MLB
Midpoint
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
On Wednesday, the Atlanta Braves finished up their 30th game of the 2020 season by completing a double header sweep of the New York Yankees.
Usually, the 30th game of the season is unspectacular as a marker of the passage of time within a campaign. But since this is 2020, the 30th game is the halfway point of the whole season.
It also meant that the trade deadline was five days away – tomorrow, as of this article’s publication.
Generally, we would take a look at where the Braves are and where they’re going at the All-Star break (a little past halfway, actually), but even though there isn’t as much to chew on as normal, let’s look at what the Braves have done on the field so far.
We’ve talked about pitching woes ad nauseum, so let me touch on that very briefly. With the injury to Mike Soroka, the continued absence of Cole Hamels, and the ineffectiveness of Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb, Kyle Wright, and pretty much everyone else; the pitching rotation basically has boiled down to Max Fried and everyone else.
Fried, for his part, could very well win the Cy Young award this season. Everyone else…not so much. Ian Anderson looked terrific in his debut on Wednesday, but time will tell if he can sustain it.
So, with the starting rotation woes being what they are, the team has been relying on the bullpen, the defense, and (honestly a fairly inconsistent) offense. However, the Braves have been winning and are in first place.
The bullpen was a strength on paper going into 2020, and it has delivered. Not every outing is stellar, but very few are disasters.
In fact, before Ian Anderson showed up, the Braves had 16 team wins and Fried was the only starter credited with any – a full ¼ of them, mind you (he’s since upped that number of wins to 5). The relief corps has been invaluable and unfortunately, overworked.
The defense on the team has been solid. Which is unsurprising (with Gold Glove winners like Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis fielding the ball) and surprising (injuries to Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna, Jr. have taken some of the most fleet-footed players off the diamond for extended periods of time).
Marcel Ozuna hasn’t helped too much in this regard, but his value has been immense nonetheless, because of his bat, so let’s get to that.
Ozuna has essentially served perfectly as the replacement for Josh Donaldson in the cleanup spot.
He’s provided power and clutch hits in a way that almost makes it forgivable for Alex Anthopoulos to have let the Bringer of Rain walk to Minnesota. Almost.
Dansby Swanson has been a revelation at the plate, a mini-slump in between two periods of great hitting, notwithstanding.
Outside of Max Fried, I think it’d be hard to argue that Swanson has been the MVP of the season so far.
Not that perennial MVP candidates Freedman and Acuna, Jr. have been slouching.
Acuna, much like the previous two seasons, had a slow first few weeks, but just prior to his injury and since returning, he’s begun heating up.
Freeman was also struggling at first, hitting at the Mendoza line for the first 15 games, but he’s blistered the ball since, averaging out to where we’d expect him to be at this point.
But the real revelation has been Travis D’Arnaud. D’Arnaud was a free agent pickup who has killed the ball at the dish this season, as well as played well behind it.
Tyler Flowers has continued to prove an able backup (he always seems to hit better when the other catcher is having a good season), solidifying the backstop position, which was a question mark in July.
The question is this: can the Braves hold on to first place with the pitching they have?
It’s a great question, and in the NL East the answer might be yes.
However, if any of the other teams get it together and get hot, the Braves may lose that threepeat they’re after.
Early Chatter
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
After defeating the Mets 5-3 in 10 innings on Saturday night, the Atlanta Braves evened the beginning of their season to 1-1 with a meager 58 more games to play.
Two games wouldn’t generally provide a lot to chat about, but this is 2020 and everything is either a little or a lot different.
So, let’s take a moment and figure out what we can glean from Atlanta’s first two contests of the season.
Starting at the end: it took only two games before the Braves experienced one of 2020s more drastic rule changes; a runner on second to start every extra inning.
In Atlanta’s case, Adam Duvall started the top of the 10th on second base and the first batter up, Dansby Swanson drove him in to take a lead that the Braves would hang onto in the bottom of the inning.
It’s easy to say that I like the rule since the team I was rooting for won the first time it was used, but I do think it adds an immediate excitement to the game (in addition to being a functional way to shorten games in the middle of a pandemic).
Just look to the bottom of the 10th. The Braves were up by 3 runs, but with only one hit the Mets had the tying run at the plate in the form of last year’s MLB homerun leader Pete Alonso.
