Tag: Chart of the Day

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

I can’t seem to get over the Nate McLouth acquisition today.  Here’s a look at his career Runs Above Replacement by season. Fielding runs are based on UZR, but I’m not sure that any of the defensive metrics really like McLouth.  Then again, he seems to be getting to more balls this year, which has […]

This has nothing to do with today’s chart, but Melissa and I have been married for three years today.  Obviously she’s pretty special, since she puts up with all my sports stuff. The chart below in no way represents anything related to our anniversary, so don’t read too much into it.  What it does represent […]

After a rough start, Kenshin Kawakami had a strong enough May to fend off several potential challengers to his rotation http://74.222.134.170/stats.php?id=2 spot, at least for now.  I’m still not sold on him as anything more than a typical #4 starter, which probably makes him roughly the sixth-best Braves starter. Below, you can see how he […]

I’ve been feeling under the weather for a few days.  I think it’s allergies, but I really don’t know.  Anyway, I felt pretty bad yesterday and still do this morning, so I haven’t had the chance to post a chart.  We’ll pick things up again next week.

At times, Javier Vazquez has looked downright filthy this year, and I mean that in the positive baseball pitcher sense.  He mixes several pitches, throws them all for strikes, and misses plenty of bats in the process.  Last night was no exception, when he struck out the side in the first and fanned six overall […]