MLB
All Smyles
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’m a sucker for puns. Good puns, bad puns (there are none), doesn’t matter. I love puns.
So, the endless possibilities that sprung to mind when the news broke on Monday that the Atlanta Braves had signed Drew Smyly made me, uh…grin.
In any case, Atlanta signed the left-handed hurler to a one-year, $11 million contract.
Alex Anthopoulos’ second signing of the offseason after bringing back righty Josh Tomlin on a one-year, $1 million deal (to hopefully pitch out of the bullpen, where he’s been very good, only).
It isn’t a massive splash, of course that’s never been Atlanta’s style, regardless of who the general manager is. However, it’s a solid move to begin the process of going after a 4th straight NL East division championship (all due respect to Tomlin).
While eight figures seems like it might be a lot for a guy who certainly didn’t top the list of free agent pitchers (Trevor Bauer is about to make bank, though), Smyly is coming off of what was (or was almost going to be, had he not missed some time to injury) the best season of his career, pitching for the San Francisco Giants.
For a 31-year-old pitcher, that’s a pretty impressive feat and it’s likely owing to the fact that his velocity has somehow actually increased as he’s entered his 30s.
Granted, the 2020 season was an anomaly and Smyly probably had more gas in the tank on the whole (his longest outing was just 5 1/3), but the fact that 2019 was a good run for him and he took further steps the next season speaks to his improvement. It’s likely the combo of the two seasons that put him on Anthopoulos’ radar.
Now, you’re probably thinking that only one start into the 6th inning coupled with a good-but-not-jaw-dropping 3.42 ERA isn’t anything to get excited about, and to be fair, you’re absolutely correct. But this signing isn’t the kind of signing that’s supposed to get you all riled up.
Smyly is essentially going to be expected to play the role of the capable veteran in the rotation, a role that was desperately unfilled in 2020, much in part to Cole Hamels’ inability to get healthy enough to earn that $18 million that Atlanta had to pay him for three innings this year.
In short, this was a move to acquire more depth, and it comes at a position that was horrifically devoid of that, particularly as the year went by.
And to that end, Smyly is a low(ish)-risk, high(ish)-reward signing: the deal is for a single season (which the higher-tier pitchers won’t be looking at this early in the offseason), not for no money but cheaper than the aforementioned Hamels was or plenty of other pitchers will be.
While Smyly is unlikely to be in the Cy Young conversation for next season and there is a history of injury, he’s capable of being a solid hand who can rack up 10+ wins with a sub-4.00 ERA.
Every playoff-hopeful team needs one or two and the Braves had none last year. This is just the kind of piece that could potentially make a difference, especially if the 2021 season goes ahead as planned and they get a full 162-game schedule in (can you imagine if Atlanta had had to play a full complement of games with the rotation they had for most of last year?).
This signing allows Atlanta to devote more resources to either resigning or replacing Marcel Ozuna this offseason and hoping that the big splash in the pitching rotation comes when Mike Soroka fully recovers from his injury towards the beginning of next season.
The Boss
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A few years ago, I wrote a story about Augusta National allowing women to play golf at their club. I pointed out that the mere fact that it was news that women were breaking new ground in the 21st century was shameful in and of itself. Not that the move wasn’t important or newsworthy, because it was, just that it was ridiculous how late in the game (no pun intended) that the rule was being changed.
In a similar – but also distinct – manner, the Miami Marlins made the historic move to hire the first female General Manager in Major League Baseball history: Kim Ng.
Not for nothing, she will also be the first Asian-American GM and the first female GM in any of the four major North American Sports.
Ng comes to the gig with 30 years of high-level experience in the league, including the last nine as Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of baseball operations.
Before that, she spent 21 years in the front offices of the Chicago White Sox, the New York Yankees, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, showing up to be GM Brian Cashman’s right-hand woman in New York at the start of their World Series three-peat from 1998-2000.
At the time she was the youngest assistant GM in the league at just 29 years old and only the second woman to be hired to that gig.
In short, she is supremely qualified (the kind of qualifications that, let’s not kid ourselves, would have gotten her hired 10 years ago if she’d been a man), and while likely not the first woman that’s capable of handling the job, Derek Jeter and the Marlins have made her the first to rise to the top.
