Hello Jake, In recent years, there has been a debate about who would best fits number 2 in the batting order. I say that Albies has been the best one. Others often have not done as well. I have been a Braves fan since 1989. I missed keeping up with them a few years and then came back. I have always watched them on TV. Now I get a chance to see them in person on May 1st. I live about two hours from Seattle. I was hoping to see Lopez pitch. But Sales is good. I am glad to Albies back though.
I'm with you, Jake. I don't usually let regular season losses upset me but games like Saturday night are tough As for the balls, I saw some Mets fans saying the same thing after their game against Yamomato
Acuna's exit velocity has only been 91.0 mph so far, while his career average has been 92.3 mph. On top of that his launch angle has only been 7.0 degrees so far while his career average is 12.0 degrees. Last year he had a career low 7.4 degrees of launch angle, but he also hit the ball at a career high 94.7 mph on average, so Acuna can't have it both ways, either he has to increase his launch angle or has to hit the ball harder. Until that starts to happen, he won't be highly productive, because being 5th on the team in exit velo isn't doing anything for him. It's surprising that Harris is as productive as he has been, but xwOBA suggest that Acuna should be the one that is more productive of the 2.
He’s been hitting the ball harder as of late, a lot of the early data is bringing the average down. I’ve been keeping a close eye on every batted ball of his lol. The bigger difference in my opinion that I think you’re trying to allude to is he traded strikeouts for batted balls last year. Had a high ground ball rate last year but the more he hit them the more would find holes. He’s now striking out back at what he used to pre 2023. Anyway, his quality of contact has been going up. As Jake said, it was really encouraging to see he hit a fastball 111 mph back up the middle. That’s the pitch he’s struggling with the most. Hopefully we’ll see him build off of it bc I think timing up the fb is ultimately key to him getting going and staying going
@@Kristingail How much as of late? Because his exit velocity over the past week is up just 0.2 mph to 91.2 mph. And if he is hitting hitting it harder over your said period, what is his launch angle over that time. Because it's only been 5.7 degrees this past week as well, so his launch angle has gotten worse.
Hopefully, we will have a successful road trip. Looking for pitching to continue to improve and shine. Hopeful that our offense will come to life, especially Acuna and Olson and to some degree Riley. Too many swings and misses. Go Braves 🪓⚾️
Leave it the way it is. This lineup produced one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history last year. The batting order is not the problem.
Nah. I let them figure it out. Don't want to take the guys at the bottom and put them in positions they aren't comfortable with and happen to take them out of rhythm.
I don't think the series was as close as the final scores indicate. The Braves won game 1 handily. Game 2 Cleveland benefitted from a LOT of luck to score those two runs in the 8th. Game 3 could have easily been a comfortable 4-5 run win margin if the conditions on the field were fairer. Olson and especially Riley SCORCHED a number of balls that didn't leave the park for whatever reason, whether it was the wind or the temperature, or because MLB is messing around with the baseballs again. I'm happy with the end result, but games 2 and 3 were very frustrating to watch due to how lucky Cleveland was and how unlucky the Braves were.
Am I the only one who thinks that for the 10th inning at the very least the ghost runner should only be on 1st base? At least make sure it goes to the 11th before they put him in scoring position. For 9 innings there are no ghost runners and then in the 10th they just bypass first altogether and put him straight on 2nd? It makes no sense. At the very least let them try having the runner on first for 1 inning before they put him on 2nd. I'm generally against the ghost runner period but if they are going to do it at least do it a little more incrementally and put him at first for the 10th before you put him at 2nd. Am I the only one who thinks that makes a lot more sense than just bypassing 1st altogether and going straight to 2nd?
I understand the thought, but I think that is too easy for double plays, so it could be a bigger disadvantage than advantage, so 2nd is what they chose
@@colinharrison5826 I mean... I guess but that's like saying in any inning a batter hitting a leadoff single is a bad thing. It's not. It's a good thing. No one is disappointed when their team gets a leadoff single in the 9th. The 10th should be no different.
Nah i feel like theres definitely some shenangixans going on with rhe balls. Looking at Sunday in particular, the one Ozuna smashed went to the part of the park whwre the wind should have been helping the ball not hurting it and yet it was srill caught. And for some of rhe others, you can jusr tell from the sound and angle off the bst that these balls should be leaving rhe yard and theyre just...not. Somethinf weird is definitely going on. Another tell, in the inning after Riley hit his warning track shot he caught a fly ball and afterward you could see him inspecting the ball. Pretty sure he suspects siomethinf was up.
I know you're a very optimistic person, jake, which I can definitely appreciate, but are you finally starting to worry about Acuna? Besides scoring runs, he's been just bad and looks lost at the plate this year. 26 games is a decent sample size.
@@iangrinols4370 no that's not what I mean at all. Everyone has slumps in MLB. What I'm saying is as long as his horrible slump is league average, there's a lot to be grateful for and we should give it at least another month or two before we get concerned that this isn't just a slump. I think he'll be totally fine. We gotta remember it's April. If we're sitting here in July and he's got an OPS in the .700s then I'll be concerned that this is gonna be his norm for the year. Right now I don't see any reason for that. That's just me tho and I agree I'd be interested to here Jake's take on it too
@weatheredseeker it's not necessarily the slump that's concerning. It's his at bats. His strikeout rate is thru the roof, and he can't seem to hit the fastball, which is usually just a timing thing that most likely will be corrected sooner rather than later. Once he gets his launch angle right, I'm sure the ground ball rate will also drop. Maybe I'm just spoiled after last year's performance, but he didn't have a good playoff series or spring training, and his start to this year has carried over. I'm sure he'll get right, but it's just been hard to watch
I was at game 2 and it really upset me to see Acuña Riley and Olsen all go Ofer. I don’t know what’s going on specifically with those three but we’re not going to squeak by every series like this. Eventually we’re going to have to get back to putting up runs early and we’re gonna need our top of the lineup ready to smash. Snit might need to consider bumping Ozuna up in the order for a while. At least Ozzie came back with a vengeance! 🤚🫱🤚🫱🤚🫱 Everydayer
