3 Braves That Need to Improve a Part of Their Game

The Atlanta Braves are at that stage of the season where Manager Fredi Gonzalez is starting to realize what his team’s strengths and limitations are.  Atlanta has a good ball club that does well in most the facets of the game, with the major exception being the burdensome bullpen.  The offense is much more consistent under new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer.  The base running is still sound but Andrelton Simmons needs to learn how to slide before he hurts himself.  Defensively the Braves are solid across the diamond, except on the pitcher’s mound.  Why is that a thing?  Even the rotation is starting to come into form.  It isn’t as strong as the 2014 staff but I like in nonetheless.

So at this point for the Atlanta coaching staff, it’s all about making minute adjustments to get the most out of their players for the rest of the season.  Sure, the bullpen still may need some wholesale changes but the team is still very much alive in the East and Wild Card Standings, 2.5 and 3.0 games back respectively.  Here are three Atlanta Braves that need to improve one facet of their game to help get their team over the top and seriously into contention.

Williams Perez needs to cut down on his walks.

Yes, you could chalk it up to youth and inexperience but Williams Perez is starting to walk a lot of batters in his most recent starts.  Perez issued 9 base on balls in his last 12 innings pitched.  He has more walks than strikeouts in his last two starts.  Williams has had to make more pitches in his starts due to these inopportune walks.  Sometimes he’ll issue a free pass to either the leadoff batter or when he’s in two-outs, nobody on situations.

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You don’t really want to see your starter walk guys when he is pitching out of the windup.  It can’t make pitching coach Roger McDowell too happy.  I like Williams Perez’s bulldog mentality on the mound and his breaking ball looks unhittable at times, but the walks could lead to his undoing in the rotation, especially if they are in front of great cleanup hitters.

Jonny Gomes needs to cut down on his strikeouts.

While I love Jonny Gomes’ leadership style and his ability to make great plays off balls striking the leftfield wall, I’m concerned with his hitting to some degree in 2015.  He is striking out too often for a veteran platoon outfielder (39 games, 119 plate appearances, 38 strikeouts).  It’s like he’s trying to do too much every time he steps into the batter’s box.  While he looks like his plan is to hit the ball with authority to the outfield gaps, he’s usually either ahead of the offspeed offerings or way behind on an 95+ fastball.

I’m not saying it’s Dan Uggla or Melvin Upton, Jr. bad, but Gomes’ timing is all out of whack in 2015.  The platoon might be getting a little tighter with Todd Cunningham’s decent play, Joey Terdoslavich’s recent call up, and when Kelly Johnson comes back from a bad oblique strain.

Mike Foltynewicz needs to handle the bat better.

While Folty’s start last night was a little shaky, he is improving when he takes the mound.  He has shown the ability to go deeper into ball games now that he isn’t walking batters as often any more.  Last night he surrendered a lot of tough break, weak hits.  So that was his first foray in trying to pitch strictly to contact in a MLB game, where he struck out only two and walked only one.  But Folty might want to start looking to improving his approach at the plate because it’s dreadful.

Foltynewicz is starting to put himself in a group of pitchers that have no idea how to handle a bat (Bartolo Colon, Ervin Santana, Tim Lincecum, etc.).  He had a good day at the plate in his first career start against the Reds with a two-RBI double, but since then he has gone 1-17 with 12 strikeouts.  I get it, he’s a pitcher. But he now plays in the National League since coming over from the Houston Astros organization.  You have to find ways to get the bunt down when the coaches call for a sacrifice.  It gives your team more offensive flexibility to have a pitcher that can at least make productive outs at the plate.  Alex Wood, who couldn’t hit worth a lick in his first year and a half with the Braves, is 4-19 at the plate for Atlanta this season with 3 sacrifice bunts.  If Wood can learn to handle the bat, so can Folty.