The Atlanta Braves take on the Miami Marlins this afternoon in what could potentially be an offensive focused game based on the pitching matchups.
In the first half, the Braves’ rotation was their strength. That obviously is hard to maintain if five of your opening day rotation arms hit the IL. The Braves had a clear weakness offensively. Many games were lost even with solid starts from the rotation because the Braves’ offense could not keep up.
The Braves clearly cannot say the same about their rotation
now that it has been obliterated with injuries. Their rotation has been in the bottom ten in most major categories. Their offense on the other hand has had the opposite trend. Since the All-Star break only two teams have scored more runs than the Braves. If we want to get even more recent, they have been in the top five in the month of August in runs scored. The Michael Harris has resurgence been a large part of this, but he has not been the only one. Jurickson Profar has a 185 wRC+ in the month of August and Marcell Ozuna, Matt Olson, Ronald Acuña Jr., Nacho Alvarez Jr. and Drake Baldwin all have a wRC+ above league average.
Sean Murphy has been struggling, and in a lost season it continues to be a question on who will get more starts behind the plate. Murphy still has the edge defensively to Baldwin with seven DRS, seven FRV, top 6.0 percent in blocking, top 11.0 percent in caught stealing, and top 19.0 percent in framing.
This is not to say Baldwin has been terrible. He has a negative one DRS, zero FRV, top 34.0 percent in blocks, and top 38.0 percent in framing. He is in the bottom 13.0 percent in caught stealing though. All this is to point out that Murphy still has plenty of value to continue to draw starts. It is a good problem to have choosing between these two catchers.
Baldwin will be getting the start today and will be hitting cleanup. Ozuna will be getting the day off and Ronald Acuña Jr. will be getting his first DH start of the season. Jake Fraley will be making his Braves debut and will play RF, and Vidal Bruján will be getting the start at SS. Interestingly, Ozzie Albies is hitting fifth against a RHP ahead of Michael Harris. This could easily be in contention for one of the most random lineups of the year.
The Marlins lineup is also seeing a shakeup from last night.
The biggest differences are Lopez is moving up to second in the order, Myers will get the start in RF, Hicks will get the start at catcher, Hernandez will be DHing, and Wagaman will be playing first base.
No player has more than five at-bats against Wentz, but Dane Myers does have a .400 average against him in his five at-bats. Derek Hill is two for two against Wentz. Everyone else has either never faced him or has not been successful in their small sample sizes.
First pitch is at 1:10 EDT
