Braves Thoughts

"The Right-handed Billy Wagner" looked like a lost rookie last night blowing his first save of the year. After a clutch hit from David Ross to give Atlanta a 3-2 lead, Kimbrel came in and walked light-hitting Jamey Carroll, then wild-pitched him to second before seemingly settling in with some real gas. Kimbrel was locked in to "Give him the heater" mode as he got ahead of Casey Blake 0-2.

And then he threw him another fastball in the strike zone.  3-3 and the Braves lose in extra innings.

The Real Billy Wagner would have thrown Blake a slider in the dirt that Blake would have had to swing at thinking it could be a fastball. Kimbrel has a cannon, but he over-relied on it yesterday. And he didn't understand that he had two pitches to waste with Blake. There was no reason to throw him anything he could hit.

As Joe Simpson pointed out, Kimbrel then failed to back up the plate on the play at the plate. When the ball got away from McCann, it could have allowed Blake to get into scoring position if not for a lucky bounce off the umpire calling the play.

Walk the lead-off hitter. Wild pitch. 0-2 fastball in the zone. Spectator on the play at the plate.

Rookie.

There are going to be growing pains with Kimbrel and this was one of them. It will be interesting to see how he responds (and, to his credit, he responded well in the 10th inning. Kudos to Gonzalez for putting him back out there).

Other Braves thoughts:

* Jason Heyward got the day off to hopefully get out of his slump. It looks like Fredi's patience for the anemic offense is waning. We'll see what that means going forward. The line-up yesterday was interesting - I like Gonzalez batting second (though his OBP stinks right now) and Freeman is looked comfortable batting higher in the order.

* The ugly offensive stats: the Braves have played as many games (20) as any National League team (three more than some teams), but are 13th in runs scored.

* The Braves are hitting .230 as a team (14th best in N.L.) with a .297 OBP (16th in N.L. - last). The Braves are not getting on base, not getting into other teams' bullpens and don't have runs to drive in when they hit home runs (Atlanta is 4th in the N.L. in homers with 21 - which means it has 48 RBIs not directly associated with a batter going yard).

* The Braves have been caught stealing (6 times) more than they have successfully stolen bases (5 times).

* The Braves' bench is adding nothing to the offense. So far, Atlanta is 3 for 30 in pinch-hitting situations. Yes, they are hitting .100 in that role.

Individiually:

* Martin Prado is not getting on base from the lead-off spot (.278 OBP). The MLB average is .320 which includes everyone, not just lead-off hitters.

* Jason Heyward and Dan Uggla are both hitting under .200. Uggla leads the team in home runs, but also strikeouts (17).

* Chipper Jones is off to an okay start, but not the kind of start his spring hinted at nor the kind of start needed for the #3 hitter in a scoring line-up. If Chipper was batting 6th, his stats would look good. But 3rd? He has 2 home runs in 69 at-bats. McCann has 2 home runs in 65 ABs. That is the power of the line-up?

Add it all up and you get what every Braves fan knows - we can't score. And when you can't score, you don't win.