The Braves went 3-3 this week, losing the Monday-Wednesday series at Florida 1-2 but winning two of three in Colorado over the weekend. This puts them at 15-8, a half-game back of the Mets. This Week’s Stats First, we have the links to FanGraphs’ excellent game summaries and graphs: 4/23: Marlins 8, Braves 7 4/24: […]
Category: Braves
Langerhans shipped to Oakland
Well, that wasn’t exactly what I expected, but credit John Schuerholz at least for not always doing what’s expected. The reality here is that he had a guy who was hitting .049 on the season and a career OPS+ of 86. That won’t cut it in left field, even for one half of a platoon. […]
Did the Braves make a costly sacrifice?
One of the most hotly debated issues in baseball in the post-Moneyball era has been on the game strategy of the sacrifice bunt, but the validity of this common strategy has been questioned for some 20 years now, dating back to The Hidden Game of Baseball by Pete Palmer and John Thorn. Their use of […]
Braves wrestle the division from the Mets
The Braves went 4-3, starting the week with a so-so set of splits against the Nationals and Cubs, but then a series win in New York grabbed the East back from the Mets. 12-6 is a half-game off of the best record in baseball (the Dodgers are 13-6 and the Red Sox are 12-5), so […]
One less contender, perhaps?
The Phillies may have dropped off the list of NL East contenders a bit early this year after today’s “interesting” (read: “boneheaded”) move. Effective immediately, they will be moving Opening Day starter Brett Myers to the bullpen. Jon Lieber (11.57 ERA in 2006) will take his place in the rotation. I know the Phillies are […]
The Braves will need to hit in order to win
A week ago, the Braves’ lineup wasn’t fantastic, but they were at least hitting for power and posting a decent OPS. That’s no longer the case, so let’s take a look at the hitters and see what we have two weeks into the season. The following list is sorted by WPA. Hitting PA AVG OBP […]
Braves finish a successful second week
The Braves finished this past week at 3-2 after the rain washed out the middle game of the Florida series. They ended up trading blowouts with the Marlins after taking 2 of 3 against the almost totally incompetent Nationals. This Week’s Stats Here are some links to the WPA graphs of each game this past […]
Are the Braves really this Clutch?
One of the tried-and-true adages of the sabermetric (baseball research) community has always been that clutch hitting simply doesn’t exist. For years, statheads have tried to figure out if any player has a significant clutch impact vs. other players, and pretty much no one managed to prove it. Times have changed, and so have the […]
The week in Braves Win Probability
The first week of the Braves’ season went about as well as any fan could have hoped. They opened with a sweep of the Phillies and came home to take two of three against the Mets. Let’s take a look at it from the viewpoint of Win Probability Added, a fantastic stat that is tracked […]
So long, LaRoche
It’s been a while since I devoted a post to the Braves, but it’s also been a while since I’ve been excited about them. With GM John Schuerholz making short-sighted deals (throwing away prospects for Renteria, Wickman, etc.) and writing narcissistic books, I soured on management while the play on the field also declined. For the first time since I […]
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