But with all that said, she’s got work to do. Ng is inheriting a Marlins team that made the postseason for just the third time in history on the backs of an incredibly young and gifted pitching rotation.
All eyes will be on her to solidify their position as a playoff team in a division populated by a Braves team that will be expected to repeat, Nationals & Phillies teams that will one day figure out what to do with their talent, and a Mets team with a new owner who will want to make a splash, and soon.
In the face of all that, it makes sense that Ng might want to make a splash of her own.
Incidentally, the Cleveland Indians have made it known that All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor is on the market.
Ng and the Marlins have a farm system ready to be utilized, and Lindor is just the kind of franchise player that Miami has lacked since JT Realmuto was shipped off to Philadelphia.
Getting Lindor would be a no-brainer acquisition for any team. He’s been the best shortstop in baseball since his rookie season in 2015, even with his underproductive (for him) 2020 campaign.
The best part is – as Lindor is a free agent after 2021 – the Indians’ asking price would have to be (somewhat) reasonable.
Whether or not Ng could extend the shortstop is a whole different conversation, but the appeal of being able to trade for such a marquee name for only a handful of prospects and only one or two top-tier ones would be hard to resist.
Would Lindor put the Marlins over the top in the NL East? Absolutely not.
They’ve got too many holes in their lineup and bullpen for one elite player to change the entire future of the team, even one that made the playoffs last season.
But the positive spotlight is on the Marlins for once and going after Mr. Smile will keep it there.
The Mixer
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I admit two things: the first is that when Josh Donaldson signed with the Minnesota Twins last offseason for a 4-year stint for the exact same yearly salary that he had just made during his one-year deal with the Atlanta Braves, I was upset.
He was a bona fide power hitter to protect Freddie Freeman and put up huge numbers in his own right. He took to the Braves clubhouse and the Braves fans like a fish to water, too.
He was enormously productive and enormously popular given the short period of time he was a Brave, Donaldson leaving was a deep cut.
Where would Alex Anthopoulos come up with a replacement for what the Bringer of Rain provided to the team in 2019?
The answer was Marcel Ozuna. Which did not really alleviate the feeling that Anthopoulos screwed up by not offering Donaldson that fourth year (or whatever it was that wasn’t offered).
Ozuna was a talented player, and one the Braves were familiar with from his years playing in Miami, but Donaldson had made such an impact that it seemed like only Donaldson would be able to provide what the Braves needed.
And of course, here’s my second admission: I was very wrong about Marcel Ozuna.
Not only did Ozuna protect Freddie in the lineup, he put up such delirious offensive numbers that pitchers had a Sophie’s choice when it came to their back-to-back spots in the lineup.
And (in part) because of Ozuna lurking in the on-deck circle, Freeman is the likely National League MVP this year. Ozuna may very well finish right behind Freeman in the vote – but he’ll doubtlessly be in the top 5, so good was his season.
And he clearly became just as popular in the clubhouse and with the fans (from afar, of course) as Donaldson had been. His energy was infectious, and without him the Braves wouldn’t have been “Mixing It Up” all season long and deep into the playoffs.
But here’s the catch: like Donaldson, Ozuna was on a one-year, prove-yourself contract.
And, like Donaldson, he’ll have plenty of suitors once the free agent marketplace goes live after the World Series.
In fact, he’ll have more suitors than Donaldson had, due to his younger age and superior (albeit smaller sample) production.
So here we are again, feeling the same way we felt last offseason. It is crucial to resign the guy hitting behind Freddie; that his presence in the lineup and in the clubhouse is irreplaceable.
But there’s an added wrinkle and that’s the designated hitter.
Apart from a few, fairly ugly, stints in left field during the early part of the season and scattered appearances after that, Ozuna was the Braves’ primary DH during 2020.
Each time he played defense; it became clearer that his best position was the batter’s box.
Unfortunately, that may not be an option for him in Atlanta going forward.
