My apologies for the late post…I try to get these done by Monday morning for the new week, but graduation kind of got in the way. I think it’s a good excuse, though. Anyhow, the stats are updated.
The Braves were 4-2 this past week against the cellar dwellers of the NL East, Florida and Washington. I was hoping for 5-1, but 4-2 isn’t bad, and they’re back to 6 games out of first place thanks to the Phillies’ work against the Mets.
Here are the week’s stats:
Overall
Player Gm PA Off Pitch Field WPA AV WV
Francoeur 6 28 0.702 0.000 0.000 0.702 0.151 0.166
Smoltz 1 4 -0.028 0.313 0.000 0.285 0.078 -0.091
Pratt 2 7 0.227 0.000 0.000 0.227 0.079 0.409
Giles 5 28 0.168 0.000 0.000 0.168 0.136 0.044
Langerhans 5 13 0.154 0.000 0.002 0.156 0.113 0.104
LaRoche 6 18 0.128 0.000 -0.022 0.106 0.108 0.066
Hudson 1 3 -0.033 0.132 0.000 0.098 0.093 -0.119
Ray 3 0 0.000 0.054 0.000 0.054 0.000 0.000
C. Jones 6 28 0.069 0.000 -0.022 0.047 0.166 0.015
McBride 2 0 0.000 0.045 0.000 0.045 0.000 0.000
Jordan 3 11 0.040 0.000 0.001 0.042 0.118 0.031
Villareal 3 0 0.000 0.031 0.000 0.031 0.000 0.000
McCann 5 17 0.049 0.000 -0.023 0.025 0.120 0.024
Reitsma 2 0 0.000 0.016 0.000 0.016 0.000 0.000
Remlinger 2 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Thomson 2 4 0.011 -0.018 0.000 -0.008 0.112 0.024
Betemit 3 4 -0.031 0.000 0.000 -0.031 0.044 -0.176
Renteria 6 29 -0.057 0.000 0.014 -0.043 0.137 -0.014
Orr 4 7 -0.046 0.000 0.000 -0.046 0.088 -0.075
Moylan 3 0 0.000 -0.080 0.000 -0.080 0.000 0.000
Diaz 4 11 -0.104 0.000 0.000 -0.104 0.119 -0.079
A. Jones 6 25 -0.267 0.000 0.005 -0.262 0.174 -0.061
Davies 1 2 -0.040 -0.257 0.000 -0.297 0.166 -0.121
Sosa 1 2 0.024 -0.357 0.000 -0.334 0.107 0.111
TEAM 6
0.199 0.000 0.000 0.199
Starting Pitching
Player Gm IP Avg. P Tot. P WPA WPTP EO%
Smoltz 1 9.0 0.048 0.470 0.313 0.667 1.000
Hudson 1 6.0 0.047 0.138 0.132 0.955 1.000
Thomson 2 10.0 0.048 0.505 -0.018 -0.036 0.500
Davies 1 4.0 0.047 0.233 -0.257 -1.106 0.000
Sosa 1 5.7 0.048 0.360 -0.357 -0.993 0.000
Relief Pitching
Player Gm IP Avg. P Tot. P WPA WPTP EO% USG-T USG-A
Ray 3 3.3 0.006 0.054 0.054 1.000 1.000 -0.002 0.007
McBride 2 3.7 0.018 0.053 0.045 0.845 0.500 -0.012 -0.006
Villareal 3 3.0 0.010 0.031 0.031 1.000 0.667 0.006 0.003
Reitsma 2 1.7 0.009 0.018 0.016 0.881 0.500 0.006 0.003
Paronto 3 3.0 0.001 0.004 0.004 1.000 0.667 0.015 0.012
Remlinger 2 1.3 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.719 0.500 0.013 0.010
Moylan 3 2.3 0.007 0.021 -0.080 -3.845 0.000 -0.039 -0.042
Good and Bad Games
Player Gm GG GG% PG PG% NG NG% BG BG%
McCann 5 2 0.400 2 0.400 3 0.600 1 0.200
Smoltz 1 1 1.000 1 1.000 0 0.000 0 0.000
Pratt 2 1 0.500 2 1.000 0 0.000 0 0.000
Thomson 2 1 0.500 1 0.500 1 0.500 1 0.500
Jordan 3 1 0.333 1 0.333 2 0.667 0 0.000
Giles 5 1 0.200 2 0.400 3 0.600 0 0.000
Langerhans 5 1 0.200 2 0.400 2 0.400 0 0.000
C. Jones 6 1 0.167 3 0.500 3 0.500 0 0.000
Francoeur 6 1 0.167 3 0.500 3 0.500 0 0.000
