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Just how bad are the Atlanta Braves at pitching to pitchers?

By Alan Carpenter

ATLANTA, GA - JULY 18: Stephen Strasburg #37 celebrates with Bob Henley #13 of the Washington Nationals in the third inning after hitting a three run home run during the game against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park on July 18, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JULY 18: Stephen Strasburg #37 celebrates with Bob Henley #13 of the Washington Nationals in the third inning after hitting a three run home run during the game against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park on July 18, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images) /
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The 9th spot in a National League lineup is supposed to be helpful to pitchers, but at times it’s been a nightmare for many Atlanta Braves starters.

As fans of the Atlanta Braves in 2019, we’ve repeatedly seen what appears to be a virtual parade of hitters come to the plate against this club and rap out a base hit – or worse.

The frustrating part is when these “hitters” are actually pitchers.

The most egregious of these ‘fail’ events came when .169-hitting Stephen Strasburg unloaded against the Braves – in SunTrust Park, no less – for a 3-for-3 day that included a homer and five RBI on July 18.

I get it … there are statistical anomalies out there, but that one in particular was hard to stomach.

But as for the rest of The Pitchers Who Rake, how much are they really looking forward to facing off against Braves pitching? Stated another way:  is this problem really that bad for Atlanta this season?

There are a couple of ways to approach this question, though unfortunately, the Designated Hitter rule will have to be worked around.

The main questions to seek answers to are these:

  • How well are pitchers hitting in general?
  • How well are they hitting against the Braves?

Time to go retrieve some hard data.  A quick declaration and disclaimer is required…

All of this that follows comes from Baseball-Reference.com and is current for games through Wednesday, Sept. 11.  Instances of position players acting as pitchers and later coming to the plate have happened, but these are rare events and do not skew the numbers to any significant degree.

Hitting their Stride

Since there is a DH rule, let’s deal with that up front:  here’s the league-by-league breakdown:

NATIONAL LEAGUE

  • Pitchers have made 3506 plate appearances
  • Pitcher combined batting average is .160
  • Overall they have 30 singles, 70 doubles, 25 homers, 211 RBI, 83 walks and 2 were hit by a pitch.
  • That translates to an OBP of .169 and an OPS of .378

AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • Pitchers have made 389 plate appearances
  • Pitcher combined batting average is .092
  • Overall they have 30 singles, 2 doubles, 10 RBI, 20 walks and one was hit by a pitch.
  • That translates to an OBP of .136 and an OPS of .235

None of these composite number sets is great – obviously – but since the AL numbers are so bad we’ll forgo any conclusions based on this data… except to point out that the Braves gave up FOUR of those 32 AL pitcher hits… and 3 of those came in during game losses.

Atlanta’s Role

All right… now let’s look at Braves-specific numbers:  the results of pitchers hitting against Atlanta in 2019:

ATLANTA BRAVES

  • 278 pitcher plate appearances against them
  • Pitcher combined batting average is .154
  • Overall they have 32 singles, 3 doubles, 2 homers, 13 RBI, 8 walks and one was hit by a pitch.
  • That translates to an OBP of .165 and an OPS of .357

So overall, despite our perceptions, pitchers are actually doing close to average against the Braves overall.

The AL pitcher results boost this just a bit, but even taking that into consideration, we’re still looking at league-average data that the Atlanta pitchers have given up.

Honestly, if we were to remove a couple of entries from the chart, we might not even worry about this subject… but it’s been a few stand-out performances that make Braves Country cringe whenever any pitcher comes to the plate:

  • Strasburg’s career game, as already noted.  He also has 1 other hit against Atlanta this year.
  • Caleb Smith of the Marlins.  In 8 AB this year, he has 5 hits (.625!).  Overall?  He’s hitting just .237.
  • 3 different Mets pitchers (Matz/Wheeler/deGrom) have 2+ hits apiece.
  • Jon Lester has 2 hits and he’s also been walked twice in 2 appearances vs. Atlanta.
  • In total, 9 different pitchers have 2+ hits vs. Braves this year and 22 have 1 or more.

So… the subject is actually something of a myth:  the Braves really aren’t being victimized at the bottom of the lineup… but there is an odd stat that’s probably more important than any other here:

In games where the Braves allow a hit to a pitcher (35), they have a 19-16 record (.542).  They are 72-40 otherwise (.642)… yeah:  it’s a 100-point differential.

'Mark' my words... he's coming. dark. Next

So the bottom line?  Take care of that part of the lineup and your pitchers will have a better night overall.  That much seems like common sense – whether the pitchers are really raking or not.

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