Latest reports are saying that the DH, implemented for the first time ever in the National League in 2020, will be dropped from the senior circuit next year and the notion won’t be considered again until the Players’ Union and MLB begin collectively bargaining after the 2021 season.
While I would imagine that the DH for the NL will indeed be included in that CBA, it poses a problem for Anthopoulos’ potential to sign Ozuna.
Do you sign a player to a multi-year contract knowing A) that he’ll be a hindrance to your defense for at least a whole season and B) that the DH coming to the NL is no guarantee, which means he’d be a hindrance to your defense for the entirety of his contract?
I, for one, assumed that the DH was here to stay, and thusly assumed that resigning Ozuna would be a no-brainer and a priority for the Braves Front Office.
However, if the designated hitter is indeed gone next season with no assurance of its return, then I honestly don’t know that Ozuna’s weak defense (and blocking of the other outfield prospects on the depth chart like Drew Waters) would be worth the offense he provides.
It’s hard to say that, because he was so excellent at the plate. Sure, the whole offense was good in 2020 and yes, it could be a simple as moving the lineup around so that an existing player can hit behind Freddie (Albies? A more consistent Riley?), but it was Ozuna’s presence that really made the team a force at the plate.
With this news of a DH-less NL in 2021, the Braves can add another tough decision to their plate this offseason and we’ll all just have to wait and see what they do.
Braves Chief Needs To Remain?
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With the sting of a devastating loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series still fresh in the minds of Atlanta Braves fans, it can be easy to get emotional.
Not only is the season now finished, but it ended – in typical Atlanta sports fashion – with seemingly unnecessary extra helpings of heartbreak dished out by the sports gods.
For the 2020 Braves, that came in the fashion of blowing a 3-1 series lead and letting two separate Game 7 leads slip away.
In the immediate aftermath of the game, social media and message boards were flooded with calls for the Braves to fire manager Brian Snitker.
Whether it was complaints about bullpen usage, lineup management or simply frustration over what could have been with just one win over those final three games, there was no shortage of people crying out for a change.
But is that really the best route for the Braves to take? Not if they know what’s good for them.
For all the disappointment of how the 2020 season ended, there wasn’t much Snitker could have done.
In the end, it was simply a matter of two very talented teams taking a series to the bitter end, with room for only one in the World Series.
To look at things from a larger perspective, it’s hard to say that Snitker has been anything but a great asset to the organization as it has undergone a huge turnaround.
Snitker took over in 2016 after a 95-loss season and a last place finish.
Since then, he’s overseen the club as it has won back-to-back-to-back National League East crowns. Aside from the glory days of the 1990s, this is the only Braves team to make the postseason in three consecutive seasons.
Of course, that success is largely due to the overwhelming success in drafting, developing talent and bringing in free agents to plug needed spots.
Those calling for Snitker’s job at the moment will say that – since he’s not in the front office – he had little to do with that progress.
But before taking the helm of the major league club, Snitker served as the Braves’ Triple-A manager.
While much of the team’s current corps of young stars were in the minor leagues, Snitker played a large role in showing them the ropes of professional baseball.
For players like Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson and plenty of other players who will be counted on to keep up the success for years to come, Snitker has been a major factor in their rise to prominence as MLB stars.
There are times where a managerial shakeup might be necessary in order to get a team over the hump, but this isn’t that moment for the Braves.
As much as the last three postseasons have hurt when they didn’t end in a World Series, Atlanta is still in the unique position of having a veteran team with playoff experience and a handful of key players, who are still in the beginning of their prime.
On top of that, it seems clear that those talented players give Snitker plenty of credit for what has been achieved over the last three years.
The Braves may not have reached the top of the mountain yet, but they show no signs of slowing down, so it’s only fair to keep the same man steering the ship
Atlanta Braves v Los Angeles Dodgers NLCS Preview
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Sure, it took 19 years, but the Braves are going back to the National League Championship Series.
It’s a great, exciting time to be a Braves fan – the offense has (more or less) been as advertised, the bullpen has been even better than advertised, and somehow the starting pitching has been exceptional, despite being the question mark going into the postseason.
