Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: the best of teams and the worst of teams

As much as the Atlanta Braves were run over by the Philadelphia Express last weekend, the Braves just drove their own train over the hapless Cubs.

You’d like to think that the Atlanta Braves did enough to sweep the Cubs even if the visitors had played normally well.  Between bad fielding, bad pitching and more bad pitching, it’s truly hard to gauge how well Atlanta is really doing.

The Braves are now up to a 3-3 record after taking full advantage of a Chicago team that is playing shockingly bad right now.  And Atlanta is doing this while still short-manned on the pitching side and with many hitters not quite going yet.

Happily, that pitching bit is about to change.

• Mike Foltynewicz:  5 innings at Gwinnett Thursday evening.  No hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts.  Hopefully he feels as good as that line score looks when he gets up this morning.
• Kevin Gausman:  makes first start Friday night against the Marlins.
• A.J. Minter was activated Thursday.

Baseball’s Law of Motion apply, however, and thus for every action there has to be an equal and opposite reaction.  The Braves optioned Bryse Wilson to Gwinnett to make room for Minter.

Another roster move will have to be made before Kevin Gausman is activated on Friday.  Foltynewicz will be lurking in roughly another 10 days, so you’d have to say that some of the pitchers now in the majors are still auditioning for roster spots.

Walk Watch

As the Braves’ relief pitchers are starting to get additional innings, there’s a moderation of some of their extreme stats under way.

It’s still real early, but here’s some bullpen walk data as of the end of the Cub’s series.  First, the elite strike-throwers:

• Jesse Biddle – no walks in 4.2 innings
• Chad Sobotka – no walks in 2.0 innings (although he was throwing gopher balls in the 9th last night)
• Wes Parsons – 1 walk in 3.1 innings

Next are a couple of guys in the middle…

• Luke Jackson – 2 walks in 4 innings (his 1st outing only)
• Arodys Vizcaino – 1 walk in 2 innings

Then the rest…

• Jonny Venters – walked 2 while getting only 2 hitters out.  That’s unusual.
• Shane Carle – 5 walks in 2.2 innings.  HBP on Thursday night (his 2nd of the year).
• Does A.J. Minter belong here?  1st two official batters he faced… walked both.

Max Fried has walked 2 in 1.2 innings of relief, but when handed a starting role, he clearly excelled on Thursday night, so I’m going to excuse him from this list:  no walks against the Cubs!

Hitting some walls

While the Braves have gotten back to the .500 mark, they’re actually doing so without some of their best hitters finding a stride yet:

• Ronald Acuna – .150 average… yet he’s still taking walks and has a .346 OBP.  As a result, he’s scored 5 times.
• Josh Donaldson – same thing:  .182 avg, .333 OBP
• Ender Inciarte – scuffling, but 2 hits Thursday:  .182/.250

Still, Atlanta is scoring runs.  Before Thursday’s 7-run outburst, the Braves ranked 15th in the majors in runs scored (hitters like Nick Markakis and Freddie Freeman are definitely helping).

Sure: some teams have played more than others due to uneven starts, but this includes the Mariners and Athletics having a 2 game advantage over everybody else, thanks to their Tokyo mini-series.

So all this to say that even while the Braves truly aren’t firing on all cylinders yet, they are finding ways to win.  A 3-3 record really isn’t a bad start… and they will have a chance to extend this 3-game streak this weekend.