Well, these last 4 games have sucked, but there’s nothing like taking a trip to Arlington to play a bad team and gain some confidence back. Wait…what was that? They’re good now? Well shit…
The Braves and the Rangers enter tonight’s game carrying the same record of 25-15. Thus far, it’s not only their record that has been eerily similar with these teams as the Rangers have had their share of pitching woes as Jacob DeGrom is on the IL and 4 other pitchers are on their 60-day IL. However, the Braves are playing the best game of “Hold my Beer”, especially after today’s news:
The 60-day IL list has now grown almost large enough to fill out an entire rotation:
Tyler Matzek rounds out the 60-day IL at a nice round number of 5.
Then there’s 3 more on the 10 or 15 day IL:
Factor all this in with the injuries that occurred during the first month of the season and it’s quite impressive that this team is 25-15. And yes, the same can be said for the Rangers as many of their prized possessions have spent time on the IL. And while it looks like the Rangers are on the mend, the Braves just keep getting hurt, especially in the rotation that will now have to find 2 starters over the next 5-6 games.
Braves vs. Rangers Pitching Matchups
Game 1: Charlie Morton vs. Cody Bradford: It will be Bradford’s MLB debut against one of the oldest SP in the game. In 7 starts at Round Rock, the lefty is carrying a 0.91 ERA and looks to be a guy that has just burst on the scene and they’re going to give him a go.
Game 2: TBD (likely Jared Shuster) vs Dane Dunning
Game 3: Spencer Strider vs. Nathan Eovaldi
Tonight’s Braves Lineup
The Braves need a win like I need a nap. Hope both happens!
I am not ready to blame the bullpen for our problems after seeing the difference between how the Jays played defense (taking hits away) and the Braves played defense (keystone cops-like). Yesterday’s game never should have come down to the closer’s effectiveness. All of McHugh’s runs were unearned. Looking at the team defensive statistics at Fangraphs is miserable. 28th in fielding percentage, 4th in errors, 24th in assists. Is this the Dansby effect we’re looking at? Or new rules? The Cubs defensive statistics are the polar opposite of ours.
Up to this point our hitting and pitching have masked the defensive issues, but games against good teams like the Jays are going to make them glaring. Unless we improve the defense, we will consistently lose close games against good teams. Bad defense will further strain the pitching.
Braves are dead last in Statcast’s Outs Above Average. That’s very telling.
Austin Riley and Acuña have been HORRIBLE.
There’s no question that Dansby was a better defender than anything we have now, but I don’t think it’s at all SS-related this year. Our OF defense has been really bad on pop-ups and borderline-catchable drives in the gaps. We’re throwing the ball all over the field, at all positions. Albies has been horrible if you go by my own eye-test (admittedly not an official metric) – I wonder what the advance stats say about 2B.
Braves picked up Dereck Rodriguez off waivers. Fringy starting pitcher, but beggars can’t be choosers right now.
Also of note, the Mets DFA’ed Seth Elledge yesterday.
Hard to win when your two “sluggers”, Riley and Olson, are absolutely lost at the plate. Take nut high 89 mph fastballs and make weak contact on the breaking ball a foot outside. So glad we moved Murphy down to fifth
Ozzie from the right side is as good as anyone in baseball.
Good thing we signed Charlie for this year, huh?
Danny Young is probably the odd man out to make room for Shuster tomorrow but that long relief work to save the bullpen the last few innings won’t be forgotten.
Recapped
I just think that a SS like Dansby can add defensive value to other positions especially ones adjacent to him (LF, CF, 2B, 3B). I’ll have to admit that Arcia has looked a lot better than Grissom (a noticeable difference), but I think it’s telling that a lot of problems we’re having are at 3B, 2B, LF. Watching balls drop that Dansby would never have let drop.