They shut down the Reds and the Marlins to win five straight playoff games, and therefore they’ll head into Monday’s NLCS Game 1 with a ton of momentum – but unfortunately, they’re barreling towards the roadblock that is the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers were the best team in the National League yet again in 2020 – probably the best team in all of MLB.
This fact has been true for a large majority of the last several years, though it’s not improper (and is entirely fun) to point out that that title has yet to transition over into a World Series win.
Essentially, while Los Angeles is very, very good, they aren’t infallible.
Despite.the name recognition (and track record) the Dodgers’ starters plus the relative unproven status of Atlanta’s;
LA hasn’t pitched as well as the Braves have (to be fair, no one has).
Walker Buehler has pitched well but was pulled after four innings in both of his starts because of a blister on his finger – a good sign for a stellar Braves offense that should be able to feast on a lesser Dodgers’ bullpen.
Kershaw is a more interesting case: His days as the best pitcher on the planet seemed to be behind him before this year, but he came back with some stellar numbers in the regular season.
That being said, his postseason reputation has never been the shiniest – but his first start in the Wild Card Round was an absolute gem: 13 strikeouts over 8 shutout innings; he followed that up with a more-mortal 6 innings against San Diego in the Division Series, giving up 3 runs.
The Braves offensive fortunes may depend on which Clayton Kershaw decides to show up to the ballpark on Monday.
Dave Roberts used David May as an opener in Game 3 against the Padres, but it seems likely that the young, flamethrower will get a more traditional start against Atlanta’s Kyle Wright on Wednesday.
It’s Game 4 when the question marks will really start coming out particularly for the Braves, who don’t have a dependable starter after their first three (and with no off days during the Championship Series, starting Fried on short rest is only an option for Game 5.
In short, the Braves have a big challenge ahead of them – but a poetic one. The Dodgers being Atlanta’s opponent likely sends shivers down the spines of most in Braves Country just based In the previous 3 trips to the playoffs (2013 and 2018); and the 2018 squad is mostly still around.
Betts, of course. In a way, the Dodgers have been haunting Atlanta for more than half a decade, crushing their postseason aspirations.
A victory against LA would be a cathartic one for the team and those that follow it. The only thing potentially sweeter would be if the Braves had faced and defeated St. Louis to get to this point. That being said, if the Braves do take the NLCS, they’d have a chance to bust another ghost in a potential matchup against the Astros, who ended Atlanta’s historic run of 14-straight division titles in first-round defeats in 2004 and 2005).
But one thing at a time.
Braves And Fish
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
So, in a rare moment of fortune for a professional sports team housed in Atlanta, I get to write the following sentence: the Atlanta Braves have won the first round on the 2020 MLB Playoffs and are moving on to face the Miami Marlins in a best-of-five set starting on Tuesday.
The reason it’s such a treat to write that sentence, and the reason it’s momentous despite maybe not seeming worthy of such pomp and circumstance, is because I wasn’t employed by The Southern Sports Edition the last time the Braves made it out of the first round.
In fact, I couldn’t be legally employed pretty much anywhere at the time because I was 13 years old.
That’s right, the Braves snapped a 10-series losing streak when the swept the Cincinnati Reds behind some stellar pitching performances from Max Fried, Ian Anderson, and the entire Atlanta bullpen, which shut the Reds down over 2 games and 22 innings.
But instead of dwelling on the past, let’s instead look to the upcoming Division Series against the all-too-familiar Marlins.
There’s good and bad in facing Miami.
The most obvious good being the Braves’ record against the Fish in 2020 was 6 wins against 4 losses.
Normally Atlanta would play Miami almost twice as much, but even in a much smaller sample size, Atlanta has the edge.
But there’s bad, too. The Miami pitching rotation, and particularly the starting trio of Sixto Sanchez, Pablo Lopez, and Sandy Alcantara, is very, very good.
With a two-game sweep of the favored Chicago Cubs, only Alcantara and Sanchez have made appearances so far, but both were excellent.
Alcantara allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings, and Sanchez shut the Cubbies out over 5.
They’ll go toe-to-toe with Fried and Anderson, with Kyle Wright likely in the mix for Atlanta.
