Atlanta Braves fans: Don’t forget about Freddie!

In the midst of this rollercoaster of an offseason, I think we have sometimes forgotten one key component of the 2019 Atlanta Braves team. That is that Freddie Freeman is still on the Braves. Many will argue that he is the all-around best first baseman in the game at this moment, and I am one of those. The reasons are to follow.

Maybe it was the meteoric rise of Ronald Acuna? Maybe it was the signing of Josh Donaldson? Or maybe it was who the Atlanta Braves didn’t sign (at least not yet)? But the fact still remains that Freddie Freeman will anchor down the 3-hole in the lineup and will give you Gold Glove-caliber defense at first base, day in and day out.

Rightfully regarded as the face of the franchise since Chipper Jones retired, Freddie has taken the honor and ran with it. He has gotten better the longer his career goes and the numbers back that up as well.

2016-2018 numbers

Let’s take a look at his last 3 years to prove that point, as well as the point that hopefully he can be the MVP this year and lead the Braves back to the playoffs.

2016 might have been Freddie’s best year to date thus far as he was locked in at the plate all season long it seemed. A quick look at the numbers

• 178 Hits
• 102 Runs scored
• 43 Doubles
• 34 Home Runs
• 91 RBI
• 171 Ks
• .302 Batting Average
• Finished 6th in MVP Voting

The only stat there that isn’t where you would probably want it is the high strikeout rate, but in this day of age, teams will live with that. I tend to believe if the Braves were more competitive in the 2016 season, Freeman would have finished higher than 6th in MVP Voting. After all, his WAR was 6.5.

Let’s quickly jolt on the 2017 season where you will see the numbers weren’t just the same, but don’t forget, he missed well over a month when a Aaron Loup pitch broke his wrist in May.

• 135 Hits
• 84 Runs Scored
• 35 Doubles
• 28 Home Runs
• 71 RBI
• 95 Ks
• .307 Batting Average

As I said, the numbers were down but that was solely due to missed games. He was still worth a 4.5 WAR.

Now, let me remind everyone of just how good Freddie was last year in 2018.

• 191 Hits
• 94 Runs Scored
• 44 Doubles
• 23 Home Runs
• 98 RBI
• 132 Ks
• .309 Batting Average
• 4th in MVP Voting
• All Star and Gold Glove winner

This was not his highest WAR of the three years as it was a 6.1 in 2018. The 44 doubles led the National League last year. I do think it is important to note that his main protection in the lineup for the second half last year was an ice-cold Nick Markakis.

Among few peers

Freddie Freeman’s .293 career Batting Average is good for 22nd best among active hitters in the entire game. While .293 is good, that also shows you how much the game has changed the past 15 years as well.

If you take all of Freddie’s career numbers and average them out for a 162-game schedule, his numbers would look like this.

• 174 Hits
• 93 Runs Scored
• 39 Double’s
• 26 Home Runs
• 93 RBI’s
• A on base % of just shy of .400.

We have all come to expect greatness out of Freddie and this explains part of the reason why. I will gladly take those numbers right now for his 2019 season, but with that being said, I think its also fair to expect a little more just because of the new protection around him in the lineup.

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It is also refreshing to see a team can’t just put a lefty from the pen late in the game and neutralize Freddie’s bat either. Last year he hit exactly .309 against both left-handed pitchers and right-handed pitchers. If you dig even deeper into Freddie’s numbers from last year, his advanced stats were actually better against the lefties.

We mentioned Chipper earlier, and we all know how he raked against the Mets and Marlins, but especially the Mets. Well, Freddie also took that honor when Chipper retired as well. He has career averages against both teams at almost .400.

To expand on that a bit, in his career Freddie Freeman has gone 18 for 37 against Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler, who are arguably the 2 best pitchers the Mets have behind Jacob DeGrom. To go even a bit further the only big time NL East pitcher Freddie struggles with is Max Scherzer, who he is 7 for 34 against (but it IS Max Scherzer, we forgive him) He is also 2 for 18 against new National Patrick Corbin, but maybe more repetition can fix that.

With all of that noted, let’s make sure that we as Atlanta Braves fans don’t take him for granite and let’s all hope he can win an MVP in 2019 to help the Atlanta Braves reach October again.