Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Week in Review: Not Quite
Obviously this isn't a week in review post. I'm moving into my apartment and preparing to get married on Saturday, so it's been a busy week. I'll be tracking the games and hopefully updating the site before all the wedding stuff starts up Friday night.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Week in Review: May 15-21
The Braves did make it back to .500 this week, as I'd hoped, but an emphatic sweep of the Marlins was followed by a tough series loss against the NL West leading D-Backs. A 5-2 week isn't bad, though, and the Braves are very much in the division race.
Here are this week's stats:
Overall
Starting Pitching
Relief Pitching
Good and Bad Games
Player of the Week: Chipper Jones. When you're worth nearly two team wins over .500 by yourself, you know you've had a great week at the plate. He was 9-for-26 with 5 walks, a homer, and 10 RBI this week, making for a cool .951 OPS. Of course, you have to get timely hits to be worth +.857 in 7 games, and that was very much the case for Chipper, whose huge hits in Wednesday's and Friday's games made his entire week.
Thoughts
1. Chipper wasn't the only Brave helping his cause this week. Matt Diaz and five others would be potential PotW winners in a normal week. Seven Braves topped +.440 during these two series.
2. The downside of that is that the Braves actually lost two games, and three Braves had quite bad WPA weeks as evidence of that fact. Chris Reitsma's was the worst at -.628, but Oscar Villareal and John Thomson also took a hit this week. The bullpen looks worse than ever, and it's conceivable that Reitsma's week may have cost him the closer's job. The bullpen is a full 4 games below average for the season, which means that the Braves could conceivably be in first place with a league-average pen.
3. Marcus Giles continues to struggle, so it may be about time to pull the plug on him as a leadoff hitter. He is well behind all other Braves position players in WPA. Six of the eight starters are in the black, with the Langerhans/Diaz LF combo the only other position in the red.
4. Tim Hudson and John Smoltz have identical WPTP numbers this year. I would consider WPTP the most important pitching stat that I track, since it weights WPA based on the situations a pitcher has faced. Their .244 numbers mean that they have converted nearly a quarter of their total P faced into positive win probability. Based on my limited tracking of this stat (this year and last year), those numbers look fairly good, although maybe not quite up to ace level. Thomson is now barely breaking even at .008, and the others are barely worth discussing. The Braves need two starters badly. HoRam should be his usual below-average self when he returns, and that would even be a welcome respite from the disaster that Jorge Sosa has been so far (I still think he would be great out of the pen). Chuck James is my other suggestion as a sixth option (after Kyle Davies).
The Braves have six games this week, all on the road. They visit San Diego Monday-Wednesday, have an off day Thursday, and then head to Chicago to play the Cubs this weekend.
Here are this week's stats:
Overall
| Player | Gm | PA | Off | Pitch | Field | WPA | AV | WV |
| C. Jones | 7 | 34 | 0.887 | 0.000 | -0.030 | 0.857 | 0.267 | 0.098 |
| Diaz | 5 | 10 | 0.571 | 0.000 | 0.032 | 0.603 | 0.239 | 0.239 |
| A. Jones | 7 | 31 | 0.562 | 0.000 | 0.005 | 0.566 | 0.235 | 0.077 |
| Hudson | 2 | 8 | -0.041 | 0.603 | 0.000 | 0.562 | 0.189 | -0.027 |
| McCann | 6 | 22 | 0.558 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.558 | 0.196 | 0.130 |
| LaRoche | 7 | 21 | 0.516 | 0.000 | -0.020 | 0.496 | 0.177 | 0.139 |
| Renteria | 6 | 30 | 0.467 | 0.000 | -0.027 | 0.440 | 0.244 | 0.064 |
| Ray | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.120 | 0.000 | 0.120 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Francoeur | 7 | 32 | 0.090 | 0.000 | 0.009 | 0.099 | 0.192 | 0.015 |
| Orr | 3 | 6 | 0.096 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.096 | 0.220 | 0.073 |
| Sosa | 1 | 3 | -0.055 | 0.141 | 0.000 | 0.086 | 0.107 | -0.171 |
| Paronto | 3 | 1 | -0.027 | 0.058 | 0.000 | 0.031 | 0.115 | -0.237 |
| Cormier | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.016 | 0.000 | -0.016 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Smoltz | 1 | 3 | -0.131 | 0.095 | 0.000 | -0.036 | 0.171 | -0.255 |
| Jordan | 4 | 12 | -0.013 | 0.000 | -0.035 | -0.049 | 0.171 | -0.006 |
| Remlinger | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.062 | 0.000 | -0.062 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| McBride | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.087 | 0.000 | -0.087 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Smith | 1 | 1 | -0.032 | -0.088 | 0.000 | -0.121 | 0.221 | -0.147 |
