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Friday, May 23, 2008
For Braves, home is where sizzle is
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, this is getting ridiculous. Ridiculous in a good way, in an entertaining and interesting way for your correspondent and Crusading Everyman. But ridiculous nonetheless.
The Braves are 21-12 since April 17, the National League’s best record in that span, just ahead of Houston (21-13).
The only team in the majors with a better mark since April 17? That’d be the Central Florida outfit formerly known as Devil Rays (hey, I said it was getting ridiculous). Tampa Bay is 21-11 since April 17, while Boston is 22-12.
But anyway, we care about the Senior Circuit here, so back to the Bravos.
Atlanta got off to 5-9 start that had a few folks here on the ol’ Braves/MIB blog practically throwing souvenir bats through TVs, and some pleading for GM Frank Wren to start selling off high-priced parts and building for the future.
(Nevermind Bobby Cox’s teams had mediocre starts more often than not during the last decade or so of their 14-year division title runs. Hey, some people don’t want to know about the past, just this week, today, now dammit.)
(By the way, Atlanta hosts a four-game weekend series starting tonight against an Arizona team that’s going the other way, having struggled to a 9-12 record since its 19-7 start. The D-backs have scored a total of 10 runs during a six-game road skid, including just three runs in three games this week at Florida).
Anyway … where were we before the awkward two paragraphs in parentheses that we like to use on this blog?
Oh, yes, the Bravos’ split personality.
It’s not so shocking, at least to me, that the Braves would rebound from their slow start and be within 1-1/2 games of first place on May 22. I knew they were a better team than they showed in that odd first 2-1/2 weeks, when they faced a lot of adversity and didn’t handle most of it very well, including the brutal schedule, weather and the first few of their many, many injuries.
No, the component that’s inexplicable _ well, besides the fact that it’s still Florida leading the division _ is this crazy home-road dichotomy for the Braves, who have the National League’s best home record (20-5) and the majors’ worst road mark (6-16, a few percentage points worse than Cincy’s 7-18).
The Braves are on a tremendous 19-3 home surge in which they’ve batted .320 with a stingy 2.45 ERA. They’ve won 13 of their past 14 home games while averaging more than six runs per game in that stretch.
Meanwhile on the road, they’ve lost nine of their last 11 games, batting .240 with a 4.61 ERA in that period away from Turner Field.
Hey, the crowds have been great lately at the ballpark I refuse to call The Ted. But that doesn’t begin to explain why the Braves could pitch and hit so much better at home, in a ballpark that slightly favors pitching and is a far cry from more recently built hitters’ havens in Cincy, Philly and Houston.
There probably is no explanation (I asked a handful of Braves yesterday, and they basically said they had no clue). And you know what? It’s likely to start evening out soon. Almost always does, eventually.
Remember last year? It was the total opposite for the Braves for the first three-quarters of the season, when they were a road machine that played poorly at Turner Field and lost so many close games at home.
They turned that around late in the season and have taken it to an entirely new level this season.
They have a majors-leading 2.71 ERA at home (more than a half-run ahead of No. 2 San Diego), but rank seventh in the NL with a 4.30 road ERA.
The Braves’ league-leading .286 batting average includes a .316 average, .386 OBP and .474 slugging percentage at home, and .251/.322/.396 on the road.
“We just have to figure out how to get this feeling when we’re eating foreign food and sleeping in different beds,” said Chipper Jones, who was talking about road games, not trips to Japan. “We’ve got a lot of confidence going. Somehow, some way, that’s got to translate to the airplane ride wherever we go next.”
Both Kelly Johnson and Jeff Francoeur, in separate interviews, mentioned taking the teams’s home-white jerseys on the road to Milwaukee and Cincinnati on a six-game trip that starts Tuesday, even if just to hang them in the lockers.
They were smiling, but I think it’s something the Braves have seriously discussed, one of the slump-busting ideas you run into in baseball. Hey, why not? Whatever they do, they should retire the new road blues, if you ask me. Almost nothing but losses and injuries have happened in those jerseys.
Besides, if you stop wearing them now, they might even sell more at the stands and stores for the novelty factor (“Hey, remember when the Braves wore these jerseys for a couple months in 2008? No? Well, they did. I’m getting one, probably be a collector’s item….”) (That was my stab at fan-to-fan dialogue there. Pretty good, huh? No? Ok, anyway….)
Let’s face it, the jerseys, like all throwbacks and alternate jerseys that have pervaded in pro sports in recent years, are designed for one thing and one thing only - to make money. So retire them. I’d say retire the garish Sunday reds, too, but the Braves have played awfully well in those and apparently a lot of fans like them, for some reason.
