Saturday, July 2, 2011

Can It Get Any More Uggla?

Last night the manager of the Braves, Freddie Gonzalez, inserted Dan Uggla, into the sixth spot in the batting order, right behind Freddie Freeman. Dan struck out swinging the first three times up. The third strikeout was a double play because Freeman, who had walked, was caught stealing at second base. The next batter, Alex Gonzalez, hit a deep drive to LF for a double. McLouth was walked intentionally to bring up the pitcher, Jair Jurrjens, who struck out to end the inning. So far this year the Braves have stolen 25 bases, and have been caught trying to steal the same number of times. For a steal attempt to be considered successful, the steal must be made at least 75% of the time. The Braves are not a fast team. They have made an inordinate number of outs on the bases this year, and the manager just compounds things when he sends a runner. With a black hole in whichever spot the manager places Uggla, and the mistakes on the bases, the Braves still win, in spite of one of the truly bad managers to have ever managed a team.
The last time at bat it got even uglier as Uggla took a called third strike.

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