Middle of Atlanta Braves Defense Has to Stiffen

The Atlanta Braves are four games deep into Spring Training. One of the things to look for is the interior infield defense of Swanson and Albies.

Truth be told, there are a bunch of things fans and media are scrutinizing this Spring with the Atlanta Braves. Heck, the coaches are still scrutinizing some of those same things. Can any of these guys be a legitimate ace? Actually, can we get a couple of dudes to pitch well and consistently? Third Base? Left Field? The entire bullpen? An infant sized stadium? These are all lingering and legitimate questions. But none more so than defense in the interior infield. For the Braves to improve, that has to improve.

When the name Dansby Swanson is mentioned around Braves Nation, the first, and only, conversation had is whether his bat will come around. When the name Ozzie Albies comes up, most want to talk about his speed and whether he’s ready to hit in the bigs.

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All of those things are important. But they might not be the most important for the Atlanta Braves to show the quickest improvement. That is on Defense.

Without drilling down into Pythagorean like numbers, one stat stands out immediately. Between the two of them, Misters Swanson and Albies, they had 23 Errors on the year in 2017. Dansby Swanson had 20 of them. Twenty.

While Albies did have three Errors in his short time playing in Atlanta, that should be expected from a rookie who spent most of his time north of I-285.

The point is that Swanson has to get better. Drastically better. One of the ways that the Atlanta Braves can show immediate improvement is saving runs and ending rallies with quality interior defense. Too many times last year an error kept a rally breathing and the wrong team paid for it.

You want to know how a team that has questions on the mound and at the plate can immediately show better stuff? Play better defense.

No baseball team, on whatever level, has ever been successful with shoddy defense coming from 2nd and SS. Ever.

Yes, Swanson needs to hit better. Yes, it would be nice if Ruiz, Camargo, or Acuna could, as well. It would be awesome if pitching were to become average. That’s not a joke. All of those things would portend a better record and standing for Atlanta in 2018.

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But get those 23 Errors down to single digits, and that could be good enough for a couple of wins. For a team looking to find nine games, and get to .500 this year, interior infield defense matters.