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Wednesday, October 4, 2006
McCann tops NL in couple of categories
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few leftover notes while still wondering what a usually sound baserunner (J.D. Drew) was doing trying to score on that play today against the Mets…
Braves catcher Brian McCann finished 11 points (and 10 plate appearances) shy of the NL batting title, but led the majors in two important hitting categories.
He led the majors with a .368 average (70-for-190) with runners on base and .471 (24-for-51) with runners in scoring position and two outs.
In the latter category, McCann finished 36 points ahead of Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols, whose .435 average was the second-highest in the the majors.
With runners on, McCann’s .368 nosed out American League MVP candidates Joe Mauer (.367) and Derek Jeter (.366). Freddy Sanchez (.364) was second in the NL.
Pittsburgh’s Sanchez won the NL batting title with a .344 average, ahead of Florida’s Miguel Cabrera and Pujols (.331). McCann’s .333 average would have ranked third if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
Folks, the 22-year-old catcher from Duluth is in some pretty heady company…
Another 22-year-old Brave, Jeff Francoeur, had 29 homers and 103 RBIs in his first full season. He hit a solid .320 (55-for-172) with runners in scoring position and batted .302 (31-for-102) with team-highs of nine homers and 33 RBIs in late-and-close situations.
Wanted to point out some of his good stats so I wouldn’t be accused of Frenchy-bashing when I point out that he swung at a major-league high 52.2 percent of first pitches, and no one else, not even Vlad Guerrero (49.2) was as high as 50.
In fact, other than those two free-swingers, no one else swung at more than 45 percent of first pitches in either league….
Coincidentally, Guerrero (11) and Francoeur (9) had the most errors among major league right fielders. Francoeur was second in RF assists (13) behind Colorado’s Brad Hawpe (16)….
Francoeur hit .248 (120-for-483) with a .278 OBP against right-handers and .292 (49-for-168) with a .335 OBP against lefties….
Chipper Jones led the NL with a .355 road batting average, with Florida’s Miguel Cabrera a distant second (.323)….
The Braves’ best in close-and-late situations? Andruw Jones (.349, 29-for-83) and Matt Diaz (.338, 22-for-65)….
Macay McBride was sixth-best among NL relievers in highest percentage of inherited runners stranded (79.6). Only seven of 49 runners he inherited scored….
Lefty hitters had a .181 average (19-for-105) against McBride, and right-handers hit .312 (34-for-109) against him, though it’s worth noting the latter stat improved significantly in the second half….
You might have already heard that broadcaster Don Sutton won’t be back doing Braves games on TBS in 2007, ending a run of 17 seasons with the network. The Hall of Fame pitcher was one of five TBS/Turner South broadcasters last season, and since Turner South was bought and absorbed by FSN, which is doing the majority of Braves games, TBS no longer had use for so many broadcasters.
Beyond that, I’m told that Pete Van Wieren might be doing radio only. Pete’s under contract with the Braves, not TBS. There was outcry among fans a couple years back when Pete and Skip Caray were taken off TBS and assigned to radio only _ so much outcry that both were back on TV by midseason….
I don’t know about the other TBS guys, who’s coming back n what roles, but an announcement will likely come soon about the arrangement for radio/TV next season.
As of Sunday, Fox Sports Net broadcaster Jeff Torborg told me he didn’t know yet what FSN’s broadcaster alignment would be for the 2007 season.
