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Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
207 comments Add your comment
Tom
August 12th, 2011
5:04 pm
bvillebaron – Did not say he would start hitting if he slams helmet or yells at someone, but it would show some form of spirit, life, and aggressiveness. Do not get too caught up in one year of majors(.280BA, 19HRS, 70RBI’s), that is average at most, not some superstar!
Thegratefulalive
August 12th, 2011
5:44 pm
@ Tom, actually those numbers are pretty good when u throw in the –.393 OBP, and that he did it in 500 ABs in his first ML season he started at the ripe old age 20
Randy J.
August 12th, 2011
6:00 pm
Loved this article!
Tom
August 12th, 2011
6:09 pm
Thegratefulalive – With all due respect to your opinion I disagree. An example – former Braves player(21 yrs old at that time), made it to bigs. Brought up middle of season 2005, played in 70 games, .300BA, 14 HRS. 1st full season 2006, played in 162 games, 650AB, 169Hits, 29HRS, 103 RBI’s, 132SO’s, .260BA, .293OBP, .449OPS. Also threw out numerous baserunners attempting to take extra base from RF. Yes, you guessed right, it was Jeff Franceour. JasonH does not compare favorably with Frenchy 1st year and Frenchy is considered good to decent by most. Some bloggers here consider him a flop, which I strongly disagree with them. Braves moved Frenchy after 4th season(when he refused to sign long term contract), even with good stats he put up. JasonH 1st year numbers are decent and nothing more compared to other players.
01HAWK
August 12th, 2011
6:50 pm
Heyward is at best an average outfielder. Does not have an accurate arm, although it is strong, nor does he catch the ball at the wall very well.
Constanza is a better fielder than Heyward. Heyward is the future and only 21 years old. If Chipper retires……………………We can put PRADO at 3rd and have an outfield of Constanza, Bourn, and Heyward.
I am hoping Georgie gets his knuckle fixed so that he can go back to switch hitting so that we can at least have a right handed bat in the outfield.
Georgie is only 27 years old. He should have at least 8-10 more productive years.
Constanza was voted the fastest player in the International League. He has made 4 ALL STAR Teams in the minor leagues. So it is not like this guy has not had success. It seems that when you are of small stature you tend to get overlooked. If he can bat .300 and steal some bases then he should have a long MLB career.
I believe we would have been better off with Constanza than Schaeffer or however you spell his name.
Tom
August 12th, 2011
7:16 pm
01Hawk – I completely agree, but JasonH needs help to become regular OF again!
lifelong Braves fan
August 13th, 2011
12:09 am
Jason Heyward has rated both years as a well above average defensive outfielder in right field. Both UZR and defensive runs saved have him rating well above average, and frankly, the naked eye backs that up. He has good range and an underrated arm to most Braves fans, mainly because it isn’t Francouer’s, who has one of the five best OF arms in the major leagues.
I love that Constanza is succeeding in the bigs, but it isn’t going to last, and Heyward is the better option. 45% of balls in play going for hits is absolutely not sustainable, in addition to the 26% of his infield groundballs becoming hits. Ichiro Suzuki, who has as many infield hits as anyone over the last 10 years, only has a rate of 13% for his career on infield groundballs becoming hits. It isn’t sustainable, and my fear is that this two week hot streak is going to encourage Fredi to continue playing him through the rest of the year and into the playoffs, when Constanza has zero history of continuing this pace. He hit 6 home runs in his entire minor league career, and already has 2 big league home runs. It won’t last, and before long, there is a better chance of the bat being knocked out of his hands rather than continuing to be a productive major leaguer.
Heyward’s major league OPS this year is .709, while struggling mightily and being extremely unlucky at the same time with his batting average on balls in play. Constanza’s career minor league OPS is .712. Who do you think is going to play better going forward? The human element of managing implies that Fredi should continue to play Constanza as long as he’s succeeding. I agree with this, because what kind of message does it send when you bench a guy who is currently succeeding. However, as soon as a mini slump comes, he needs to go back to the bench in favor of Heyward. Everything about Heyward’s past and Constanza’s past predicts that Heyward will be more successful in the future, and I hope that Fredi does realize this before it costs the team in the postseason.