Atlanta Braves pitchers need not focus on Starling Marte
Marte may be their best hitter, but he ought not be the biggest concern of the Atlanta Braves.
Those making their prognostications about this NLDS series between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins consistently bemoan that notion that Starling Marte isn’t likely to be a factor for the Fish.
The numbers just don’t quite back that up, though.
Marte was acquired to be a significant offensive threat. However, he was hit in the left hand near the end of his team’s first game of their Wild Card series win over the Cubs, and now has a broken bone below the pinkie finger.
Numerous reports at the time suggested that he was going to try and play despite the injury, but it’s hard to imagine how effective he might be at the plate with an injury to his lower hand (as a right-handed batter).
Now, though, as rosters are being announced (as this was being written), that weapon is apparently no longer an issue at all:
Regardless, this was not the batter that Braves pitching should be most concerned about.
Over the month of September, the Marlins have been led offensively by a combination of Miguel Rojas, Brian Anderson, Jon Berti, Jesus Aguilar, and Garrett Cooper.
All of these hitters did better — much better — than Marte.
You can also throw in Matt Joyce, who seems to have this affinity for doing something good for his team in every game he’s played against the Braves — whether that’s on offense or defense.
That’s not to say that there’s a particular concern here: Atlanta managed to defeat Miami in 3 of the 4 key head-to-head games down the stretch, and that happened even without their better starters being lined up early on (Max Fried and Ian Anderson didn’t pitch until games 3 and 4… splitting the results).
But this lineup is more than a bit “pesky”, and they are coalescing around this “bottom feeder” epithet that a Philly writer branded them with. Coming into a series figuring you have nothing to lose can make for a strong motivational tool.
Atlanta will need to do two things well against Miami:
- Keep the ball in the park
- Don’t allow this group of hitters to accumulate hits en masse. This is the ‘bend but don’t break’ strategy: sure, maybe one or two might get on base in an inning, so long as the rest don’t.
On paper, Marte may have been their best hitter, but he didn’t acclimate to that pedestal since arriving.
So as things have developed, he’s no longer an issue at all — but probably never was anyway.