Sacrifice Flies

[Falconsfan567]

I saw a stat the other night that the Braves have only produced 13 sacrifice flies this year. That's 7 behind the 2nd worst team the Cubs who have 20. When you can produce sacrifice flies, can't bunt properly without getting the wrong baserunners out you are going to have trouble scoring runs as the Braves have had since the All-Star break. In Spring Training there was all this talk about how much Fredi wanted the Braves to focus on the fundamentals of baseball and doing the little things to win games. Add in the bazarrio amount of failed hit and runs and the Braves have to be fundamentally the worst team in baseball. That won't win playoff games.

[R.C. Collins]

I saw a stat the other night that the Braves have only produced 13 sacrifice flies this year. That's 7 behind the 2nd worst team the Cubs who have 20. When you can produce sacrifice flies, can't bunt properly without getting the wrong baserunners out you are going to have trouble scoring runs as the Braves have had since the All-Star break. In Spring Training there was all this talk about how much Fredi wanted the Braves to focus on the fundamentals of baseball and doing the little things to win games. Add in the bazarrio amount of failed hit and runs and the Braves have to be fundamentally the worst team in baseball. That won't win playoff games.

Not only is this an incorrect statement, it is a statement based on a simple sample of a specific stat chosen with the end point in mind instead of actually making a legitimate point based on a stat that is consistently and directly leading to loses. Could they have more wins with more success in these situations, sure, but the last time I checked the Braves are not losing games for long stretches because of not leading the league in sac flies.

The Braves have yet to be swept in a three game series the entire season and have not lost more than three games in a row all season either.

The "Fundamentally Worst" team in baseball does not stumble into what can easily be a 90+ win season and a playoff berth.

If they make it to the playoffs (and they will) they will win games.

[ugadawg]

Bourn, Prado, Freeman showed a perfect display of fundamental baseball the other day.

Bourn sgl

Bourn steal

Prado down in count force contact behind runner moving him to 3rd

Freeman rbi sgl.

While Prado did a great job of team baseball it doesn't go down as a sack anything even though he sacrificed himself and his own stats to be a fundamental team player. This is just one recent example, but I am sure many more could be found. A sac fly is just one small part of a big equation

[ATL Fan in the DMV]

Achieving JUST 13 Sacrifice Flies IS a problem. No, it isn't the sole reason why we are losing games (I can think of 5 big ones off the top of my head), but it goes a long way in explaining our inability to score runs.

To elaborate further, we haven't been able to score runs consistently for many reasons:

1) Our team OBP is considerably worse than it was last year. Instead of leading the league in OBP last year, we are near the very bottom. Hard to score runs without guys on base. We strike out too much and don't walk nearly enough. It is also one of the main reasons we hit so many solo shots this year.

2)We can't score runners on 3rd with less than 2 outs. Anybody who has been watching us play all year know this already, and our league-worst futility in that department since the ASB has only made it worse. This is where sac flies can come into play. Hit more of these with a runner on third, and instantly gain a run. Instead, we strike out, pop up, GIDP, or do something else equally futile.

3) We have too many holes in the lineup. Remember the 1st half version of Uggla and how he always seemed to come up with runners on? I do, and it sucked. Uggla kept hitting in the 5 spot...which saw the most RISP. Now we keep running into that situation with Gonzalez. Have you seen his stats with RISP? They are really, really bad. And with 2 outs? It gets worse. When Heyward gets going, Chipper comes back healthy, and McCann trades places with Ross, we instantly will become a better club.

Yeah, our inability to hit sac flies is disappointing, and it goes to explain part of the reason why we don't hit as well as we should with runners on. Hopefully, we improve in this area (along with the others mentioned here) going forward.

And yeah ugadawg, I was thrilled at that sequence as well. But that has been much more of an exception and not the rule this year for us.

[ugadawg]

There ya go Bourn came through for you.

[Falconsfan567]

Not only is this an incorrect statement, it is a statement based on a simple sample of a specific stat chosen with the end point in mind instead of actually making a legitimate point based on a stat that is consistently and directly leading to loses. Could they have more wins with more success in these situations, sure, but the last time I checked the Braves are not losing games for long stretches because of not leading the league in sac flies.

The Braves have yet to be swept in a three game series the entire season and have not lost more than three games in a row all season either.

The "Fundamentally Worst" team in baseball does not stumble into what can easily be a 90+ win season and a playoff berth.

If they make it to the playoffs (and they will) they will win games.

I wasn't just talking about sac flies. I was talking about sac bunts, moving runners over with ground outs. I was talking about all that stuff. Running the bases correctly. How many times have the Braves run themselves out of an inning because of horrible baserunning?

You would also guess that for as many sac bunts as Fredi has called for this year we would be leading the majors by a ton yet we aren't because we've messed so many of them up. How many bunt double plays have we had this year?

So for you to get focused on just the sac flies just because that was the title of my thread is inaccurate as well.

[ugadawg]

So for you to get focused on just the sac flies just because that was the title of my thread is inaccurate as well.

well in his defense that was your title. If you wanted to be more in depth then you should have chosen a better title.

[R.C. Collins]

I wasn't just talking about sac flies. I was talking about sac bunts, moving runners over with ground outs. I was talking about all that stuff. Running the bases correctly. How many times have the Braves run themselves out of an inning because of horrible baserunning?

You would also guess that for as many sac bunts as Fredi has called for this year we would be leading the majors by a ton yet we aren't because we've messed so many of them up. How many bunt double plays have we had this year?

So for you to get focused on just the sac flies just because that was the title of my thread is inaccurate as well.

Dude, not only was it your title, but it was your focus in your post!?!

You made the effort to find out the total of sac flies the team had and where they rank in the league in THAT category. You mentioned trouble with bunting in one sentence and never once brought up ground outs or performance in specific situations or base running. Don't try to correct me when there is nothing to correct. If you are thinking something then articulate it properly and don't leave us here to assume what you mean when you make a thread called sacrafice files and make that the main point of your post.

Also, your points taken into account, the Braves STILL have the second best record in the National League. I just love how people need SOMETHING, ANYTHING to focus on and complain about.

If this team won the World Series, half the people in this forum would find something to ***** about. They would single out a player for poor performance or the team for not sweeping the series. It is mind blowing sometimes.