The parallels are actually pretty fascinating.
Both rotations are young. Anderson and Sanchez are both rookies that debuted halfway through the season.
Lopez and Wright both debuted in 2018 and showed only flashes of what they can do before this season’s more consistent success (Wright’s is a much smaller sample size).
Alcantara and Fried have become their respective teams’ aces despite only solidifying their spots in the rotation last season.
Plus, Fried is the oldest of this sextet at the tender age of 26. That’s a lot of inexperience for a lot pitchers that these two teams are relying on.
The big difference between these two teams and the thing that likely haunts the Marlins’ dreams, is the offense.
The Marlins have one that is serviceable; the Braves have arguably the best bats in the league.
They proved that to Miami, beyond a shadow of a doubt, last month when they hung 29 runs, an NL record, on the Fish.
Granted, that offense was slow to wake up against Trevor Bauer and Luis Castillo last week. Scoring just 1 run off of that duo in 13 innings.
They came alive at the end of Game 2 and scored 4 runs in the eighth, which is a bad sign for Miami, but they looked bad enough during the rest of the series to question whether or not they’ve gone cold at the worst possible time.
But speculation is just guesswork, and we’ll get to put that all aside and see what happens.
The Hunt For A Brave October
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Atlanta Braves won their third straight NL East title and are into the playoffs.
Now this isn’t an unexpected development, as the Braves were the favorites to win the East going into the season, but in practice it took a lot more work than many would have thought. The road to the playoffs was a different route than it maybe should have been.
In any case, the Braves will face off against the seventh seeded team at Truist Park, with ace Max Fried taking the mound, and thank god for that.
Fried, who will be the wily veteran of the team’s postseason rotation with about a year and a half of being a rotation mainstay under his belt, left his last start of the regular season after the first inning because he twisted his ankle fielding a ball.
If you happened to feel a shockwave reverberated anywhere in the Southeastern United States last week, that was the collective gasp/groan/heart palpitations of the entirety of Braves Country.
Mercifully, he was only taken out due to precautionary measures (the Braves had clinched the East already). The Braves Cy Young candidate, the undefeated Fried will prevent Brian Snitker from having to run a rookie with only five career starts out for Game 1 of the playoffs.
That being said, let’s look at the rest of the rotation.
For four innings a week and a half ago, it seemed like Cole Hamels would be taking the mound for a postseason start, but after making his one and only appearance for the Braves this season, Hamels went right back to the Injured List and that was that.
So instead, Ian Anderson is likely to start Game 2. He’s looked great in his short time in Atlanta and there’s nothing inherently concerning about having someone that inexperienced start in a playoff game, but we also can’t pretend that we know what to expect.
And really any concern about Anderson starting is compacted with the fact that Game 3, if necessary, will be started by Kyle Wright. He’s been consistently good for fewer starts (three, to be exact).
One of those two young pitchers would probably not garner much of a second thought as the postseason begins but the fact that the Braves are relying on two such pitchers along with their ace barely being out of his own rookie season and nary a veteran in sight is cause for concern.
Sure, the pitchers all have excellent stuff and are capable of shutting down any other team’s offense but with such small sample sizes, they’re simply still unknown quantities.
Which means Atlanta will be leaning on its historically good offense, its exceptional defense, and it’s excellent bullpen to help them win their first postseason series in nearly two decades and advance deep into the playoffs.
And those elements are all terrific. If Atlanta had made it through 2020 with the rotation they’d hoped for way back in February, they might be unstoppable favorites to win the World Series.
As it stands right now, they’re a team with question marks at the most important place when it comes to the postseason.
Prize Fish
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We are now just a week away from the end of the 2020 Major League Baseball season.
Even with a massively expanded postseason this year, or possibly because of that expansion, it’s pretty clear which teams will be present during round 1 of a playoff that will look wildly different for a lot of different reasons.
Basically, with 16 teams making the cut, all of the decent teams and a couple of middling ones will be in on the final hunt for that World Series trophy; and unless something truly wild happens three of those teams will be hailing from the NL East.
The Braves seem destined to win the division and Marlins and Phillies are both over .500.