| Langerhans | 5 | 22 | -0.213 | 0.000 | 0.039 | -0.174 | 0.162 | -0.060 |
| Pratt | 3 | 10 | -0.184 | 0.000 | 0.004 | -0.181 | 0.224 | -0.082 |
| Betemit | 6 | 9 | -0.270 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -0.270 | 0.179 | -0.167 |
| Davies | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.281 | 0.000 | -0.281 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Giles | 7 | 33 | -0.258 | 0.000 | -0.035 | -0.293 | 0.204 | -0.038 |
| Thomson | 1 | 3 | 0.026 | -0.504 | 0.000 | -0.477 | 0.103 | 0.085 |
| Villareal | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.553 | 0.000 | -0.553 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Reitsma | 5 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.628 | 0.000 | -0.628 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| TEAM | 7 | 0.214 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.214 |
Starting Pitching
| Player | Gm | IP | Avg. P | Tot. P | WPA | WPTP | EO% |
| Hudson | 2 | 14.0 | 0.048 | 0.844 | 0.603 | 0.714 | 1.000 |
| Sosa | 1 | 6.7 | 0.048 | 0.279 | 0.141 | 0.505 | 1.000 |
| Smoltz | 1 | 7.3 | 0.048 | 0.484 | 0.095 | 0.196 | 1.000 |
| Smith | 1 | 4.3 | 0.049 | 0.252 | -0.088 | -0.351 | 0.000 |
| Davies | 1 | 2.0 | 0.048 | 0.142 | -0.281 | -1.972 | 0.000 |
| Thomson | 1 | 5.7 | 0.032 | 0.301 | -0.504 | -1.672 | 0.000 |
Relief Pitching
| Player | Gm | IP | Avg. P | Tot. P | WPA | WPTP | EO% | USG-T | USG-A |
| Ray | 3 | 3.0 | 0.040 | 0.120 | 0.120 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 0.183 | 0.173 |
| Paronto | 3 | 5.0 | 0.029 | 0.113 | 0.058 | 0.512 | 0.667 | 0.143 | 0.143 |
| Cormier | 1 | 1.7 | 0.000 | 0.007 | -0.016 | -2.286 | 0.000 | -0.067 | -0.070 |
| Remlinger | 3 | 2.7 | 0.166 | 0.498 | -0.062 | -0.125 | 0.667 | -0.040 | -0.049 |
| McBride | 4 | 4.7 | 0.074 | 0.481 | -0.087 | -0.182 | 0.500 | 0.001 | 0.038 |
| Villareal | 4 | 4.3 | 0.060 | 0.241 | -0.553 | -2.298 | 0.250 | -0.121 | -0.131 |
| Reitsma | 5 | 4.3 | 0.104 | 0.520 | -0.628 | -1.209 | 0.600 | -0.071 | -0.081 |
Good and Bad Games
| Player | Gm | GG | GG% | PG | PG% | NG | NG% | BG | BG% |
| Diaz | 5 | 3 | 0.600 | 4 | 0.800 | 1 | 0.200 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Renteria | 6 | 3 | 0.500 | 5 | 0.833 | 1 | 0.167 | 0 | 0.000 |
| A. Jones | 7 | 2 | 0.286 | 3 | 0.429 | 4 | 0.571 | 1 | 0.143 |
| C. Jones | 7 | 2 | 0.286 | 3 | 0.429 | 4 | 0.571 | 1 | 0.143 |
| Hudson | 2 | 1 | 0.500 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Orr | 3 | 1 | 0.333 | 2 | 0.667 | 1 | 0.333 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Remlinger | 3 | 1 | 0.333 | 2 | 0.667 | 1 | 0.333 | 1 | 0.333 |
| McBride | 4 | 1 | 0.250 | 2 | 0.500 | 2 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.250 |
| Reitsma | 5 | 1 | 0.200 | 3 | 0.600 | 2 | 0.400 | 1 | 0.200 |
| McCann | 6 | 1 | 0.167 | 4 | 0.667 | 2 | 0.333 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Francoeur | 7 | 1 | 0.143 | 3 | 0.429 | 4 | 0.571 | 1 | 0.143 |
| LaRoche | 7 | 1 | 0.143 | 3 | 0.429 | 3 | 0.429 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Giles | 7 | 1 | 0.143 | 2 | 0.286 | 5 | 0.714 | 1 | 0.143 |
| Ray | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Sosa | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Paronto | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 0.667 | 1 | 0.333 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Betemit | 6 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 0.500 | 3 | 0.500 | 2 | 0.333 |
| Jordan | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.250 | 1 | 0.250 |
| Langerhans | 5 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 0.400 | 3 | 0.600 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Pratt | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.333 | 2 | 0.667 | 2 | 0.667 |
| Villareal | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.250 | 3 | 0.750 | 2 | 0.500 |
| Cormier | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Davies | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1.000 |
| Smith | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1.000 |
| Smoltz | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Thomson | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1.000 |
Player of the Week: Chipper Jones. When you're worth nearly two team wins over .500 by yourself, you know you've had a great week at the plate. He was 9-for-26 with 5 walks, a homer, and 10 RBI this week, making for a cool .951 OPS. Of course, you have to get timely hits to be worth +.857 in 7 games, and that was very much the case for Chipper, whose huge hits in Wednesday's and Friday's games made his entire week.
