Can Ozzie Albies start hot for the Atlanta Braves again in 2019?

We all remember second-baseman, Ozzie Albies, sizzling hot start to the season last year for the Atlanta Braves. He not only played excellent defense, but Albies showed off some very impressive power that many of us weren’t expecting. However, can he do it again in 2019? 

The 2018 Atlanta Braves season started off as many of us would have expected. We knew Ronald Acuna, Jr. would be held back for awhile, so there wasn’t much surprise there. Freddie Freeman, of course, came out of the gate hot – nope, no surprise there. You could say Nick Markakis start to the season was a bit of a surprise – which actually led to one of his best seasons.

So there might’ve been a few surprises in the first month or so of the season, but nothing really compared to the surprising start of Ozzie Albies. His first two full months of the 2018 season were about as good as it gets, especially for a player who had only played in 57 total Major League games.

Ozzie Albies played in 56 games (261 PA) from Opening Day of 2018 up to May 31st. He made the absolute most out of those first 56 games by hitting 14 home runs and 16 doubles.

Going into June, Albies was sporting a .276 batting average with a .535 slugging percentage to boot. What was amazing – and would later develop as a problem – is that Albies only had 15 walks in that span.

He was swinging at everything and hitting just about everything also. That first month of 2018 looked to be a promising start for Albies, regardless of him cooling off down the stretch – it still was special.

I remember during that spectacular early-season stretch for Albies that it seemed like the top of the Atlanta Braves lineup was unstoppable, and almost every game Atlanta would score runs quickly. Albies was usually the main contributor to the Braves’ first-inning success.

I believe FOXSports even periodically displayed a graphic during the broadcast that showed just how successful Albies was in the first inning of games. I checked back at his player page on Fangraphs to refresh my memory:

Ozzie Albies (March-May) First Inning Stats:

• 56 PA
• .382 BA
• 1.211 OPS
• 221 wRC+
• 6 HR
• 4 doubles
• 1 triple

Also in that split, Albies had a hard-hit% of 41.5%

For some reason Albies just had a knack for crushing pitches in his first at-bats at the start of the season. He was a prime example of how an ultra-aggressive approach at the plate can result in short-term positive, but potential long-term issues, as we all seen what happened as the season progressed – pitchers started figuring him out.

That start to the season by Albies played a huge part in the Atlanta Braves success last season. He wasn’t only great for those first two months, as he still managed to post a 100 and 107 wRC+ in June and July respectively.

Unfortunately, it was inevitable that his hot streak would end. It’s obvious that pitchers started forcing him to chase and they started playing to his aggressiveness. The strikeouts started piling up and the walks were even fewer and farther between. Albies second half was night and day compared to his first half of the season:

Albies (1st Half):

• .281 BA
• 20 HR
• 120 wRC+

Albies (2nd Half):

• .226 BA
• 4 HR
• 67 wRC+

Looking ahead

The 22-year-old still had a great 2018 campaign, there’s no doubt about that, but it will be absolutely imperative that Albies adjusts his strategy at the plate in 2019.

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He’s not going to have the advantage this year of being a new face for pitchers to have to try and figure out. There’s a book on Ozzie now, and every team in the majors will be completely aware of his past tendencies.

I would assume that the Atlanta Braves staff know this. Surely, they were able to notice the reasoning for his drastic regression after the All-Star break. I’m sure Braves hitting coach, Kevin Seitzer, has a plan in place to get Albies off on the right foot, and not just to perform well at the start, but to also maintain a strong performance throughout the length of the 2019 season.

For the simple fact that Albies’ struggles were just so dang obvious after the first half, I predict a big season from the young second baseman. If he took anything from his 2018 season, it should be that he must always be willing to make adjustments.

Therefore, lets hope he does just that, as a strong start to the season by Albies will most definitely help to ensure a strong start for the Atlanta Braves. The talent that he has doesn’t come around very often, so I’m at least very optimistic that he can not just repeat last season’s performance, but perhaps even finish stronger.