They only got one run across the plate, but the tension was great. The very real possibility that the Mets could come back was palpable right away. In short, regardless of how it goes game-to-game, this is going to be an exciting wrinkle to the season.
Let’s turn now to the offense that the Braves have produced over the first two games of the year. The 5 runs in the second game of the series is nothing to scoff at, but up through Marcel Ozuna’s game-tying homerun at the end of the game the Atlanta offense looked downright anemic.
The heavy hitters in the lineup, Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna, Jr., have done very little of note so far. Of course, it’s incredibly early, but with a 60-game season Atlanta can hardly afford to take some to warm up.
The pitching, for the most part, has looked good.
Mike Soroka picked right up where he left off with a stellar 6-inning outing on Opening Day, and Max Fried, while a little less in command of the ball, also pitched well.
The bullpen, specifically Chris Martin, was responsible for the lone run that cost the Braves the game after Soroka was pulled. However only one run allowed by the ‘pen is generally an acceptable amount.
Luke Jackson displayed his two trademarks: a) being left in too long (not his fault) and b) making a game unnecessarily close (his fault), but they got the win and you can’t argue with results.
The pitching was expected to be a strength of this team, and it looks like that may hold true.
Some other, quicker points: Pace has long been an issue with baseball, but neither game has seemingly dragged (again, small sample size).
The minimum of three batters for relievers along with the extra inning rule seem like they’ll be effective in this regard.
The DH in the National League has been a long time coming. Technically it’s a “this season only” rule, but I’d bet it’s here to stay.
Chip Caray said that the Mets are expected to make the playoffs. With a whopping 16 teams qualifying this season (if it gets that far), he’s probably right. It’s going to be a wild chase for the series.
Sting Rays
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As we get closer to the start of Major League Baseball season, I will dedicate some time to the Tampa Bay Rays.
In a Major League Baseball season, assuming players do play and get through 60 games, and the playoffs are without cancellation, the Rays are set up as well as any other team in baseball for this unprecedented 60 game season.
Opening Day is scheduled for July 24 versus Toronto at the Tropicana Field.
Manager Kevin Cash stated, “in a normal setting, generally, the first month is, let’s see, where we’re at. Let’s not make too many irrational decisions, but that might change a little bit simply because we’re playing 60 games.”
The Rays have three outstanding starting pictures, who could feasibly be not only the best Rays pitcher this season but the Rays have 3 legitimate Cy Young contenders.
Blake Snell, the 2018 Cy Young Award winner, is looking to rebound from an injury-riddled 2019 season. So far in workouts, Snell’s fastball appeared lively during simulated games with his velocity reaching 96 mph.
Kevin Cash named Charlie Morton the Opening Day starter. Morton established career bests in wins (16), ERA (3.05), strikeouts (240), and innings pitched (194 ⅔) in 2019 and finished third in AL Cy Young Award voting.
Tyler Glasnow, to me, looks like an ace in the making. He is a lanky 6 foot 8 and throws an upper 90’s fastball toward the plate. Glasnow might be the best bet to the Cy Young in 2020.
That’s three reasons to pick the Rays to make a run in the short 2020 season.
Then there’s the bullpen; one of the best bullpens in baseball.
There’s lefty Jose Alvardo, who slings a 98-mph sinker and a wipeout slider.
There’s Diego Castillo, who throws 100 mph fastball.
There’s Nick Anderson who throws a 97 mph like soft toss and Chaz Roe, who throws a slider that moves like a frisbee.
There’s no question, the Rays built baseball’s nastiest pitching staff in today’s game and I believe their dominant pitchers will give them a chance in each and every game in 2020.
Position players to watch: Kevin Kiermaier, the speedy center fielder who won his third Gold Glove last season. He is the main defensive star in the Rays’ outfield.
Ji-Man Choi is a left-handed hitting first baseman who hit .261 with 107 hits, 63 RBIs, and 19 home runs. He cut down his strikeout rate to a respectable 22% last season.
Two new additions to the Rays roster this season: Yoshi Tsutsugo and Hunter Renfroe. They seem to be ready to make an impact.
Tsutsugo smashed 139 home runs over the past four seasons with the Yokoham DeNA BayStars in Japan.