Miami is too far behind San Diego in terms of winning percentage to take over the four seed in the playoff tournament, but they’ll likely hold on to the five spot and therefore play the Padres in a three-game set taking place entirely at Petco Park.
The Phillies, assuming they don’t usurp the Marlins in second place, can only be seeded seventh or eighth, which has the dramatic possibility of seeing them face off with Atlanta in Truist Park for the first round.
The Marlins are surely going to win the World Series.
Now that might sound that a pretty bold prediction, but history backs me up here.
Sure, Miami’s season-to-season track record has been underwhelming, to say the least (they’ve never won the division since coming into existence over two and a half decades ago). However, they’ve made it to the postseason via the wild card twice and they’ve never lost a postseason series.
That’s right, two trips to the playoffs; two World Series Championships.
It’s really as simple as that. They’re poised to make the cut at the NL East’s second-place team, and history tells us that that means they won’t lose in the postseason.
But for the sake of argument, let’s briefly look at how they’re going to win their inevitable third Commissioner’s Trophy.
It starts and ends with Miami’s starting pitching.
I’ve rambled on and on here about Atlanta’s struggles with the starting rotation and how the young pitchers they call up have struggled. Miami keeps striking gold when it adds starters to the roster.
For example, highly touted prospect Sixto Sanchez has delivered in a huge way for the fish, giving them innings and not giving up runs. He’s looked every bit of what the Marlins hoped he’d be.
He’s got help on the mound from guys like Sandy Alcantara, who’s only made 5 starts but has gone six innings in all but one, giving up three earned runs or less in those 4 games (he gave up 5 in a 4-inning affair during his second start of the season).
Pablo Lopez has looked good too.
Some of their starters haven’t been up to snuff, like Jose Urena, but looking at the more immediately future: it doesn’t matter. You only need three starters in a three-game series.
Their bullpen is led by guys like Brad Boxberger and James Hoyt.
So, while picking the Marlins to win the whole thing this year may seem like a foolish notion, it’s pitching that matters most in the playoffs, and they’ve got a good crew on the mound.
The mere fact that they’ll be there is all the backup I need.
MVP
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It seems bonkers to be thinking about and talking about end of the year awards for the Major League Baseball season when not even two months have passed since the first pitch of the season was thrown, but here we are.
The pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign will be over soon and things like Cy Young Awards, MVPs, Gold Gloves, and Silver Sluggers must be given out.
So, with that in mind, I’d like to make a case for a player who should be the National League Most Valuable Player this season: Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman.
Freeman has long been respected as one of the most consistent players in the game, if not the top player at his position.
He’s had All Star appearances, won Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers, but the one thing (other than a World Series ring, of course) missing from his trophy case is an MVP award.
This year, for all its flaws and weirdness, presents the best opportunity for Freddie to fill that spot on the shelf.
As with most seasons, Freeman has hit for average and power, with good RBI numbers as well as a great OPS and WAR (for you sabermetric fans out there).
But it also seems like every year he hovers just under the radar for serious award consideration.
This year seemed to be shaping up much in the same way, but Freeman has gotten incredibly hot, slugging his first two career grand slams, tons of multi-hit games, and a two-homerun game to boot.
In that stretch, his batting average skyrocketed over .330 and his OPS topped 1.000 (a whopping, and league leading, 1.075). He also is the top of the league in RBI’s, driving in runs at a torrid clip.
But the case isn’t just made because of his numbers alone. The Braves, who have been favorites to win the NL East all season, have seen their starting rotation decimated over the course of the season, and Cy Young candidate Max Fried hitting the Injured List could very well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Short of taking the mound himself, Freddie’s offensive explosion has seen him do everything he can to prevent Atlanta from slipping out of first place in the division, as the Philadelphia Phillies have given chase.
Freeman is also a team player. The Braves third hitter for almost his entire career, he responded well to being moved up to the two-hole after leadoff man Ronald Acuna, Jr. was hurt and kept out of the lineup for a few games.
He responded so well that Brian Snitker has kept him there after the young outfielder’s return.
Credit to where it’s due: Freddie always thrives when someone with some thunder hits behind him.
