The weekend rains in D.C. nicely coincided with my trip out of town, and I was actually able to see the only game they played while I was away from Searcy. The Braves only got in five games this week, but they went 3-2 and evened up their record at 9-9, three games behind the first-place Mets.
The lineup this week looked more like the Braves of the 1980s, with an excellent center fielder and not much else. Injuries to Chipper Jones, Edgar Renteria, and Marcus Giles left the Braves starting Wilson Betemit, Tony Pena, Pete Orr, and Martin Prado the rest of the week. Luckily, the pitching staff and Andruw Jones’ bat carried the team to a series win in New York, and Betemit’s 3-run shot helped the Braves split two games in Washington. Saturday’s rainout has been rescheduled for September.
The week’s stats:
Overall WPA
Player Gm PA Off Pitch Field WPA AV WV
Hudson 1 3 -0.055 0.677 0.000 0.622 0.172 -0.107
Betemit 5 22 0.366 0.000 -0.004 0.362 0.219 0.076
A. Jones 5 21 0.283 0.000 0.001 0.283 0.139 0.097
Prado 1 4 0.275 0.000 -0.002 0.273 0.222 0.309
Davies 1 3 -0.013 0.184 0.000 0.170 0.054 -0.083
James 1 0 0.000 0.133 0.000 0.133 0.000 0.000
Reitsma 1 0 0.000 0.084 0.000 0.084 0.000 0.000
Thomson 1 2 -0.125 0.162 0.000 0.037 0.288 -0.217
Ray 1 0 0.000 0.026 0.000 0.026 0.000 0.000
Langerhans 4 17 -0.015 0.000 0.000 -0.015 0.159 -0.006
McCann 4 14 -0.023 0.000 0.006 -0.017 0.135 -0.012
Giles 2 8 -0.028 0.000 0.000 -0.028 0.158 -0.022
Cormier 3 0 0.000 -0.030 0.000 -0.030 0.000 0.000
Diaz 4 7 -0.118 0.000 0.085 -0.033 0.257 -0.065
Remlinger 2 0 0.000 -0.048 0.000 -0.048 0.000 0.000
LaRoche 5 18 0.002 0.000 -0.065 -0.062 0.149 0.001
Pena 4 8 -0.087 0.000 0.000 -0.087 0.124 -0.088
Villareal 1 0 0.000 -0.096 0.000 -0.096 0.000 0.000
Smoltz 1 1 -0.022 -0.124 0.000 -0.146 0.241 -0.091
Orr 5 21 -0.162 0.000 0.000 -0.162 0.190 -0.041
Pratt 2 4 -0.169 0.000 0.000 -0.169 0.373 -0.113
Francoeur 5 20 -0.188 0.000 0.000 -0.188 0.138 -0.068
Jordan 3 5 -0.100 0.000 -0.123 -0.222 0.209 -0.096
Sosa 1 2 -0.099 -0.259 0.000 -0.358 0.265 -0.186
TEAM 5
0.170 0.000 0.000 0.170
Starting Pitching
Player Gm IP Avg. P Tot. P WPA WPTP EO%
Hudson 1 9.0 0.048 0.639 0.677 1.059 1.000
Davies 1 9.0 0.049 0.224 0.184 0.822 1.000
Thomson 1 6.0 0.047 0.273 0.162 0.592 1.000
Smoltz 1 5.0 0.047 0.176 -0.124 -0.704 0.000
Sosa 1 4.0 0.050 0.243 -0.259 -1.067 0.000
Relief Pitching
Player Gm IP Avg. P Tot. P WPA WPTP EO% USG
James 1 2.0 0.086 0.133 0.133 1.000 1.000 0.070
Reitsma 1 1.7 0.086 0.173 0.084 0.487 1.000 -0.025
Ray 1 2.0 0.016 0.028 0.026 0.947 1.000 0.169
Cormier 3 3.3 0.064 0.221 -0.030 -0.137 0.667 0.009
Remlinger 2 0.3 0.171 0.343 -0.048 -0.140 0.500 -0.088
Villareal 1 0.7 0.050 0.050 -0.096 -1.928 0.000 -0.155
Season to Date Stats< are updated, so follow the links to the left.
Player of the Week: Tim Hudson – Andruw Jones hit a few homers, and Wilson Betemit came through in the clutch this week. Kyle Davies, John Smoltz, and John Thomson each turned in an excellent start this week. Hudson trumped them all, though, shutting down the Mets throughout a close game to lead the Braves in WPA for this past week.
Thoughts
1. It's hard to score runs with the lineup the Braves have trotted out this week, which usually has looked something like this:
Orr 2B/3B
Betemit 3B/SS
Langerhans LF
A. Jones CF
LaRoche 1B
Francoeur RF
McCann C
Pena/Prado SS/2B
Pitcher
Were it not for this year's and last year's rash of injuries and ineffectiveness, most of these guys would be in Richmond or lower in the farm system. Thankfully, Langerhans and McCann have become solid major league hitters, and Betemit has been outstanding at the plate. LaRoche has been better than he gets credit for being, and Jeff Francoeur has been the opposite. Pena and Prado are on the team mainly out of necessity, and neither should be expected to hit at the major league level.
2. That was quite a turnaround from the starting pitchers in New York. The bullpen got to rest a bit during the Mets series, and hopefully the rainout will keep them fresh for a while longer.
This week, the Braves will finish their road trip in Milwaukee before returning home to host the Mets for a weekend series.
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