Thoughts
1. Chipper wasn't the only Brave helping his cause this week. Matt Diaz and five others would be potential PotW winners in a normal week. Seven Braves topped +.440 during these two series.
2. The downside of that is that the Braves actually lost two games, and three Braves had quite bad WPA weeks as evidence of that fact. Chris Reitsma's was the worst at -.628, but Oscar Villareal and John Thomson also took a hit this week. The bullpen looks worse than ever, and it's conceivable that Reitsma's week may have cost him the closer's job. The bullpen is a full 4 games below average for the season, which means that the Braves could conceivably be in first place with a league-average pen.
3. Marcus Giles continues to struggle, so it may be about time to pull the plug on him as a leadoff hitter. He is well behind all other Braves position players in WPA. Six of the eight starters are in the black, with the Langerhans/Diaz LF combo the only other position in the red.
4. Tim Hudson and John Smoltz have identical WPTP numbers this year. I would consider WPTP the most important pitching stat that I track, since it weights WPA based on the situations a pitcher has faced. Their .244 numbers mean that they have converted nearly a quarter of their total P faced into positive win probability. Based on my limited tracking of this stat (this year and last year), those numbers look fairly good, although maybe not quite up to ace level. Thomson is now barely breaking even at .008, and the others are barely worth discussing. The Braves need two starters badly. HoRam should be his usual below-average self when he returns, and that would even be a welcome respite from the disaster that Jorge Sosa has been so far (I still think he would be great out of the pen). Chuck James is my other suggestion as a sixth option (after Kyle Davies).
The Braves have six games this week, all on the road. They visit San Diego Monday-Wednesday, have an off day Thursday, and then head to Chicago to play the Cubs this weekend.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Week in Review: May 8-14
My apologies for the late post...I try to get these done by Monday morning for the new week, but graduation kind of got in the way. I think it's a good excuse, though. Anyhow, the stats are updated.
The Braves were 4-2 this past week against the cellar dwellers of the NL East, Florida and Washington. I was hoping for 5-1, but 4-2 isn't bad, and they're back to 6 games out of first place thanks to the Phillies' work against the Mets.
Here are the week's stats:
Overall
Starting Pitching
Relief Pitching
Good and Bad Games
Player of the Week: Jeff Francoeur. I said last week that he needed to post a positive WPA week in order to prove he was out of his slump, so he did that and much more this week. He essentially carried the team, and Braves fans have to hope this is a sign of things to come.
Thoughts
1. In response to another of last week's thoughts, Bobby Cox moved Brian McCann up to the 5th spot in the lineup (okay, it was probably just because he knew he was playing well, not because of my post). It's too bad the move was made to switch him with LaRoche, since Adam has been the team's second-best hitter in WPA this year, but it's a start.
2. Edgar Renteria's hitting streak came to a close, so now it's easier to think about what he's actually bringing to the table. The answer is: not all that much. As expected, he has been a poor defensive shortstop. His -.191 fielding WPA is last on the team, and that probably doesn't capture everything. Offensively, despite his status as the NL's second-leading hitter in terms of batting average, he has actually been below average, with a -.025 WPA. Either his hits have come at inopportune times, or they've been empty singles. My best guess is that it's a little of both. Andy Marte isn't exactly lighting it up in the Cleveland organization this year, but I'd still rather have him and $6 million to spend (and the Braves' 3rd-best hitter in WPA starting at shortstop: Wilson Betemit).
