see them have success while they’re here.