The Atlanta Braves had one of the biggest collapses in Major
League Baseball history in 2011, finishing the year with a record of 9-18 to
miss the playoff by one game to the St. Louis Cardinals. Going into the month of September the Atlanta Braves had one of the best records in all of baseball at 80-55, and had a
nearly 10 game lead over the Cardinals for the final playoff spot. The Braves actually had a chance to get into
the playoffs if they had won the final game of the regular season against the
Philadelphia Phillies, but lost the game in 13 innings as
Craig Kimbrel blew the save in the ninth inning.
After such a terrible end to the season, one would have
thought the Braves would have made a lot of changes to reinforce the lineup or
pitching rotation, but General Manager Frank Wren decided against that, keeping
most of the team in-tact while making some minor moves such as trading Derek
Lowe to the Cleveland Indians and signing Livan Hernandez and Juan Francisco as
role players for the ball club. With Tim
Hudson coming off of back surgery in the offseason along with the trade of
Derek Lowe, the starting rotation was wide open for some of Atlanta’s talented
starting pitchers in the farm system such as Julio Teheran, Randall Delgado,
and Mike Minor, along with other players such as Brandon Beachy and Kris
Medlen. At the start of the season the
Braves made the decision to go with Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurrjens, Brandon
Beachy, Mike Minor, and Randall Delgado, with Hudson coming back before the
All-Star break.
For some reason or another the Braves got off to a horrible
start to the 2012 season, getting swept by the New York Mets and losing the
first game of their series against the Houston Astros to start the year at
0-4. However, after that the Atlanta
Braves caught fire with their offense, winning 10 of their next 11 games to
bring their record to 10-5 on the year.
Since that time Atlanta has had spurts of success mixed in with poor
performances, with a record of 18-12 heading into a series against the Chicago
Cubs.
Two players that have stood out for the team to this point
are Brandon Beachy and Freddie Freeman.
Beachy has been the anchor for the starting rotation to this point in
the year, going 3-1 in six games started with an ERA of 1.62. Freddie Freeman has been the catalyst for the
team’s offense, making Atlanta Braves tickets a hot commodity over recent weeks
with a .291 average, six home runs, and 26 RBIs.
On the other hand, two players that have underperformed for
the Atlanta Braves this season are Jair Jurrjens and Brian McCann. Jurrjens has had a lack of command in every
start he was in as far as 2012, not giving up less than three runs in any of
his starts. After giving up five earned
runs in three innings against the Dodgers on April 23 he was demoted to
AAA. After a great year in 2011, Brian
McCann has had a sluggish start to 2012, only batting .237 with five home runs
and 17 RBIs.
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