3. Hating on Adam LaRoche has to stop. JC gave a solid treatment of this argument in one of his recent posts at Sabernomics. Sure, he's slow, and he's not great defensively, but he's a decent hitter and shouldn't be the focus of the Braves Journal readers' anger. It's easy to be blinded by the .221 average, but his .780 OPS isn't terrible. I'd be much more concerned with the plight of Marcus Giles and the undeserved early-season accolades for Renteria.
4. Speaking of Giles, he might be breaking out of his funk. He posted the fourth-best week of any Brave, and he'll need to keep it up in order to be a productive leadoff hitter.
This week should present another opportunity to gain ground on the Mets and Phillies, with the Marlins and Diamondbacks on deck for seven games. Here's to being above .500 at the end of the week.
The Braves were 4-2 this past week against the cellar dwellers of the NL East, Florida and Washington. I was hoping for 5-1, but 4-2 isn't bad, and they're back to 6 games out of first place thanks to the Phillies' work against the Mets.
Here are the week's stats:
Overall
| Player | Gm | PA | Off | Pitch | Field | WPA | AV | WV |
| Francoeur | 6 | 28 | 0.702 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.702 | 0.151 | 0.166 |
| Smoltz | 1 | 4 | -0.028 | 0.313 | 0.000 | 0.285 | 0.078 | -0.091 |
| Pratt | 2 | 7 | 0.227 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.227 | 0.079 | 0.409 |
| Giles | 5 | 28 | 0.168 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.168 | 0.136 | 0.044 |
| Langerhans | 5 | 13 | 0.154 | 0.000 | 0.002 | 0.156 | 0.113 | 0.104 |
| LaRoche | 6 | 18 | 0.128 | 0.000 | -0.022 | 0.106 | 0.108 | 0.066 |
| Hudson | 1 | 3 | -0.033 | 0.132 | 0.000 | 0.098 | 0.093 | -0.119 |
| Ray | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.054 | 0.000 | 0.054 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| C. Jones | 6 | 28 | 0.069 | 0.000 | -0.022 | 0.047 | 0.166 | 0.015 |
| McBride | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.045 | 0.000 | 0.045 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Jordan | 3 | 11 | 0.040 | 0.000 | 0.001 | 0.042 | 0.118 | 0.031 |
| Villareal | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.031 | 0.000 | 0.031 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| McCann | 5 | 17 | 0.049 | 0.000 | -0.023 | 0.025 | 0.120 | 0.024 |
| Reitsma | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.016 | 0.000 | 0.016 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Remlinger | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Thomson | 2 | 4 | 0.011 | -0.018 | 0.000 | -0.008 | 0.112 | 0.024 |
| Betemit | 3 | 4 | -0.031 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -0.031 | 0.044 | -0.176 |
| Renteria | 6 | 29 | -0.057 | 0.000 | 0.014 | -0.043 | 0.137 | -0.014 |
| Orr | 4 | 7 | -0.046 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -0.046 | 0.088 | -0.075 |
| Moylan | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | -0.080 | 0.000 | -0.080 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Diaz | 4 | 11 | -0.104 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -0.104 | 0.119 | -0.079 |
| A. Jones | 6 | 25 | -0.267 | 0.000 | 0.005 | -0.262 | 0.174 | -0.061 |
| Davies | 1 | 2 | -0.040 | -0.257 | 0.000 | -0.297 | 0.166 | -0.121 |
| Sosa | 1 | 2 | 0.024 | -0.357 | 0.000 | -0.334 | 0.107 | 0.111 |
| TEAM | 6 | 0.199 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.199 |
Starting Pitching
| Player | Gm | IP | Avg. P | Tot. P | WPA | WPTP | EO% |
| Smoltz | 1 | 9.0 | 0.048 | 0.470 | 0.313 | 0.667 | 1.000 |
| Hudson | 1 | 6.0 | 0.047 | 0.138 | 0.132 | 0.955 | 1.000 |
| Thomson | 2 | 10.0 | 0.048 | 0.505 | -0.018 | -0.036 | 0.500 |
| Davies | 1 | 4.0 | 0.047 | 0.233 | -0.257 | -1.106 | 0.000 |
| Sosa | 1 | 5.7 | 0.048 | 0.360 | -0.357 | -0.993 | 0.000 |
Relief Pitching
| Player | Gm | IP | Avg. P | Tot. P | WPA | WPTP | EO% | USG-T | USG-A |
| Ray | 3 | 3.3 | 0.006 | 0.054 | 0.054 | 1.000 | 1.000 | -0.002 | 0.007 |
| McBride | 2 | 3.7 | 0.018 | 0.053 | 0.045 | 0.845 | 0.500 | -0.012 | -0.006 |
| Villareal | 3 | 3.0 | 0.010 | 0.031 | 0.031 | 1.000 | 0.667 | 0.006 | 0.003 |
| Reitsma | 2 | 1.7 | 0.009 | 0.018 | 0.016 | 0.881 | 0.500 | 0.006 | 0.003 |
| Paronto | 3 | 3.0 | 0.001 | 0.004 | 0.004 | 1.000 | 0.667 | 0.015 | 0.012 |
| Remlinger | 2 | 1.3 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.719 | 0.500 | 0.013 | 0.010 |
| Moylan | 3 | 2.3 | 0.007 | 0.021 | -0.080 | -3.845 | 0.000 | -0.039 | -0.042 |
Good and Bad Games
