What’s wrong with the Braves
Despite the Atlanta Braves 6-4 win against the Marlins on Sunday, the Braves still are 3 games under .500 63 games into the season. With the question from many braves fans simple being why? There’s plenty of reasons that i‘ll dive into.
The first and biggest problem i see with this club is the lack of commitment, right now it looks like a completely different ball club, with the news of Marcell Ozuna, and several injuries including catcher Travis D’Arnuad and Cristian Pache it looks like most of the team doesn’t want to be there half of the time, They’re everything they haven’t been over the past few years, I think Grant McAuley said it best https://twitter.com/grantmcauley/status/1403541895024984065?s=21
Another reason is lack of production from the big guys such as Freddie Freeman, who is slashing .237/.353/.461 in the young season. Also some struggles early in the season with the big league club in MLB’s #11th ranked prospect Cristian Pache who slashed just .111/.152/.206 in 22 games with the big league club. Before his injury Travis D’Arnuad hadn’t done much.
It‘s easy to blame the bullpen with how awful they’ve pitched this year and it’s easy to see why. Chris Martin hurt for a few weeks early on in the season, the delayed resigning of Shane Greene, losing key pieces Darren O’day and Mark Melancon and not signing any replacements at all. The braves bullpen is 9-16 with a 4.90 ERA which is 26th out of 30 MLB teams.
Now lets look on the bright side. Through all the adversity this Braves team has faced, and all the topics we’ve discussed the braves are lucky to only be 3 games below .500. With all the braves struggling hitters there have been plenty of surprises. After the disappointing start from Cristian Pache, Guillermo Heredia has filled in that spot nicely and a lot better than expected with a slash line of .243/.319/.402 and 11 RBI’s with the club in 35 games. Austin Riley has emerged onto the scene as a star and an All Star candidate Slashing .288/.371/.495 with 12 homers and 28 RBI’s if you want to look more into Riley’s impressive first half check out this article from Skye (BravesFromLa) https://t.co/cAwZm2ljmF
This start certainly isn’t what the Braves have in mind, but a 30-33 record isn’t impossible to come back from and knowing the Braves you should never lose hope.