Again, the Braves’ Dan Uggla pursues a weird slice of history
It might take more than tape to fix what ails Dan Uggla's bat. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
This not just in: Dan Uggla had a weird 2011 season. His batting average was .173 on the Fourth of July, whereupon he embarked on a 33-game hitting streak, the longest in Atlanta Braves annals and probably the strangest in the history of baseball.
So it shouldn’t come as a total shock that, in 2012, the same Uggla could join a select group of players, one of whom is the sainted Dale Murphy and another of whom is the rather famous George Herman Ruth, in another statistical oddity. At this moment, Uggla is tied for the National League lead in strikeouts (118) and walks (66).
According to Baseball-Reference.com, only nine big-leaguers have ever done that double over a full season: Babe Ruth (four times), Hack Wilson, Dolph Camilli, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, the aforementioned Murphy (in 1985), Jason Giambi, Jim Thome and the immortal Jack Cust. (Though it’s all but a given that Adam Dunn of the White Sox will lead the American League in walks and K’s this season. He’s way ahead in both categories. He also leads the majors in home runs.)
When the Braves traded for Uggla in November 2010 and signed him to a $60 million contract extension through 2015, they believed they’d invested in a proven run-producer. Over his first five big-league seasons he’d driven in at least 88 runs, and even last season, when he hit only .233, he had 82 RBI’s. Through 104 games this season, he has 50. Last season he hit a career-best 36 home runs; to date he has 12.
His batting average is .209, which is lower than it was a calendar year ago. (He was at .212 on Aug. 1, 2011, the day his hitting streak reached 23 games.) But get this: Owing to those walks, his on-base percentage is .346, only one point lower than Michael Bourn (who’s hitting .292) and Jason Heyward (.270).
The league-leading strikeout total might suggest that Uggla will swing at anything, but that doesn’t account for his league lead in walks. He has actually gotten better at not swinging. At least in that regard, the change in hitting coaches from Larry Parrish to Greg Walker/Scott Fletcher appears to have helped Uggla, who has already walked four more times than he did last season.
According to ESPN’s stats, Uggla is third among NL batters in pitches seen per plate appearance — 4.2o, up from 3.89 last season — and, per Baseball-Reference, his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) is a not-wretched .276, up from .253 last season. Trouble is, he isn’t putting many balls in play.
He’s waiting for his pitch, which is supposed to be a good thing, but either he doesn’t do much with it or his pitch never arrives. I say again: Weird.
By Mark Bradley
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167 comments Add your comment
Caseyatthebat
August 2nd, 2012
7:30 pm
Stinger2……..I don’t always agree with Clusters but, in this case, he is right on. By the way Sonny, Chipper just knocked in TWO runs……..please remove the egg on your face. Welcome back, hope you’re feeling well.
nobobfan
August 2nd, 2012
7:31 pm
You know what I LOVED @ Chip Caray’s grandpa? He was a ‘homer’…but he would ‘call out’ bad moves & crap players & not always kiss the company butt.
George Stein
August 2nd, 2012
7:34 pm
If the Braves were paying for his RBI numbers, they deserve this.
Many, including me, liked the trade but not the contract. Players like Uggla don’t age gracefully, and this is your proof.
RunninWithTheDawgs
August 2nd, 2012
7:48 pm
Uggla has not been good for the Braves and he continues to not be good for the Braves. He should be the next one to be traded.
Sonny Clusters
August 2nd, 2012
8:58 pm
Hello everybody, we hope things are going well for you tonight during this rain delay. As for us, we are enjoying some delicious Dairy Queen snacks. There is a little fella on here who wants to be our mama but we already have a mama to correct us and don’t need another one. We was wondering if Stinger2 shouldn’t blog about baseball and leave us alone? Having a little fella stalking us like that makes us a bit uncomfortable but we understand how he could be taken with a Clusters with our athletic skills and intelligence and strikingly good looks. They say that Madonna has a stalker a lot like that and it doesn’t bother her all that much because he has some issues that he can’t help.
Sonny Clusters
August 2nd, 2012
9:05 pm
We was filtered again. Our posts just don’t want to stick. We had just done some hero worshipping on the golly, gee, super! Braves. Now, we like baseball and we like the Braves but baseball players are not our heroes and we don’t feel like we have to approve of somebody just because he’s sporting a tomahawk on his chest. Uggla, for instance has hurt this team with his bat and though he went on an impressive streak last season he didn’t put the team on his back in September because they couldn’t win a single game when they had to. It’s good to see improvement but there is a pretty big hole at the bottom of the order and right now Janish is pulling away from the 60 million dollar man.
kral
August 2nd, 2012
9:11 pm
you’re a hoot sonny
Luscious Lucius
August 2nd, 2012
9:12 pm
“Run em out thar. One of these months Uggla’s gonna get out of that slump.” Fredi Gonzalez
Pay Martin Prado
August 2nd, 2012
9:14 pm
Pay Martin Prado. Make sure it is more than Uggla and for one extra year. Thank you, the fans.
DetroitBraves
August 2nd, 2012
9:48 pm
I think it’s fairly telling that Stinger2 ended his latest sucrose laden Clusters rant with “joint us”. I’ve always suspected he was smoking something.