Hunter Renfroe hit a career best 33 home runs in 2019 with the San Diego Padres.
Excellent depth seems to be the recipe for success this MLB season. The Rays have an excellent farm system, with great MLB-ready middle infielders and outfielders ready to step up.
Making comparisons in pitching, no team in baseball boasts the depth the Rays have right now.
Look at the last three World Series champs, who’ve all had a strong trio of starters: 2019 Nationals; Strasburg, Scherzer and Corbin, 2018 Red Sox; Sales, Price and Eovaldi and 2017 Astros; Verlander, Keuchel and Morton.
The Rays can win it all in 2020. Let’s just pray they get the opportunity to do it.
The Triumvirate
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s always difficult talking about anyone or anything being the greatest when it comes to sports.
Everyone has different criteria they go by and comparing players or teams from different eras almost never ends well.
So, while I’m sure there will be baseball purists that will disagree with me, or to be honest just fans of a different team, my vote for the greatest starting pitching rotation has to be the 1995 Atlanta Braves.
Now, full disclosure I was a teenager at the time who thought Face/Off was the greatest movie ever made, so there’s a good possibility those baseball purists would be right.
Of course, when I mention the pitching rotation for the ‘95 Braves I’m really referring to three pitchers, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz.
You could argue, and I would probably make the argument, that Maddux was the best pitcher during the 90’s, with the ‘95 season being his best of the decade. Besides winning his fourth consecutive NL Cy Young award, Maddux’s 19-2 record was the best winning percentage of his career and his 1.63 ERA was bested only by the 1.56 he posted the year before.
Those stats, along with his ten complete games and three shutouts, were why I remember feeling Atlanta was going to win every time he took the mound.
I mean Maddux was so dominant that his 3-1 record and 2.62 ERA that postseason, a performance most pitchers would dream of, was actually a letdown compared to his regular season.
1995 may not have been Glavine’s most productive season, although he did finish 3rd in the Cy Young voting, but he was Atlanta’s best pitcher during the playoff run.
The Braves never lost a game that he started and he infamously told his teammates heading into Game 6 of the World Series all they had to do was give him one run and he would take care of the rest; they did and he threw eight innings of one hit, shutout baseball.
Maddux and Glavine may not have been the best one-two punch in baseball history, but if Rush is considered rock n’ roll’s holy triumvirate, then the Braves were baseball’s version with the addition of John Smoltz.
On most teams Smoltz would’ve been the number one starter, or number two, at the very least. Only on this Braves team would you have a pitcher that at that point was a three time All-Star, in the prime of his career, as the third man in the rotation.
Finishing out the rotation was Steve Avery, who was on the same trajectory as Tom Glavine before his career was derailed by injury, and Kent Merker, who was to this Braves team what Pete Best was to the Beatles.
I know this wasn’t the only year this group was together (Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz all made the All-Star team the following year) but as a collective, this seemed to be their best year.
When you think about it, there’s just something that feels right about the Braves winning their lone World Series title, while in Atlanta, during this season.
I’m sure there are other teams that have had three 1st ballot Hall of Fame pitchers on their roster at one time, but I doubt they all were in their prime.
It’s been twenty-five years and unlike the Nic Cage/John Travolta 90’s action flick, this group’s legacy has actually held up.
Name Change
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
After far too much resistance, the Washington Redskins are finally taking a name change into consideration.
It’s crazy that it’s 2020 and the process has just now begun (it feels inevitable at this point, no?), but better late than never.
In the same vein, the Cleveland Indians have apparently begun thinking about a change as well, and in fact Indians manager Terry Francona has even come out in favor of the shift.
As you might expect, the conversation then directed its’ attention to the Atlanta Braves, who were faced with a modicum of controversy during the playoffs last year regarding the now-beloved tomahawk chop (itself a tradition adopted from Florida State University).
The Braves responded by announcing that they are not planning to change the name of the team, but that they are reconsidering the use of the Chop.
I’ve written about this very topic before, and my views haven’t changed: if the Braves name is offensive or hurtful to anyone, then it should be changed. It’s the name of the team, not the legacy or moments that fans cherish – those will remain, regardless of what the Atlanta baseball team have on the front of their home jerseys.
