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How long before we bench Uggla?


Lou_Dog

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Since the beginning of the season I have been told not to worry about Uggla because he always starts out slow and will pick it up in May. Well we are over 3 weeks into May and so far this month he is batting .174 (which is even worse than his terrible April average.) My question is, when do we bench him or move him down in the lineup? If he doesnt improve by the time everyone is healthy i would bench him for a while and see if he can get his head straight. Move Prado to 2nd and Hinkse to left. At the very least we need to move him out of the cleanup spot.

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He's getting the night off tonight. Hopefully two days off in a row will help.

Regardless, the Braves are kind of stuck with him. They absolutely need him to hit as he's demonstrated over his career. Unless there's something physically wrong with him that they aren't disclosing (and with the Braves, that can't be discounted), there's no reason to think he won't turn it around.

He needs to get better. He can't get better sitting on the bench. Hitting him lower in the line-up... well, he's hitting 5th now, I don't think hitting him lower will really do much good.

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didnt realize you could erase posts on here. A little while ago there were 2 responses. Now there is 1. The 2nd response agreed with me and then apparently got worried about others opinion and erased it lmao either way, whoever the 2nd post was, how do you erase a post?

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didnt realize you could erase posts on here. A little while ago there were 2 responses. Now there is 1. The 2nd response agreed with me and then apparently got worried about others opinion and erased it lmao either way, whoever the 2nd post was, how do you erase a post?

at the bottom of your post and yours only you will get a delete/edit/reply buttons at the bottom right

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at the bottom of your post and yours only you will get a delete/edit/reply buttons at the bottom right

I just never realized erasing the entire post was an option when editing. Either way, whoever made the post needs to fess up lmao who cares if people disagree with ya or not

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Uggla is not going to get benched.

The team has attached to much money to him and have him tied up for 5 years. So the answer to your question/opinion/assertion is never.

He will work it out eventually, even if he has a bad year this season, he will eventually figure it out and hit over .200. He is pressing now because he wants to justify his salary, that causes him to stink a bit then he presses because his pressing isn't working.

Either way, he isn't getting benched. He will probably get days off more often if he doesn't straighten up, but not going to get benched.

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Guest Gritz

I posted this in the Pirates game thread in response to a poster who said that by the end of the year Uggla would probably hit his average career numbers.

It won't be in batting average:

Uggla is a career .263 hitter. He averages 585 ABs per season. He has had 189 ABs this year already, so if he has an average AB year he has 396 ABs left....

In order for Uggla to raise his current average of .185 to his season-long average of .263 he is going to have to hit at a .331 clip for the remainder of the year.

The man currently playing 2nd base for the Atlanta Braves isn't capable of hitting .331 for the rest of the year.

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You guys know me. I'm usually the last guy to turn on a player and I've not completely turned on Uggla yet but I am starting to wear thin. It's horrible for him right now but I enjoy his hustle and all out play and badly want him to seceed because IMO he's our most important hitter. Yes even more so than Heyward or McCann. I think for the Braves to ultimately get to where we want them to go Dan Uggla is going to have to hit and hit a lot and be the stud that makes the offense go. When he takes off the whole team will follow course.

One of Uggla's main problem was he was far too much away from the plate. Well now he's corrected that and has had some better at-bats and has hit some balls hard even though they have been caught. I think the last game I saw (Monday) he went back to just swinging at everything. My advice would be for him to just drop the leg kick for a while and forget about homeruns. Just focus on hitting the ball with his hands and just become a singles hitter for a while. If he gets that little bit of confidence going then all of a sudden it will just click for him but he needs some confidence and the best way for him to do that is to string together some singles.

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i know this isn't going to be popular but honestly dan uggla has just been very unlucky this year.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=3442&position=2B

if you notice he is actually striking out less this year then he has since 2006, but his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is an extremely unlucky .186

he isn't walking either though, that's down to only 7.8%

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i know this isn't going to be popular but honestly dan uggla has just been very unlucky this year.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=3442&position=2B

if you notice he is actually striking out less this year then he has since 2006, but his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is an extremely unlucky .186

he isn't walking either though, that's down to only 7.8%

You're right that Uggla has been exceptionally unlucky this season. However, he's also been bad on top of it. Check out Uggla's drop in LD% and the increase in GB%. That's the biggest reason for his overall drop in BABiP, and that's mostly due to pitch recognition. He's hitting the ball weakly, and it likely has to do with his walk rate going down. Because he isn't being as selective, pitchers don't have to pitch to him, Uggla swings at the pitcher's pitch, and either strikes out or hits the ball weakly on the ground.

Eventually some of those ground balls will find some holes and the line drives will find some gaps, and we'll see some marginal improvement. But he won't be the Dan Uggla that kicked the Braves' butts so many times until he starts seeing the ball better.

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They said tonight Dan Uggla is the worst hitter in all of MLB this Year...

Close, but not quite the worst.

Ranking by fWAR:

1. Chone Figgins (-1.2)

2. Aubrey Huff (-0.9)

3. Miguel Tejada (-0.9)

4. Dan Uggla (-0.8)

5. Orlando Cabrera (-0.8)

6. Hideki Matsui (-0.8)

Some big names on that list.

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oh this was to funny to pass up. Uggla can come out of his slump by taking nude batting practice.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/2011/06/07/countdown-tressels-fans-tebows-cuteness-frenchys-shorts/

In the midst of the Braves having a miserable time with their offense, it won’t make you feel any better to learn that Jeff Francoeur is having a solid season with Kansas City (.276, nine homers, 35 RBI) after hitting .340 in the final 15 games last season with Texas. Also, he recently took batting practice wearing only underwear and pink cleats. And yes, I know: His nickname is Frenchy. Via the Royals blog in the Kansas City Star, Francoeur cracked up his teammates when he wore only skivvies and pink spikes (which the Royals wore to raise breast cancer awareness). Then again, Francoeur also used to wear his “lucky turkey” underwear when he was with the Braves to help break losing streaks. Francoeur says when he played for a National League team (the Braves or the Mets), he told teammates he would try to help break a losing streak by taking batting practice in the nude — presumably in the indoor cage — wearing only shoes and batting gloves. His team scored 11 runs that night so it wasn’t necessary. Did a little research. For what it’s worth: The Braves had a five-game losing streak in August of 2008 when Francoeur went 4-for-5 against San Francisco in an 11-5 win. So I’m thinking: Dan Uggla has tried everything else. It might be time to break out the Victoria’s/Frenchy’s Secret collection.

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You're right that Uggla has been exceptionally unlucky this season. However, he's also been bad on top of it. Check out Uggla's drop in LD% and the increase in GB%. That's the biggest reason for his overall drop in BABiP, and that's mostly due to pitch recognition. He's hitting the ball weakly, and it likely has to do with his walk rate going down. Because he isn't being as selective, pitchers don't have to pitch to him, Uggla swings at the pitcher's pitch, and either strikes out or hits the ball weakly on the ground.

Eventually some of those ground balls will find some holes and the line drives will find some gaps, and we'll see some marginal improvement. But he won't be the Dan Uggla that kicked the Braves' butts so many times until he starts seeing the ball better.

good info, where do you get those stats? i can't find those.

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