Last season, Freeman was awarded the Silver Slugger after a year of having Josh Donaldson batting in the cleanup spot.
This year Marcel Ozuna has been a revelation, protecting Freddie and giving opposing pitchers a veritable Sophie’s Choice of who to pitch for in any situation.
In fact, for a while there it looked like Ozuna would be the Braves’ most likely MVP candidate.
While Ozuna continued to thrive in Atlanta, Freeman has jumped into the forefront of the conversation both in Atlanta and, I hope, the minds of the MVP voters.
It’s time for Freddie to stop being the bridesmaid and get married. I now pronounce him the NL MVP.
You may win the World Series now.
Mis-Managed
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Major League managers are simultaneously the most overrated and underrated members of a baseball team, depending on the team’s record.
If the team is winning, then the manager is probably being over-credited. If the team is losing, then the manager is probably getting over-blamed.
This isn’t to say that managers don’t have an important role on a team’s success beyond simply penciling in a lineup, just that sometimes the role of a guy who isn’t actually participating in the game can be overexaggerated in one way or another.
I bring this up because I want to discuss Atlanta Braves’ manager Brian Snitker. Specifically, I want to discuss whether or not he’s actually a good manager for the team of which he is currently at the helm.
I’ll go ahead and spoil the ending: I think he is – which isn’t to say there is nothing to discuss, but there are ways in which he seems to be failing the team.
Let’s talk about the obvious first:
Bullpen Usage. All managers are judged most often and often most harshly on how they implement their bullpen.
It’s the easy thing to criticize, as it’s the primary way in which a manager influences the game while it’s being played.
The inspiration for this article is, in fact, because of Snitker’s sometimes flabbergasting use of his relief corps. Specifically that he brought in Charlie Culberson, a position player, to pitch in the second game of a doubleheader when the Braves were down by just one run.
Charlie Clutch delivered, easily getting the one out he was tasked with getting, but the question is still begged…what?
Especially egregious was this move in light of the fact that A.J. Minter, arguably the Braves’ best bullpen pitcher (in a veritable overflowing pot of good ones) was wasted in Game 1 when the Braves were up 7-1.
There seems to be some kind of a disconnect between Snit and any analytics or forethought in this regard.
Taking that same example as a for instance: he knew they had a whole second game to play that day, so why burn Minter and put yourself in a position to then use a position player on the mound in a tight game? Did the Phillies offense worry him that much?
The bullpen has been overused, certainly, and that’s no fault of Snit’s; the starting rotation has got holes on holes on holes, but why use your talent unnecessarily in a blowout when you have to play another game less than an hour after the first one ends?
There’s also the constant, unending use of Luke Jackson in high-leverage situations.
Now, Jackson’s numbers at a glance aren’t awful (though they also don’t warrant how he’s often used), but he’s constantly getting himself into jams through walks or hits.
Jackson was the saving grace of the bullpen for the first two months of 2019, but it seems almost like Snit still feels indebted to the righty when there are better arms available.
Moving away from the ‘pen, there’s also the curious reliance on guys like Ender Inciarte.
Inciarte has played primarily when Acuna has been hurt. But Ender is so bad at the dish now that any start he gets is a head-scratcher.
Even if the normal starting trio of Acuna, Adam Duvall, and Nick Markakis needs a day of rest, then isn’t even Marcel Ozuna’s sub-par defense overshadowed by his bat?
Ender should be a defensive replacement and nothing else at this point. But Snit keeps running him out there nonetheless.
All that being said, I still think Snit is a good manager or maybe it’s more accurate to say that he’s a good leader, since some of his actual managing leaves a little to be desired.
Why do I say that? Well, two primary reasons: one, his players absolutely love him.
Freddie Freeman has long advocated for Snitker to remain as the team’s skipper, and wanting to play for your manager is not nothing.
Two, his record pretty much speaks for itself. He’s won two straight division titles and has a third in sight. And at the end of the day, winning is what he’s supposed to do.
I don’t know if Snitker is the manager in five years, but for now, so long as the team tries their hardest to win for him, and do, then he’s still the guy.
