First Bravesologist Podcast

Here’s the first Bravesologist podcast as I promised. I’m new to the process so I don’t have many effects or anything yet, so the more familiar I get with it the better these will get.

I preview the upcoming series against the Philadelphia Phillies and review some numbers from the Braves’ stellar month of May.

If you have any pointers or suggestions on the podcast please let me know. I plan to make this a weekly occurrence, potentially bi-weekly depending its level of success.

I speak pretty fast, so listen quick!

Is Jason Heyward the MVP of the NL Thus Far?

20-year-old rookie Jason Heyward is the National League leader in OPS (.991). This is not something that happens every year, and you don’t need me to tell you that Jason Heyward is an extremely special player. The question at hand is, do you consider Jason Heyward to be the NL MVP over the first two months of the season?

He is currently .001 point above Jason Werth and .003 points ahead of Josh Willingham, but he is the leader in OPS nonetheless.

As Dave O’Brien of the AJC (@ajcbraves) points out, Heyward is currently 1st in NL in OPS (.991), 3rd in slugging (.568), 2nd in OBP (.422), 6th in RBI (35), 7th in HR freq (16.2 AB).

In terms of wOBA (weighted On Base Average), a statistic which stresses more importance on on base percentage rather than slugging, Heyward (.429) is just behind Josh Willingham (.433). This is incredible for a rookie, and it also speaks to how great of a hitter Josh Willingham has been. I was pushing for the Braves to go after him the past two offseasons but to unfortunately it never happened. But that is besides the point.

When looking at the current MVP candidates, it is hard to distinguish between any of the top ten. There are, however, players who have been more valuable to their team than others. Let me explain.

Both Jason Werth, the league leader in extra base hits, and Josh Willingham are in lineups that have had very good production from other hitters as well. For Jason Heyward, he has been nearly the entire offense aside from Martin Prado and some others here and there. His ability to come through in the clutch (.400 batting with runners in scoring position) also ranks in the NL top ten.

The Braves are 1.5 games out of first place and without Jason Heyward, it is hard to imagine them being anywhere but the bottom of the division. I am not so sure that you can say the same about Jason Werth or Josh Willingham, but that is purely opinion.

When you look at the rest of the hitters in the NL, it really does seem as if Jason Heyward has been the most valuable to his team’s success.

Now when you consider that pitchers have the ability to win the award as well, Ubaldo Jimenez is certainly making a strong case for himself.

Jimenez is the league leader in wins, batting average against, WHIP, and ERA. These are some extremely impressive stats, especially when you consider that his main competitors for these categories are Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum, two Cy Young award winners.

In terms of straight production, Jimenez is obviously the more valuable player. However, pitchers seldom win the MVP award and many are against them winning the award at all.

You be the judge, who do you think the NL MVP is through the season’s first two months?

Gwinnett Braves Starter Todd Redmond Throws No Hitter

Todd Redmond, a prospect with only the hope of being a backend major league starter, threw a no hitter tonight against the Louisville Bats for the Braves’ triple-A affiliate, the Gwinnett Braves.

The 25-year-old Redmond struggled at Gwinnett last sesaon, capturing just a 4.74 FIP and 4.41 ERA in 145 innings in his first triple-A stint.

Redmond struck out just three batters in his no-hit performance and allowed two baserunners, both via the walk.

This is awesome for Redmond, but you should not put too much stock into this one start. He has been having yet another rough year at Gwinnett (5.70 ERA prior to tonight’s start, although he did have a 5.38 K/BB ratio) and expecting much out of him in an Atlanta Braves uniform is not very wise.

Props to Todd for throwing the no-hitter, and although he may not be a star prospect he does provide the Braves with some more depth in the rotation and as we saw in 2008, pitchers can go down quickly and frequently.

The best part about this no hitter, is that the final out was Chris Burke. Yes… that Chris Burke.