The chop, which I have participated in enthusiastically thousands of times, should almost certainly be no more.
It’s cultural appropriation at its core: a facsimile of a stereotyped Native American war cry done while pantomiming the swinging a tomahawk, which perpetuates the stereotype of the “savage Indian;” and 50,000 non-Native Americans shouldn’t be doing it every night, given the grotesque history our nation has with the people that were here first.
That’s the short version of my take, but instead of rehashing all that, I am going to spend my remaining space not convincing you that the Braves should change their name and drop the chop, but pitching to you what they should change their name to – and how it will help us keep the chop. Sort of.
So, here’s the thing: the tomahawk chop is, as I’ve said, a beloved tradition in Atlanta. But I’ve also said that it needs to go. So how do we keep the spirit of the thing and unity it brings alive while casting out the problematic aspects of it?
First, we change the team from the Atlanta Braves to the Atlanta Vikings. Bear with me.
The Braves become the Vikings, but almost everything else stays the same: we keep the classic uniform design and color scheme; the script “A” on the ball cap; all the things that make our look our look.
We even keep the tomahawk under the team name, only it’s not a tomahawk anymore – under the word “Vikings” is a freakin’ battle ax.
But what about the chop? We can’t keep the chant as is, but there should still be some kind of vocal cry to go along with the chopping motion that we’ve always done, especially now that we have an awesome battle ax. Don’t worry, I’ve got this covered.
Imagine yourself at the ballpark. The Vikings are threatening to rally with two men on and Freddie Freeman at the plate. Normally, this is when you’d chop – but not anymore. Now there’s something better.
Suddenly, roaring through Truist Park’s sound system, comes the ferocious crunch of Jimmy Page’s guitar as the walls echo with the opening riff of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.”
The riff blasts four times (edited down from the studio version’s eight), before, along with Robert Plants legendary vocals, the whole stadium – chopping the same way they always have – erupts into the song’s opening battle cry: “AHHHH AHH AHHHHHHHHH AHH!”
The Valhalla Chop. Seriously. Do it right now, wherever you’re reading this. Chop and do the battle cry. You’re right. It’s freaking awesome. Problem solved.
Play Ball
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Now that baseball seems to be a reality in late July. Let’s take a good look at the Atlanta Braves for 2020.
The 2020 season will be 60 games and the season will feel like a prolonged playoff instead of the 162-game grind.
Let’s take a look at your Atlanta Braves:
Ronald Acuna Jr. is, in my opinion, the best young player in baseball. Acuna will be in the NL MVP discussion this year. Freddie Freeman is also an MVP candidate and at age 30 still has a lot left in the tank. Acuna and Freeman give the Atlanta roster two superstars in the lineup every day.
Marcell Ozuna was added in free agency from St. Louis. Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson will be up the middle, with what should be an above average bench featuring Nick Markakis and Austin Riley.
The team did lose Josh Donaldson and his 37 HR’s in free agency, Can Ozuna offset that production?
My Projected Starting Lineup:
Ronald Acuna (RF)
Ozzie Albies (2B)
Freddie Freeman (1B)
Marcell Ozuna (LF)
Johan Camargo (3B)
Nick Markakis (DH)
Dansby Swanson (SS)
Travis d’Arnaud (C)
Ender Inciarte (CF)
I’m assuming Johan Camargo will win the third base job for Atlanta in my lineup card.
Austin Riley may be the future at 3B, but I am betting on a good season for Camargo in 2020.
This batting order is as good as any in baseball in my opinion. Universal DH in the shortened season will be adopted in the National League will give the Braves the opportunity to let Markakis get swings every day to protect his body from the daily grind of the outfield.
Starting Pitching: Alex Anthopoulos went out and signed veteran, lefty Cole Hamels to a one-year deal and signed former Mariner Felix Hernandez also.
Hernandez could be the wild card here if he looks like he did in Seattle. This addition will put the Braves in the World Series discussion. Hamels, who was set to start the regular season on the injured list, should be rested and ready to go now that the season has been delayed.
Mike Soroka, Mike Foltynewicz, who was brilliant down the stretch until getting blistered in Game 5 of the NLDS, Max Fried and Sean Newcomb will be your starters. Soroka will win a Cy Young Award in Atlanta.
