What Needs To Change- At Least We Don’t Play Pittsburgh Again

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Let’s not be too pessimistic. 

In fact none of us were during the perfect home stand we just had. Although, that was just before getting embarrassingly bludgeoned by the Bucs and dropping the opener to the Phils.

Now that we plated 8 in last night’s contest against the Phillies and got the win (the 6 runs given up after an 8-0 lead is a little discouraging but this has been a rare hiccup in the bullpen lately) we have a chance to win the series tonight and go back home with our heads not hanging quite so low.

But what could we be doing differently? What could turn us around from being a 20-19 team keeping our heads above water and somehow behind the Marlins in the standings? Granted, we’re only 2.5 games behind and in May that doesn’t mean much. But it gets late early out there as Yogi used to say. 

With that said we need to see…

Kelly pick it up at leadoff- He’s not abysmal. He’s just not quite above average in the leadoff spot yet. Hitting .278, 4 HR’s (added one last night), 16 RBI’s, and even 4 SB’s. But the OBP is not too impressive at .345. What can Kelly do? Get more walks and strike out a little less to put it simply. He’s got 14 BB to 23 K’s so far. The 9 doubles are a good start but that number needs to go up too for him to be a true leadoff hitter. I’m knocking KJ but having a spark at the top will be a big boost to an offense that needs to get it together on a consistent basis. 

Tex be a cleanup hitter- In all likelihood this is the only full season Mark will be around. Personally I’d like to get our money’s worth before Boras ships him off to some big spender. Everyone likes to talk about Tex’s slow springs but it’s halfway through May at this point and .254, 5 HR’s, and 21 RBI’s is not pathetic but it’s not what your cleanup guy should be producing. Let’s just say it now, at least he’s not hitting .179 1 HR, 6 RBI’s (ahem). 

Diaz to get hot- Only 5 for his last 24. Although he’s been sharing some time with Blanco, who is hitting .309 and making a case for the return of the platoon, Matt’s 0-5′er against Pittsburgh is making his stock go down. While I’m talking about corner infielders, Frenchy needs to get the stick working again too. Last year he led the club with RBI’s and while .275 w/ 24 RBI’s is good enough for a lot of clubs… we all know Jeff’s potential. 

Braves start bringing ‘em all home- Although the Braves benefited from some timely hitting yesterday; during the first half of the twin bill on Monday the Braves left 15 runners on base. Now to be fair, 4 of them came at the cost of  Jurrjens’ whimpy pitcher’s bat, but that still leaves 11 men that the regulars need to bring home. Not to be too mean to Matt again but his 0-5 day was also responsible for 5 LOB’s. 

Hit the Road, Chuck…-I know we don’t have Mike Hampton or John Smoltz in the starting rotation but even Jo-Jo Reyes has been better than the guy who managed to go 11-4 in 2006. James has a 7.58 ERA out of 19 IP’s and is making more of a case to pitch in Kansas City by the All Star Break than to stay with the Braves through 2008. He’s at 11 BB’s to 17 K’s with a 1.58 WHIP and he hasn’t lasted more than 6 innings. In fact, the one time he did go six it was while giving up 5 runs to the Pirates. 

Other than that, it’s the same ol’ story. Win on the road and win one run games. I’m not gonna harp on this one because we get to hear Joe Simpson and everyone else with a microphone talk about it plenty. But look at the numbers; 5-15 on the road and 1-11 in one run games. Change both of those records to at least .500 and you’re looking at 16 more wins. There was actually a part of me that wanted to Phillies to score one more run last night just so we could win another one-run game. But that’s stupid. 

Let’s beat the Phillies tonight whaddya say?

 

Keep Choppin’

JB in ATL

 

 

 

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Filed under Braves vs Phillies

Tags: Andruw Jones, chipper jones, chuck james, Florida Marlins, jo-jo reyes, Kansas City, kelly johnson, Mark Teixeira, Matt Diaz, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Scott Boras