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Atlanta Braves wanted improved defense… do they have it?

By Alan Carpenter

ST. LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 7: Adonis Garcia #13 of the Atlanta Braves commits an error as he can't make the catch in foul territory in the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on August 7, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 7: Adonis Garcia #13 of the Atlanta Braves commits an error as he can't make the catch in foul territory in the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on August 7, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images) /
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Better defense was a stated goal for the new administration run by Alex Anthopoulos.  60 games in… is it happening?

Defensively, the Atlanta Braves were not especially helpful to their pitchers in 2017.  There are a bunch metrics that you can use to describe the problem, but here are a few more obvious ones:

  • Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) – 23rd in baseball (-23).  So that’s like giving away 23 runs during the year.  But this doesn’t necessarily mean…
  • Errors – 19th worst in baseball.
  • Which kind of errors?  Fielding or throwing…didn’t really matter: the Braves were 20th overall in both categories.
  • Passed Balls – despite how well our catchers did offensively (#1 in baseball), they did tend to ‘give back’ as well:  20 of these – trailing only the Yankees for worst overall.
  • Unearned Runs Allowed – 65 of these… 26th worst in baseball.

These are bad numbers.  They indicate a tendency of the Braves to give away outs, allow runners to advance, and make ‘damage control’ very difficult for the staff.

So changes have been made.  The goal was to shorten innings for our young pitchers and to help them be more successful.  With a 35-25 record, you’d think that maybe… just maybe… things are better now.

Here’s What Happened

Here are the worst DRS offenders from the 2017 Braves (non-pitchers):

Among these… only Markakis and Swanson are still on the major league club – and most aren’t in the organization at all (save for Santana at AAA).  So how are our shortstop and right fielder doing in 2018?

  • Swanson +7 DRS
  • Markakis +4 DRS

That’s a turn-around.  In fact, they rank 1st and 3rd on the team… with Ender Inciarte in between (+5; Julio Teheran has a +4… probably related to pick-offs).

There are a couple of hiccups:  Kurt Suzuki has a -6 and Ozzie Albies a -4.  But such numbers are limited.

More from Tomahawk Take

So let’s look at those (newest) numbers:

  • Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) – 9th in baseball (+12)
  • Errors – 16th overall… up from 19th.  If the error count was just 5 fewer, they’d tie for 10th.
  • Which kind of errors?  Fielding errors: much better (4th best). Throwing errors?  This could still use some improvement:  5th worst with 22 of those.
  • Passed Balls – Still not great…7 of these, which ties for 6th overall, but the pace is slightly better than last season.
  • Unearned Runs Allowed – Another case in which the number could be better:  23 such runs, which ranks…. 23rd (tie).

2 of these unearned runs came during Sunday’s win against the Nationals (4-2 the score).  Another came during on of the Braves’ walk-off wins against the Mets last week.  So even as the unearned runs clearly aren’t good, some of them aren’t fatal, either.

That said, Atlanta yielded 2 in an 8-6 loss to the Red Sox, so … sometimes they are harmful:  and that’s 5 in the past 10 days.

Still… improvement

So while you may be looking forlornly at the hitting stats of Matt Kemp (.344 with 9 HR and a .949 OPS), just recognize that he’s still (mostly) Matt Kemp in the outfield:  -2 DRS with (officially) 1 error.

[ Admittedly, he is moving around much better… and we do wish him well with his legs at the season wears on. ]

Next: This guy could be a draft steal

Hopefully the Braves can continue with their improved defense and perhaps tighten it up some more.  That should help the winning.

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