LaRoche 6 1 0.167 2 0.333 3 0.500 0 0.000
Diaz 4 0 0.000 3 0.750 1 0.250 1 0.250
Ray 3 0 0.000 3 1.000 0 0.000 0 0.000
Renteria 6 0 0.000 3 0.500 3 0.500 1 0.167
A. Jones 6 0 0.000 2 0.333 4 0.667 1 0.167
Villareal 3 0 0.000 2 0.667 0 0.000 0 0.000
Betemit 3 0 0.000 1 0.333 2 0.667 0 0.000
Hudson 1 0 0.000 1 1.000 0 0.000 0 0.000
McBride 2 0 0.000 1 0.500 1 0.500 0 0.000
Reitsma 2 0 0.000 1 0.500 1 0.500 0 0.000
Remlinger 2 0 0.000 1 0.500 1 0.500 0 0.000
Davies 1 0 0.000 0 0.000 1 1.000 1 1.000
Moylan 3 0 0.000 0 0.000 2 0.667 0 0.000
Orr 4 0 0.000 0 0.000 4 1.000 0 0.000
Sosa 1 0 0.000 0 0.000 1 1.000 1 1.000
Player of the Week: Jeff Francoeur. I said last week that he needed to post a positive WPA week in order to prove he was out of his slump, so he did that and much more this week. He essentially carried the team, and Braves fans have to hope this is a sign of things to come.
Thoughts
1. In response to another of last week’s thoughts, Bobby Cox moved Brian McCann up to the 5th spot in the lineup (okay, it was probably just because he knew he was playing well, not because of my post). It’s too bad the move was made to switch him with LaRoche, since Adam has been the team’s second-best hitter in WPA this year, but it’s a start.
2. Edgar Renteria’s hitting streak came to a close, so now it’s easier to think about what he’s actually bringing to the table. The answer is: not all that much. As expected, he has been a poor defensive shortstop. His -.191 fielding WPA is last on the team, and that probably doesn’t capture everything. Offensively, despite his status as the NL’s second-leading hitter in terms of batting average, he has actually been below average, with a -.025 WPA. Either his hits have come at inopportune times, or they’ve been empty singles. My best guess is that it’s a little of both. Andy Marte isn’t exactly lighting it up in the Cleveland organization this year, but I’d still rather have him and $6 million to spend (and the Braves’ 3rd-best hitter in WPA starting at shortstop: Wilson Betemit).
3. Hating on Adam LaRoche has to stop. JC gave a solid treatment of this argument in one of his recent posts at Sabernomics. Sure, he’s slow, and he’s not great defensively, but he’s a decent hitter and shouldn’t be the focus of the Braves Journal readers’ anger. It’s easy to be blinded by the .221 average, but his .780 OPS isn’t terrible. I’d be much more concerned with the plight of Marcus Giles and the undeserved early-season accolades for Renteria.
4. Speaking of Giles, he might be breaking out of his funk. He posted the fourth-best week of any Brave, and he’ll need to keep it up in order to be a productive leadoff hitter.
This week should present another opportunity to gain ground on the Mets and Phillies, with the Marlins and Diamondbacks on deck for seven games. Here’s to being above .500 at the end of the week.
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