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Monday, August 18, 2008
Doh! Braves’ homers lacking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve talked aplenty about how much punch has been missing in the outfield this season. Well documented. But I wanted to have a look at some of the home run numbers team wide. I know it ain’t pretty, and I’m right.
Heading into this afternoon’s game against the Giants, the Braves ranked 13th in the National League with 108 homers. That puts them ahead of only the Dodgers (96), Nationals (86), and these Giants (68).
The 23 homers by Braves outfielders is worst in the majors, worse than the Nationals (33), worse than the Andruw Jones and the Dodgers (39), worse than the Royals (26) and Twins (25).
You have Jeff Francoeur way off this year (10 homers vs. 19 last year and 29 in 2006) and you have Gregor Blanco (1 homer) who’s not a home run hitter, getting a ton of starts in center and left field. You lost whatever punch you might have had in left field when Matt Diaz went down.
But wait, that’s not all, there’s more. At other positions?
Brian McCann is pulling his weight with 21 homers, which leads all major league catchers. He’s off the hook. Mark Teixeira and his 20 home runs moved on to Anaheim, and Casey Kotchman has yet to homer in his first 18 games here. Again, not really his game, but it adds to the power void, and it’s something the Braves have to consider as they put together their lineup for next year.
Chipper Jones, having the year he’s had hitting for average, has 19 homers, which puts him on pace for 25, which is in the neighborhood of what he had the two years he played only 109 and 110 games (21 in 2005 and 26 in 2006). It’s not shabby by any stretch, but it’s not him at his best in terms of power either.
But we’ll stop the picking on Chipper there, because with his next home run he’ll tie Eddie Mathews as the only player in baseball history to start his career with 14 consecutive seasons of at least 20 homers.
From there, let’s go down the line:
Escobar: 6 homers. Not showing the pop some thought he might have, a least not at this stage in his career, and not without Edgar Renteria reminding him that he’s got it (hey, that’s just my theory. And no I didn’t say a word about Brayan Pena).
Johnson: 9 homers. He’s well off his pace of last year when he hit 16. He’s hit nine homers in 114 games. He hit nine homers his rookie year in 2005 in 87 games.
Kotsay: 6 homers. At his healthiest with the A’s, he was hitting 15 in a year. It’s not the strength of his game but missed time with the back injury cost him here.
I think I got all the regulars. Greg Norton has four homers, Omar Infante has three homers, and Ruben Gotay two.
So what am I saying? Not only do the Braves not have many big boppers, the hitters they’ve got have not carried even their usual power load, and not just Francoeur, although he’s the most glaring one.
So go ahead and salivate over an Adam Dunn, or Pat Burrell or the free agent power-hitting outfielder of your choice, because the Braves need to add some pop this winter - either by signing or trade - or it could be another long offensive season.
I’m thinking Milton Bradley’s chances are as minimal as my gut instinct first told me when I left him off the list of potential free agents I wrote about over the weekend.
I’m thinking it’s not a good sign for Bradley that when I first mentioned his name today in the dugout, what immediately came to Bobby Cox’s mind was the story earlier this season about Bradley storming up to the press box to have it out with a radio announcer because he didn’t like what he’d said about him.
I’d forgotten about that one.
Anyway, surely this blog means the Braves will hit a bunch of homers this afternoon against Barry Zito. I’m fully prepared for that. Just know that I hit send on this thing before the game started.
OTHER THINGS: Gregor Blanco is out of the lineup today. He gave us a little revelation - once he figured out the proper English word for it (thanks Greg Norton), he has been playing with a bone spur in his right ankle for a couple of months. It’s been pretty sore and he’s toughed it out. Bobby wanted to give him a day to rest anyway but also because the ankle is an issue. I don’t think it’ll stop him from playing the rest of the way, but it might be affecting his speed to some degree.
Bobby was asked about Jo-Jo Reyes going tomorrow and he didn’t sugar coat anything about his desire to see Reyes get things turned around after his 0-5 stretch his last stint up here.
“I like Jo-Jo, but there comes a time when you’ve got to be on charge on the mound,” he said.
I thought some of you would appreciate hearing that.
Reyes will go tomorrow in New York, when DOB picks the team back up. As strange as it’s been to have this team out of contention this early, how weird is it going to be for them to go into New York without a ton on the line?
Spoilers now. And maybe that’s about as good a motivator team-wide as you’re going to find at this point. And the Braves are 7-2 against the Mets this year. Hard to imagine, isn’t it?
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