Kyle Wright and Touki Toussaint both got big league innings in 2019.
I like this rotation talent wise, and in a 60-game season, the pickup of Hamels and Hernandez could be looked upon as two of the best moves in Braves history.
Relief Pitching: Going into the 2019 season the Braves bullpen was a big issue. Going into a shortened 2020 season it could be the best in baseball.
The bullen will be anchored by Mark Melancon, Shane Greene and Chris Martin. They re-signed Martin this offseason before he tested free agency.
Atlanta signed former Giants closer Will Smith to maybe form a duo with Melancon at the back end of the bullpen. Darren O’Day, who missed almost all of the 2019 season with a forearm injury, returns healthy. Quality arms are everywhere.
Manager: Brian Snitker has something to prove in 2020.
Snitker has been with the Braves organization since 1977. The roster is there for a trip to the World Series. Can Snitker get this team over the hump and erase those awful Game 5 NLDS memories from 2019?
Predicted Record: 38-22. NL East Champions, National League Champions, Lose in 7 games to the New York Yankees in the World Series.
Biggest potential hurdle in 2020: Covid-19 wipes out the proposed season.
A Brave Future
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There may not be any actual baseball being played right now but the march of business continues on, as the 2020 MLB Draft has come and gone.
For the Atlanta Braves, it’s a chance to restock the farm system as more and more of their highly touted prospects show up to the big-league club.
All signs were pointing to Alex Anthopoulos aiming for high school pitching as his focus – let’s see how that played out and what kind of potential gold Atlanta struck last week.
The first pick for Atlanta, and the number 25 pick overall, was Wake Forest lefty Jared Shuster.
An interesting pick, without a particularly long track record. Shuster broke out last summer during the Cape Cod League and continued to impress during (an albeit shortened) spring.
He may not end up being an ace, but the potential is there for a solid middle-of-the-rotation guy. The kind of draft pick that’s not very sexy, but one that could pay out in a big way.
Quick note: what would have been Atlanta’s second pick was given to the Cardinals after the Braves signed Marcel Ozuna.
It’s always a calculated risk when a team signs a player that costs them a draft pick, but this one will sting a little extra since at best Ozuna will play about half-a-season’s worth of games or at worst won’t play a single game for the Bravos.
So, with what should have been their third, but in reality, was their second pick, Anthopoulos and company took outfielder Jesse Franklin from Michigan.
An injury that COVID-19 never left Franklin recover from might be the only thing that kept this power and speed guy from going top 50 in the draft (a skiing accident shut him down for a month or two, and had Michigan played their whole season he would have been able to show off his recovery).
He’s shown the ability to hit for power, but he’ll need to couple that with a higher average to sniff the Majors.
Spencer Strider, a right-handed pitcher from Clemson, came off the board as the Braves’ fourth-round pick. Yet another guy who could be seen as a risk, Strider was a huge recruiting get for Clemson and played a lot as a freshman, though he struggled with his command.
Tommy John surgery took him out of the game last year, though he did make it back to show off in a short sample size this season before it was shut down.
Strider didn’t appear to be on a lot of radars since he hit the college circuit, but the Braves liked his live arm enough to pull the trigger and hope he shows more of what made him so highly-sought-after in high school.
Lastly, we have Bryce Elder right-handed pitcher from Texas. He’s been the Longhorns’ ace despite not being an overpowering-type pitcher.
However, he’s got a good mix of all of the things that made a good pitcher and could be a rotation mainstay for a lot of years if he develops right.
So, as you’ve probably noticed, there were no high school pitchers drafted.
This is a very interesting class; it’s not a flashy group, and a couple might have needed more time to prove themselves, but given the situation baseball is in, a lot of teams had to take leaps of faith in this draft.
It isn’t the greatest class Atlanta has ever seen, but there’s potential here to supply the Braves with valuable pieces in the future.
Bottom Line
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Right now, we should be two months deep into the 2020 Major League Baseball season.
We should all be assessing which teams are overperforming or underperforming and talking about who’s deserving of an All-Star appearance.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. The MLB owners and the MLB Players Association are doing everything they can to ensure that baseball is started safely and reasonably, and as soon as possible. Or maybe they aren’t.
