For a World Series champ that didn’t gut its roster after winning, the Phillies have been very, very bad lately. The Braves have been nearly as bad, though, finishing their road trip at 3-6 and losing all three series 2-1. They played well enough to have taken two of three in Boston, which would have […]
Category: Braves
Braves Chart of the Day: June 19, 2009
Pitching philosophy has always been one of the more interesting aspects of baseball to me. Everything from a starter’s ability to pace himself to his ability to hit a certain location, from how his stuff is working on a given day to his pitch selection; all of it can have a massive effect on his […]
Braves Chart of the Day: June 18, 2009
They’re falling out of contention fast, but the Braves’ pitching staff is still fun to watch, for the most part. Below you can see the staff’s Wins Above Replacement for 2009. Javier Vazquez and Derek Lowe alone have totaled more WAR than the entire lineup combined. That’s probably not surprising, but I am a little […]
Braves Chart of the Day: June 17, 2009
Brian McCann is great, but Chipper Jones is still the Braves’ best hitter when he’s in the lineup. Last week was about as rough as it gets for Chipper, and he was still better than Jeff Francoeur was in Jeff’s three worst weeks this season, based on wRAA (weighted runs above average). These are Chipper’s […]
Braves Chart of the Day: June 16, 2009
Over the years, the Braves have had pretty good luck trading for Tigers pitching prospects. They’ve had at least one former Detroit farmhand in the rotation or bullpen for the last 20 or so years. Even though John Smoltz is gone, Jair Jurrjens is keeping up that tradition quite well in 2009. He’s probably been […]
Braves Check: June 15, 2009
The Braves are flat-out struggling. The rotation has held up very well and is certainly playoff-caliber, but they can’t seem to put anything together offensively. This week was especially frustrating, with a 3-4 record against the Pirates and Orioles, two teams that really don’t have playoff aspirations. The Braves are now fourth in the NL […]
Braves Chart of the Day: June 12, 2009
Today’s chart doesn’t need a lot of explanation. We’re looking at the type of pitches each Braves hitter has seen (through Sunday). Francoeur has seen the most fewest fastballs, followed by Anderson and Diaz, presumably because opposing pitchers know they will swing at virtually anything. Schafer, on the other hand, was probably seeing the most […]
Braves Chart of the Day: June 11, 2009
Relief WPA is the name of the game today. The bullpen has been fairly strong all year, and these have been the six most active pitchers in the Braves’ relief corps. Keep in mind that WPA is heavily dependent on the manager’s usage pattern. A pitcher who doesn’t often pitch in crucial situations isn’t going […]
Braves Chart of the Day: June 10, 2009
It’s been a while since I looked at Win Probability Added, since I’m not really keeping my own stats like I have in past years (I use Excel web queries of FanGraphs to get my data). No one would likely be surprised by the Braves’ leaderboard, which is topped by Jair Jurrjens and Chipper Jones. […]
Braves Check: June 8, 2009
Eventually, the rain-outs are going to make things hard on the Braves. They only finished 5 of 6 games last week against the Cubs and Brewers, losing three of them. The two-game Cubs split saw both games decided in extra innings, but the Brewers were fairly dominating until the late innings on Sunday. The Cubs […]