| Player | Gm | GG | GG% | PG | PG% | NG | NG% | BG | BG% |
| McCann | 5 | 2 | 0.400 | 2 | 0.400 | 3 | 0.600 | 1 | 0.200 |
| Smoltz | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Pratt | 2 | 1 | 0.500 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Thomson | 2 | 1 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Jordan | 3 | 1 | 0.333 | 1 | 0.333 | 2 | 0.667 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Giles | 5 | 1 | 0.200 | 2 | 0.400 | 3 | 0.600 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Langerhans | 5 | 1 | 0.200 | 2 | 0.400 | 2 | 0.400 | 0 | 0.000 |
| C. Jones | 6 | 1 | 0.167 | 3 | 0.500 | 3 | 0.500 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Francoeur | 6 | 1 | 0.167 | 3 | 0.500 | 3 | 0.500 | 0 | 0.000 |
| LaRoche | 6 | 1 | 0.167 | 2 | 0.333 | 3 | 0.500 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Diaz | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 0.750 | 1 | 0.250 | 1 | 0.250 |
| Ray | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Renteria | 6 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 0.500 | 3 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.167 |
| A. Jones | 6 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 0.333 | 4 | 0.667 | 1 | 0.167 |
| Villareal | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 0.667 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Betemit | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.333 | 2 | 0.667 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Hudson | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| McBride | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.500 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Reitsma | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.500 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Remlinger | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.500 | 1 | 0.500 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Davies | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1.000 |
| Moylan | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 0.667 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Orr | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 4 | 1.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Sosa | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1.000 |
Player of the Week: Jeff Francoeur. I said last week that he needed to post a positive WPA week in order to prove he was out of his slump, so he did that and much more this week. He essentially carried the team, and Braves fans have to hope this is a sign of things to come.
Thoughts
1. In response to another of last week's thoughts, Bobby Cox moved Brian McCann up to the 5th spot in the lineup (okay, it was probably just because he knew he was playing well, not because of my post). It's too bad the move was made to switch him with LaRoche, since Adam has been the team's second-best hitter in WPA this year, but it's a start.
2. Edgar Renteria's hitting streak came to a close, so now it's easier to think about what he's actually bringing to the table. The answer is: not all that much. As expected, he has been a poor defensive shortstop. His -.191 fielding WPA is last on the team, and that probably doesn't capture everything. Offensively, despite his status as the NL's second-leading hitter in terms of batting average, he has actually been below average, with a -.025 WPA. Either his hits have come at inopportune times, or they've been empty singles. My best guess is that it's a little of both. Andy Marte isn't exactly lighting it up in the Cleveland organization this year, but I'd still rather have him and $6 million to spend (and the Braves' 3rd-best hitter in WPA starting at shortstop: Wilson Betemit).
3. Hating on Adam LaRoche has to stop. JC gave a solid treatment of this argument in one of his recent posts at Sabernomics. Sure, he's slow, and he's not great defensively, but he's a decent hitter and shouldn't be the focus of the Braves Journal readers' anger. It's easy to be blinded by the .221 average, but his .780 OPS isn't terrible. I'd be much more concerned with the plight of Marcus Giles and the undeserved early-season accolades for Renteria.
4. Speaking of Giles, he might be breaking out of his funk. He posted the fourth-best week of any Brave, and he'll need to keep it up in order to be a productive leadoff hitter.
This week should present another opportunity to gain ground on the Mets and Phillies, with the Marlins and Diamondbacks on deck for seven games. Here's to being above .500 at the end of the week.