(Me, I’m old-school all the way on unis. Gimme all-white pants with little or no stripes, simple logos and color schemes. Dodgers, Cardinals, Braves all have great uniforms. Dodgers made a tweak to theirs a few years back, some unnecessary shadow-boxing or trim or whatever you call it on the lettering around “Los Angeles.” Dumb move.)
OK, we’ve rambled incoherently for a few paragraphs, steered way off course….
It’ll turn around: That’s the point we meant to make. Or the prediction. The Braves are playing such good ball on this homestand, building such momentum and confidence, that the one-run game thing doesn’t seem so dire. Though they are still 2-12 in one-run games, you don’t get the feeling that right now that’s a concern for them like it was a week or two ago.
And they won’t keep losing three out of every four games on the road, just as they won’t keep winning four out of every five (or more, lately) at home. Just won’t happen.
This next road trip, to Milwaukee and Cincy, provides an opportunity for them to flex some hitting muscle, bang out some homers, and have their groundball pitchers succeed in environments that can be brutal on flyball pitchers.
Roger McDowell has done an outstanding job with this patchwork bullpen and the injury-plagued rotation, and the Braves have as good a groundball-heavy staff as you’ll find in the majors. They don’t give up many homers and have cut down on walks, which are two big keys to avoiding big innings and keeping your team in games.
This weekend: There are almost too many good factors in the Braves’ favor this weekend, to the point where you figure things can’t possibly go as well as the stats indicate they should.
Here’s what I mean: The Braves will play three consecutive day games beginning Saturday. They have the best day-game record (10-5) in the National League, and their pitchers have the best day-game ERA (3.11), and more than twice as many strikeouts (104) as walks issued (55) in those games.
The Braves also have the best day-game batting average (.303) by a whopping 20 points over the Cubs. And the best day-game OBP (.381), and the best day-game slugging percentage (.453)…. You getting the picture?
Add that to the home-game thing, and the D-backs’ road-game thing … well, it just looks too good for the Braves. No way they can sweep another four-game series. Too many things working in their favor.
Kelly’s turnaround: Talked to Kelly Johnson yesterday, and he said he believes his recent surge has to do with two things: Yes, he’s a bit more relaxed now that he’s out of the leadoff role and not worrying as much about taking pitches.
But even more than that, he said that an adjustment he made even before the move out of the leadoff role has helped him a lot. It involved taking the approach he’s used recently against lefties, being aggressive and keeping his shoulder in and not bailing out, and applying that to right-handers (the irony didn’t escape him, when I mentioned it’s funny he’s been used in a platoon some recently, playing against right-handers when he’s actually felt better hitting against lefties for some time).
If I had time to go over my notes I could explain it a little better, but I’m running late now, gotta get to the ballpark. Suffice to say, it’s working whatever the reason. Kelly’s hit .411 (23-for-56) with 12 extra-base hits and nine RBI in his past 16 games, after hitting .231 with six extra-base hits and 12 RBI in 91 at-bats in his previous 24 games.
Etc.: We might want to temper the first-pitch aggressiveness discussions for now, because the approach seems to be working for a lot of Braves.
They lead the NL with a .397 average (98-for-247) when putting the first pitch in play, including 12 home runs.
Kelly J. is 9-for-16 with two homers in those situations, Hoss is 15-for-29 (.517) with two homers, Mark Kotsay is 16-for-33 (.485) with five extra-base hits, and Yunel Escobar is 14-for-30 (.467) with three homers and 11 RBIs.
Couple others of interest to the denizens: Brian McCann has a .355 average (11-for-31) with two first-pitch homers, and Jeff Francoeur is 10-for-31 (.323) with a homer….
On a note of some concern, do you folks realize the Braves have only 10 home runs from outfielders? Only the Dodgers (9) and Nationals (6) have fewer among NL teams.
Kotsay and Francouer have four apiece to lead Braves outfielders. They’re getting no power and very little production in general from left field. But you knew that.
OK, a tune. By the brilliant young bard from Nebraska.
“WE ARE NOWHERE AND IT’S NOW” by Coner Oberst (Bright Eyes)
If you hate the taste of wine
Why do you drink it till you’re blind?
And if you swear that there’s no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you’re right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it’s salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on…
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we’ve been in between
The past and future town
We are nowhere and it’s now
We are nowhere and it’s now
And for a ten minute dream in the passenger’s seat
While the world was flying by
You haven’t been gone very long
But it feels like a life time
I’ve been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don’t advertise
I’ve been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide
I’ve got no plans in too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I’m always lost in thought as I walk a block
To my favorite neon sign
Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the juke box on and we hum along
And I smile back at her
And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned
Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it onto me
She said this one will bring you love
And I don’t know if it’s true
But I keep it for good luck
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