If you scour the internet for baseball news these days, instead of the aforementioned articles and arguments and debates about standings and stats, you’ll be treated to an ongoing back and forth between the billionaires that populate the fraternity of team owners and the millionaires that make up the MLBPA. It’s been contentious, to say the least.
The players agreed to take a pay cut when the season was originally suspended way back in March. Then the owners composed a proposal on how to get the season started and presented it to the players, which asked for a second pay cut. The players were apparently very unhappy about it.
Ever since then it’s been headline after headline about the players being upset about the owners’ various proposals and amendments. Some players, like Tampa Bay Rays pitchers Blake Snell, even going on the record and saying they’d refuse to play for a (further) reduced salary.
Snell’s rationale was that he and the rest of the players would be assuming all of the COVID-19-related risk. Which is, of course, true.
Regardless of how the logistics work, the players would be exposed to each other by necessity. That would come in the game, obviously, but also wherever they’d be holed up to live for however long the season lasts.
Assuming they’d want to see their families, ever, they’d also be adding risk to their wives and children too. The owners, by virtue of not having a role that requires them to attend the ballgames, ever, would not need to change a thing about their socially distanced status quo.
It’s a reasonable concern, and it’s true, the owners assume no risk to their health and the players basically throw what the CDC recommends to the wind.
But in a way it still feels like both parties are being greedy. The world desperately needs sports right now.
The amount of money that the already-very-wealthy make during the season isn’t going to lessen their risk of contracting COVID, so it feels like they’re just squabbling over riches.
For a game that falls further behind football every year in terms of national popularity, this is a bad look.
The last time players and owners had a spat like this was the players’ strike of 94-95, and the vocal members of the union, like the Braves’ own Tom Glavine, were voraciously booed when play finally resumed.
Fans, many of them working class, had no patience for millionaires pinching pennies.
In fact, it took Cal Ripken completing a journey he had started over a decade before as well as two over-juiced sluggers competing for a home run record to earn back the adoration of the fans.
It’s worse now because of the state of the world. We’re starved for something unifying, and MLB has the chance to be that unifier. Regardless of who’s right or wrong in the ongoing battle between owners and players, they’re blowing the chance.
I’m not saying there’s an easy solution, or that the players should just concede to whatever the owners demand. That’s ridiculous and the owners are just as seemingly greedy in this situation.
It’s disappointing, nonetheless, that the two groups of people can’t come together when it would be a huge feather in their cap to do so.
The Extra Guy
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
This might just be unwarranted optimism, but it is kind of starting to feel like January again.
Not in terms of weather, but in terms of baseball. There seems to be a feeling that a truncated MLB season could start as soon as early July, with about half as many games as normal, expanded playoffs, modified divisions, and – our subject for today – a universal designated hitter.
I’m starting to get that anticipatory excitement I always feel right before spring training. We’ve all felt it once this year, only for COVID to pull the rug out from under us; but that feeling is back and baseball just might be on the horizon.
What could this mean for the Atlanta Braves?
For one thing, it could mean that neither Austin Riley nor Johan Camargo sees any time in whatever the minor leagues look like this season.
They had begun battling it out for the starting third base job before spring training was suspended, but that suspension could very well mean that neither of them needs to worry about not being on the big-league club.
Now, there’s likely going to be a significantly expanded roster at the major league level this season, which might factor into the Braves hanging on to both third basemen more than the DH would. Having that extra spot in the lineup could potentially mean that both guys are essentially starting.
Camargo might get the majority of the starts at third while Riley DHs, with a switch whenever necessary.
On the other hand, a DH could mean that Camargo and Riley platoon and Nick Markakis or Adam Duvall get the DH spot instead. The righty/lefty matchup works out, in a traditional sense, and it would keep both bats from getting stale, especially with Ronald Acuna, Jr., Marcell Ozuna, and Ender Inciarte likely keeping them on the bench otherwise.
There’s also the option of not having a consistent DH (or platoon). Having the extra spot in the lineup would allow manager Brian Snitker to rotate his starting eight through the designated hitter position throughout the week. That would allow rest for the likes of Freddie Freeman every half inning and replacing them on the field with their backup.
