What Atlanta Braves Can Learn from 2020 World Series
Now that the 2020 World Series is over we take a look at what the Atlanta Braves can learn to become the champions next season.
The Atlanta Braves came as close as they’ve come in a long time to winning their first World Series since 1995. But they fell just short to the team who ultimately won the title in the Los Angeles Dodgers.
I love looking at each team that won the World Series and seeing what got them there and won it for them.
Last year the Nationals showed that you can get it done with just a few dominant pitchers. They essentially used five or six pitchers — who all were really good — to take home the title.
This year the Dodgers got it done with good pitching, but mostly it was their relentless lineup.
As we saw first-hand, they have the deepest lineup in baseball and every hitter gives you a great at-bat.
During the regular season, they had the fourth-fewest strikeouts and were top five in OBP, SLG, and OPS.
What made them different is not only were they very patient hitters who put the ball in play, but they did damage when they put the ball in play as they led the league in home runs.
During the postseason, the Dodgers truck out 9.2 times per game. That’s much higher than the 7.9 average they had in the regular season, but obviously you’re facing much better pitching every night in the postseason.
In comparison, the Braves struck out 9.6 times a game during the regular season and 10.6 times a game in the postseason.
The Dodgers still maintained a solid slashline of .254/.349/.465 with a .814 OPS.
As far as the pitching goes, the Braves had just as good of numbers as the Dodgers this postseason both from their starters and relievers.
Obviously our starters lost some steam at the end of the Dodgers series, but they were still really good and weren’t to blame for being eliminated.
If the Braves are going to overtake the Dodgers and win the World Series next season, they have to find a way to lengthen the lineup even more with hitters that will be patient and give you a good at-bat every time up.
And if there is one thing we can learn from the Rays side of things, don’t take a pitcher out who is absolutely dominating. Too soon?