The ATL Thread: Avoid the Sweep Edition, 6:35 pm CDT

Dans needs a breather. Csn he get that average over the Mendoza line before the all star break?

Garcia needs to be on the bench permanently.

Would need to hit about .215 from now to the ASB if he plays every day to get to .200 so I would hope so.

Fangraphs: Freddie Freeman Is Now an Elite Slugger

quote:

---

Up until last year, Freddie Freeman was an example of just how good a hitter a player could be without top-shelf power. From 2013 to 2015, he was the only player in MLB to run a 140 or better wRC+ while posting an ISO below .200. He put up the same wRC+ as David Ortiz despite being out-homered by Big Papi 102 to 59, as his .351 BABIP helped him offset the relatively lower number of balls leaving the park. With a bunch of line drives and enough walks to keep the OBP up, Freeman became about as good a hitter as one can be while hitting 20 homers a year.

Last year, though, Freeman found his power stroke, launching 34 home runs and running a .267 ISO, eighth-best in baseball. While he sacrificed a little bit of contact to get there, raising his strikeout rate to 25% in the process, he continued to torch the baseball even when it didn’t leave the field, allowing him to run a .370 BABIP that kept his BA and OBP up even while the strikeouts increased a little bit. His 152 wRC+ was the best of his career and tied him with Miguel Cabrera for the sixth-highest mark of any hitter in 2016. And after the first couple of weeks of 2017, that looks less like a career year and more like what we should start to expect from Freeman going forward.

---

quote:

---

And there’s nothing in his batted ball profile to suggest the power is going back to where it was a few years ago. Freeman’s 95.3 mph average exit velocity is second only to Miguel Cabrera this year, and he’s fifth on exit velocity on balls in the air, so he’s not just inflating that by hitting high-EV grounders that don’t do a lot of damage. As Tony noted in his first base write-up over the winter, Freeman’s 2016 batted ball profile suggested that his breakout wasn’t a fluke.

---

Over the last 365 days (4/19/16 to 4/19/17) Freeman's wRC+ was 168, second only to Mike Trout (180).

Will Blair be our long reliever? I am interested to see what he can do out of the pen tho.

Comparison of splits:

Adonis Garcia MLB career:
vs. R: .668 OPS (76 wRC+), 597 PA
vs. L: .854 OPS (129 wRC+), 220 PA

Rio Ruiz 2016 (AAA):
vs. R: .833 OPS (wRC+ not available), 347 AB
vs. L: .522 OPS (wRC+ not available, 118 AB

I had to use AB for Ruiz because I didn't see PA on the MiLB website. I wouldn't mind calling up Ruiz and platooning him with Garcia at third. DFAing Bonifacio could be the corresponding move.

quote:

---

I wouldn't mind calling up Ruiz and platooning him with Garcia at third

---

Didn't we just have this discussion, you can't call up a player not hitting over .200

I meant if/when he starts hitting in AAA, which I expect he will. If he doesn't start hitting, something still needs to be done. Garcia can't be in the lineup against right-handed pitching.

ETA: Could also consider platooning Jace at third with Garcia. Jace is still a below average hitter against righties, but not as bad as Garcia plus his defense is probably better.

quote:

---

His current ops is .572. That's fricking bad

---

Who are you talking about? Dansby or Ruiz or someone else?

It's early. If his hitting picks up, specifically against righties, then I wouldn't be against calling him up. Didn't he supposedly have a strong spring? Just like we aren't saying Dansby will suck forever because of a bad two weeks, I don't think it's fair to say Rio will never turn it around.