Here's why Braves' lineup is one of the deepest ever
How best to describe how astonishingly good the best-in-baseball lineup of the best-in-baseball Braves is?
There are so, so many ways to do this. Let’s start simply, shall we? (All stats in this article are through Monday's games.)
The Braves lead the Majors in home runs by 32 over the second-place Dodgers. They’re second best in batting average and on-base percentage and best in slugging percentage, but more importantly, they have the best OPS (as well as leading in the similar but slightly more advanced cousin of OPS, wOBA).
Do you like hot starts? The Braves don't just lead the Majors in first-inning runs (110); they have more than three times what the 30th-ranked Mets do (36).
There are so, so many ways to do this. Let’s start simply, shall we? (All stats in this article are through Monday's games.)
The Braves lead the Majors in home runs by 32 over the second-place Dodgers. They’re second best in batting average and on-base percentage and best in slugging percentage, but more importantly, they have the best OPS (as well as leading in the similar but slightly more advanced cousin of OPS, wOBA).
Do you like hot starts? The Braves don't just lead the Majors in first-inning runs (110); they have more than three times what the 30th-ranked Mets do (36).
Or, maybe you prefer something more modern. They have the best hard-hit rate, as measured by Statcast, and the highest exit velocity and best barrel rate, too. (Actually, they have the best hard-hit rate of any team season, dating back to Statcast coming online in 2015.) No team swings at more pitches in the zone; no team goes to the opposite field less often. They’ve done all that while cutting down their strikeout rate, too, from last year (third highest) to this year (23rd highest). There’s just so much to like here.
But there’s something a whole lot more fun happening than just all that, and it’s at the bottom of the lineup. Atlanta’s No. 9 hitters -- at the start of the season a daily rotation, but since late May primarily Michael Harris II -- have an .812 OPS so far. That’s not just the best of any team’s final-spot hitters, though it’s that, too. It’s better than 20 of the other 29 teams’ leadoff hitters. The Braves are getting more production out of No. 9 than two-thirds of baseball are out of No. 1, and now you see what’s going on here. |
The Braves aren't just strong at the top, or in the middle. They're strong at the bottom, too. They're baseball's deepest lineup -- and there's more to that than you might think.