Dan Uggla missed only four starts at second base last season with the Marlins, so it was no small thing for him to sit out his second start in the past seven games as a Brave on Tuesday night.
That’s how deep Uggla’s slump has gotten. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez sat Uggla for the second time in a week to try to break up this hitless pattern he has going. “Just give him a little breather,” Gonzalez said, who did the same thing May 24 at Pittsburgh.
Since hitting a game-winning home run against Roy Halladay on May 15, Uggla went 4-for-47 (.035) with one RBI and no extra-base hits in 13 games. He knew he didn’t have much room to argue when Gonzalez told him Tuesday afternoon he was out of the lineup.
“It’s very hard,” said Uggla, whose season average was down to .178. “I don’t like not playing, but it’s what he thought was best for the team. I couldn’t talk my way back into the lineup today.”
Uggla went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts in Monday’s loss. He hadn’t hit the ball hard since Friday night against the Reds when he lined into a double play and came a few feet from a three-run home run, settling instead for a sacrifice fly. More often than not, though, he’s down in the count and not making solid contact.
“I’ve got to start hitting the gaps and hitting the ball out of the ballpark,” Uggla said. “Stop hoping for balls to find holes and just start hitting them hard enough to find holes.”
Uggla said there isn’t anything mechanically wrong with his swing or his pitch recognition, but that his timing is off because he’s not getting his front foot down fast enough and is then late on pitches.
Medlen ready to face hitters
Kris Medlen came away from a 90-pitch bullpen session Tuesday afternoon feeling good and ready to take the next step in his return from elbow-reconstruction surgery — a big one. Next up, he’ll start facing hitters in live batting practice.
Medlen will head to the Braves’ complex in Orlando to throw batting practice in extended spring training. If all goes well in six or seven sessions every other day or so, Medlen will be ready for a minor league rehabilitation stint.
“I’ve been anxious the entire time, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s getting close,” said Medlen, who underwent “Tommy John” surgery Aug. 18.
The Braves are building him up to return as a starter, which he would be on track to do by mid-to-late August. But if needs call for it, Medlen could return as a reliever as soon as late July to early August, Gonzalez said.
McCann trails Posey in voting
Braves catcher Brian McCann has made the National League All-Star team five times in his first five full seasons in the major leagues, but he has never been voted in as a starter.
In the first NL All-Star balloting released Tuesday, he was trailing Giants catcher Buster Posey by about 150,000 votes and was the Brave closest to first place. Posey had 785,314 votes to McCann’s 633,987.
Posey suffered a broken leg in a collision at home plate last week and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Even if Posey, the reigning NL rookie of the year and Leesburg native, wins the vote, McCann likely will make the team as a player or manager’s choice and could still start. The starter would be up to the discretion of NL All-Star manager Bruce Bochy, who managed Posey and the Giants to the World Series championship last fall.
Chipper Jones was second in third-base voting behind the Phillies’ Placido Polanco with 540,168 votes to Polanco’s 724,724. Nobody else among Braves was inside of 200,000 votes of the lead.
