Come on Troy, hit again!
With Chipper Jones and Martin Prado going down to injury, the Atlanta Braves’ weaknesses are being magnified. Bobby Cox has maintained that he needs Troy Glaus to be healthy and he needs his “right-handed” bat in the lineup. The Braves are a little left-handed for the most part. They do need right-handed batters to help hit against lefties. That is what makes Matt Diaz so valuable. He crushes lefties.
Let’s look at the good for Troy Glaus. He leads the team in RBIs with 69. He carried the team in May with a month that looked like this: .330 BA, 6 HR, 28 RBIs, .408 OBP, and a .534 slugging percentage.
That didn’t take long. Now, let’s look at the bad.
April – .194/.310/.292 – 2 HR, 9 RBIs; JUNE – .237/.364/.505 – 6 HR, 19 RBIs; JULY – .182/.312/.234 – 0 HR, 5 RBIs; AUGUST – .209/.261/.372 – 2 HR, 8 RBIs.
Combined – .206/.312/.351 – 10 HR, 41 RBIs in 4 out of 5 months of the season. That is terrible, folks. It is not the worst numbers in the league. But, the teams that have worse production are well out of playoff contention.
The solution with Glaus is complicated. He does not fit the bill of a typical platoon player. Check out his splits vs. right and left handers:
Against righties he is hitting – .243/.332/.406 with 11 HR and 48 RBIs.
Against lefties he is hitting – .233/.372/.405 with 5 HR and 21 RBIs.
The solution is not necessarily bringing Freddie Freeman up from Gwinnett or putting Eric Hinske in as a platoon partner. Glaus hasn’t really brought a big threat to left-handed pitchers.
One thing is certain, the Braves are having a hard time watching Freeman destroy pitching in AAA right now. He is hitting .311/.371/.514 with 16 HR and 76 RBIs.
Chipper Jones helped cover up some of the offensive deficiencies that the Braves have had in their lineup. With his injury, it makes holes in the lineup look even bigger. Luckily, Infante and Prado together in the lineup should give it a boost.But, the Braves do not have a big bat to drive in runs. That is what they hoped Troy Glaus would be. That is what he was in May and the first few games of June.
His defense is another aspect to the equation. He is a below average defender at 1B. According to Baseball-reference.com, he is a -4 fielding 1B to this point. He will have lost 10 runs through the entire season.
Does the Braves need for a right-handed bat make Troy Glaus necessary for the rest of the year?
He cannot continue to put up meager numbers and help this team get into the playoffs. The Phillies are getting healthy and getting better every day. The Braves are keeping pace and trying to make it to October. A healthy Troy Glaus would make that more likely. Troy Glaus of May would make that a certainty. But, the Troy Glaus of the other four months of this season cannot be tolerated.
The question is: how patient can the Braves be with Troy Glaus for the rest of the year? An NL scout recently said that he looks like he can barely move at 1B right now.
Original Story:
http://www.tomahawktalk.com/2010/08/d...