Boog is Missed in the Booth

The past few years with Jon Sciambi, or Boog, as many know him, have seen some of the better broadcasts in baseball. His ability to introduce new statistics into the broadcast booth, mix slight humor with accurate calls, and work with Joe Simpson was simply great.

Take a look at this Baseball Prospectus article by Boog which was written in early February if you haven’t read it already. It is not only insightful for building better broadcasts, but he points out some solid reasoning on why the newer statistics should be more mainstream.

Unfortunately, Boog was not brought back to the Braves broadcast booth this season, and even more disheartening is the fact that he was replaced by Chip Caray, the son of former Braves announcer Skip Caray.

Chip is nothing compared to Skip, and pretty much everyone who has listened to the Braves in the past 20 years would tell you the exact same thing.

My question is, who thought it would be a good idea to bring Chip back into the every day booth?

Next to fans across baseball liked him in the playoffs. I watched those series with multiple Yankees and Red Sox fans last year, and everyone thought Chip’s calling was rather poor, to say the least. Chip makes fly balls to the centerfielder feel like they are home runs, insists on saying fisted at least four times a broadcast, and is one of the least original broadcasters in all of baseball.

I don’t necessarily dislike Chip as a person, I just don’t see what he does well as a broadcaster that would appeal to fans.

Sciambi’s talents as a broadcaster were not limited to his broadcast. He is a genuinely intelligent person who you couldn’t help but enjoy listening to.

I know, complaining about something while the Braves are winning may seem a bit odd, but baseball fans live with these announcers of the summer, and I for one would much rather hang out and talk baseball with Boog rather than Chip. In my opinion, as bad as Chip is as an announcer, this speaks more to a testament about how far ahead of the curve Boog is rather than Chip being behind the times.

You seldom see announcers try to advance the game instead of keeping it old school. I understand how an announcer would like to appease the masses, but Boog was doing what he thought was right, and eventually those who truly listened understood that. He didn’t push the new stats on the fans or the other broadcaster, but simply tried to help the general fan understand the importance of certain numbers compared to others.

Needless to say, Boog is truly missed across Braves Nation.

All NL East Teams Are Within 3 Games, Braves in Position to Make Move

The Mets, Marlins, and Nationals are all three games behind the division leading Philadelphia Phillies while the Braves are two and a half back.

Either this speaks to how good the division is compared to what many thought, or it speaks to how many flaws the Phillies truly have and how average the division is.

Prior to the season, the Phillies were projected to win the East by a majority of the baseball world. The prediction seemed rather accurate when you consider how much success the Phillies have had the past two years as they have made the World Series in both seasons and won in 2008.

The problems that I and many other NL East followers saw were a less than stellar bullpen with little to no depth, and a rotation with more back end types than front end. The injuries have been the biggest problem for the Phillies, but as of late it has surprisingly been their bats that have went cold rather than their bullpen blowing late leads.

It is only a matter of time until the Phillies get it together at the dish, but with Brad Lidge, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Madson on the shelf it is time for one of the other NL East teams to make a move on the Phillies.

The Braves are in prime position to do so.

With a series against the Marlins coming to a close and Tim Hudson on the mound against Ricky Nolasco, followed by a six game home stand vs. both Pennsylvania teams, the Pirates and the Phillies, the Braves have a big seven games ahead of them.

With a 13-6 record at home including six walk-off victories, the Braves have shown that winning in Turner Field is going to be tough for any visitor to do. The Braves put together a good series against the Pirates last week, and with Lowe, Medlen, and Kawakami going it sets the Braves up perfectly against the Phillies with both Hanson and Hudson getting starts against the division’s top team.

The NL East is all jumbled up right now and each team must recognize the importance of surpassing the Phillies while they are still rather injured. The Braves still boast the most consistent rotation in the division, making it easy to give them the best shot to hang around until later in the season than the rest of the 24 win NL East teams.

Atlanta has been playing great as of late, and the trend must continue through June, a notoriously rough month for the Braves season after season, if they wish to make the playoffs for the first time since 2005.