That also serves the purpose of providing relatively consistent at bats for the backups, who normally only see pinch hits and a start once every week or two.
The last option would be for the Braves to go out and get themselves a designated designated hitter (not a typo).
There are actually some intriguing options still on the market. For example, the Braves might not have wanted to risk the money or the potential headache of signing Yasiel Puig to a whole season for a whole season’s worth of money. However, with a much shorter risk period, Atlanta could now go out and sign the outfielder to a fraction of what he’s worth and make him their DH with occasional starts in the outfield.
Mark Trumbo is another guy who can be signed for cheap. He’d likely be exclusively a DH. He has lots of strikeouts but a ton of pop, too.
The point is, maybe the Braves will want a guy to show up and mash and not be required to do anything else.
Those are the kinds of possibilities having a DH for the entire season in the National League will bring for the Braves.
Waiting to see which way they go is just a part of the pre-spring-mid-summer training excitement.
Brave Title
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Fox Sports recently satiated our collective thirst for baseball, albeit briefly, by airing the Atlanta Braves’ greatest triumph: the 1995 World Series against the Cleveland Indians.
For six straight nights, Braves Country was treated to a Braves squad at the height of their powers, barely a third of the way into their 14-straight division titles. I don’t usually go for reruns – I never watch the next-day replays during the season – but this was compelling television, despite knowing the outcome.
The 90s and early 00s Braves went through little eras within those 14 years, but that 1995 team’s pitching staff and batting lineup is usually the one people could name.
Sure, the early 90s had Otis Nixon, Terry Pendleton, and Steve Avery in his prime, but no Chipper. The early 2000s had Andruw Jones and Rafael Furcal, but that scrappy Jeff Blauser/Mark Lemke tandem was gone (and then, eventually, so was Tom Glavine).
I think the 1995 team was almost perfectly constructed. Ironically, I don’t think they were the best team the Braves fielded in the 90s, but they’re the one that won it all. So, since they’re fresh on our minds, let’s look back at what made that team special.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the starting pitching was firing on all cylinders. Greg Maddux captured his 4th straight Cy Young award in 1995 (going 19-2 with a freaking 1.63 ERA), and Glavine and Smoltz were in their primes (they both had sub-3.20 ERAs, plus Glavine was World Series MVP and the next season Smoltz would be the first Cy Young winner in five years who wasn’t Mad Dog).
Avery was on the downside of his short career and Kent Mercker put up serviceable but not great numbers in the five spot. The three-headed monster at the top of the rotation made up for any deficiencies.
The bullpen gets little credit, but Mark Wohlers had a 2.09 ERA and led a stellar group of relievers with Greg McMichael, Brad Clontz, and Pedro Borbon. All of those guys had fantastic years on the bump.
The starting lineup was a classic baseball lineup. You had speed at the top of the order in Marquis Grissom, who won a Gold Glove in center field in 1995, followed by a scrapper in the two-hole in Lemke.
Then came the bashers: Bobby Cox thrust the weight of the three-hole onto rookie Chipper Jones, who rose to the occasion and was protected by sluggers Fred McGriff and David Justice hitting fourth and fifth, respectively.
Underrated slugger, Ryan Klesko was up next (he hit .310 along with his 23 homers in 1995), then catcher Javy Lopez, who hit .315 (the two highest averages on the team, for those keeping track at home).
Bringing up the end of the batting order was light-hitting (unless it was a contract year) shortstop Jeff Blauser (who I didn’t remember not playing the Series in ’95 due to an injury – Rafael Belliard took over in his place.)
The interesting thing about this lineup was that it was well-constructed enough that no one really needed to rise above the rest – note that McGriff led the team with 27 home runs and 93 RBIs that year.
McGriff and Klesko were the only members of the team that slugged over .500 (in just 107 games, mind you). But the offense worked and coupled with the pitching, they won 90 games.
More impressive is how that offense got the job done when stacked up against a Cleveland Indians team that was for the ages. A young Manny Ramirez was hitting 7th. And I’m not talking about a green, unproven Manny Ramirez; this guy hit .308 with 31 home runs and 107 RBIs. From the 7-spot.
But they couldn’t get it done. The 1995 Braves were a team of destiny but they were also a team of immense talent.
