During the off-season, the Atlanta Braves replaced the bats of Chipper Jones (retirement) and Martin Prado (trade) with the brothers Upton: B.J. and Justin. Putting those two in a lineup of historically whiff-friendly batters only make the Braves’ lineup more likely to air out those hot muggy Turner Field nights, if the first three games is any indication.
They’re on pace to strike out an alarmingly-high 30% of the time! The sample size is small, yes; but the fact is, with Dan Uggla, Brian McCann, Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward already making plenty a walk back to the dugout, adding the K-friendly Upton boys is going to make for some historic numbers.
Before Braves’ fans go all “gloom and doom” on me – the Washington Nationals struck out more than the Braves did last year, striking out 21.3% of the time. This year’s Braves’ lineup is projected to whiff around 20.3% of their at-bats. So, no big deal, right?
Problem is, the Braves don’t have the starting pitching the Nats do, and their one weakness in comparison to Atlanta – namely the bullpen – they shored up with off-season acquisitions.
Yes, the Braves will mash a lot; they’ll likely have record-setting offensive days like their first two games, but the law of averages dictate they’ll also have many a frustrating shutout or low-run-scoring days like yesterday, too. Just giving you the heads up.
The Blue Dawg 