Talking Chop

I wrote some thoughts down last week in a post, and today seemed like a good time to crank some more out. Perhaps this will turn into a regular thing. The first thought on my mind is of course the complete offensive ineptitude of the Braves offense... not a hard thought to conjure up. Here we are a week into May and we still have three key players hitting below the Mendoza line.

With Jason Heyward on the mend that means every outfielder we're putting out there is hitting below .200. The outfield is where you're supposed to stick your big bats, your power guys. Nate McLouth, Matt Diaz, and Melky Cabrera have a combined 2 homeruns and 15 RBI. That's also the exact numbers for Troy Glaus, so as bad as Troy has been, he's still out producing all outfielders not named Heyward.

Is there help to be found anywhere? Would signing someone like Jermaine Dye work, or would he be Garret Anderson version 2.0. Many people point to Dye's late season swoon last year as proof that he's done, but like some players perhaps a return to his original organization would rejuvenate him somehow. Odds are that wouldn't work out for a number of reasons, least of all being that Dye is still asking for a salary north of $3 million.

Also, clear your mind of any chance of Jordan Schafer helping out. He needs to have a year in the minors, and short of seeing him for a cup of coffee in September, or in case of injury, we won't see him in Atlanta this year. With his propensity for strikeouts, he likely wouldn't be the solution either. There's no one else in the minors for the Braves who could help out this year, unless one of those journeymen at triple-A have a fluke year.

The hardest part of all this is that we have to play the waiting game. There are so many hitters who are not hitting, that replacing just one of them likely wouldn't solve anything. We have to be patient and wait for these guys to come around like we know they can. None of these players are .200 hitters, far from it, so eventually one has to think that they will figure things out and return to form. This is easier said than done, and right now there is a lot of tape that opposing pitchers can watch of ways to dominate the Braves hitters.

The game before Heyward got injured, he was intentionally walked for the first time in his Major League career. This walk came one at-bat after he had hit a homerun, and came with a runner on second base. The following batter, Melky Cabrera, promptly made an out. If I was an opposing team's manager, there's no way I'd be throwing to Heyward with runners in scoring position and a base open. Here's a fun stat:  Jason Heyward has a higher percentage of RBIs for his team than any other player in baseball. Almost one-fourth of the RBIs on the Braves belong to Heyward. I know I called Martin Prado the April hitting MVP for the Braves last week, but I may need to take that back and replace Prado with Heyward. At least at this point, there's no doubt that Heyward has been by far the most valuable hitter on the Braves.

As for the other hitters; wait and see, that's all we've got right now.

At first blush one might be a bit mystified as to why Kris Medlen was chosen to fill in for Jair Jurrjens over Jonny Venters. Saturday's spot-start will be against the Phillies who have three key left-handed hitters who would likely be rendered less effective by Venters, but Meds is actually far more effective against left-handed hitters (.179 batting average against) than against right-handed hitters (.323 BAA) in his career. With Medlen being the more experienced Major Leaguer, that will help him be more prepared for this spot start and will leave an additional lefty in the bullpen to neutralize the middle of the Philly order late in the game.

The Braves may then choose to skip Medlen the following Thursday because of an off-day in the schedule, but if they don't choose to skip him he could make another start against the Diamondbacks on the 14th, which has a lineup dominated by left-handed hitters.

The script for this year is eerily similar to last year; good pitching, but no hitting early in the season. Somehow the team found their way out of their hitting morass last year, unfortunately it was a little too late. I'm starting to get worried about how they are going to find their way out of it this year.