To AlwaysWatchesGames, no doubt there are criticisms that can be made of advanced metrics but there are few weaker arguments than those based solely on the authority of “I know what I see”.
nobobfan
August 2nd, 2012
9:52 pm
Y’know…I’m thinking Chip Caray is trying for more “HATE” twitters than McCarver…which will be hard.
Granted, you are on Liberty Media play list…but you (& Joe) PRETENDING Dan Uggla is doing just “swell” is a f..ing insult to me & all the fans who KNOW whatt a drag Uggla haS BEEN ON THIS TEAM! To start the game with…who has highest avg. on team? (Ug) in the month of August..?..this being the 2nd is INSULTING!! Morons!!!
nobobfan
August 2nd, 2012
9:53 pm
Pay Prado 20 mill/year & give him Muscles Dan as a gardner.
DetroitBraves
August 2nd, 2012
9:57 pm
Heh heh. I stopped watching the Braves broadcast some time ago – choosing the other team’s broadcast on the Extra Innings package instead. I miss Chip’s insights. Well, not really but I did feel a wave of sickly nostalgia at nobobfan’s retelling of tonight’s analysis. I see some things have not changed.
DetroitBraves
August 2nd, 2012
10:00 pm
@nobobfan, isn’t there some story about Harry Caray after a dropped pop-up by a player born in a Central American country asking Steve Stone how a player that grew up in a place where the sun shines 364 days a year can lose a ball in the sun? I don’t miss listening to Chip but I do miss his dad and his grandfather.
Felix
August 2nd, 2012
10:01 pm
Sometimes I have to wonder if we are seeing the post-steroid version of Uggla. I often wondered the same about McOut. Uggla’s acquisition by the Braves has been a flop.
Mike
August 2nd, 2012
10:02 pm
Pastornicky stepped right up and put the ball in the seats a couple of nights ago and he works a lot cheaper.
Just sayin.
Joe Simpson
August 2nd, 2012
10:14 pm
May 31, 2012 Just watch, Dan Uggla will start killing the ball in June.
June 30, 2012 I know that in July Dan will go on a tear.
July 31, 2012 Very soon Uggla will start punishing opposing pitchers.
nobobfan
August 2nd, 2012
10:32 pm
yep “Detroit”..true story @ Harry…
He & son Skip are shaking heads over Chip.
I was psyched when Cip started calling Braves games (family voice, I guess)…But his BLIND loyalty to Liberty, Wren & the “mgr./fredi g” is disgusting to people who have followed the game a long time. In my case 62 yrs…when I could turn on radio by myself.
nobobfan
August 2nd, 2012
10:34 pm
Thank you “Joe Simpson”..Uggla is the ONE who will kill this team. Most of these guys don’t need a Fredi G moron to boss them. Just a guy with cahones to say..”Danny sit you lardbutt down…forever”
Sonny Clusters
August 2nd, 2012
11:04 pm
Well, those little flags in the outfield are for “championships” and Uggla is playing All-Star baseball. In fact, Joe said it was good to see Uggla is still hot after hit number two in two days. We was never one to brag but we could hit more than .209 without a bat. We was also noticing how pretty the bats are that Uggla uses and we was wondering if he is missing the ball so he won’t mess up the bat? One last observation tonight from a Clusters and that is the Braves need to shoot for the NLCS and not set their sights on a wild card. Last time they did that they went into an EPIC Collapse and we have not forgotten. We will say all this winning lately is pretty nice and when they face a good team we hope they can keep it up.
Sonny Clusters
August 2nd, 2012
11:13 pm
We was filtered again! Filtering a Clusters is like asking Picasso to work without paint. We may ask the ajc for our own blog so we can filter that little stalker fella. We hope there’s no pictures of us in his basement. We like baseball and we like the Braves but we don’t take what the front office says seriously when they tell us how lucky we was to have all that “championship” baseball in town for so long. Champions do more than lose in the first round to the wild card team Some real fans (read: stalker) probably wear Braves pajamas. Not us. Clusters sleep standing up. One more thing . . . Fredi needs to read Uggla’s latest baseball card and catch up on what’s happening. Right now, though, Fredi is tipping his hat. We figure he may be tipping it in Kansas City someday.
bulldogbubba
August 2nd, 2012
11:54 pm
cLUSTERS does need his own blog.You know most people can’t handle the truth anymore.Some people look at me and think I am fat.Well its the truth. You don’t see me crying.Now when a Braves player is playing poorly and Clusters says that statue could take their place thaat means they are allout SORRY! We have gone through it with Heyward , Chipper,and now Uggla this year.They need to sit Uggla down and let Prado play second for about a week and let the new guy Johnson play outfield.Seems he got on base a couple of times tonight and it takes Uggla all week to do that. Alright “nuf” said , will somebody pass the Chick Fil A.
Len Barker
August 2nd, 2012
11:58 pm
To those idiots who keep bashing Wren for signing Derek Lowe look at how many games the man won in three years here. Last year the Braves were shut out in most of his starts. They didn’t pay him to hit. What a bunch of morons.
john
August 2nd, 2012
11:59 pm
One of the worst trades EVER….this guy is not worth $60 million. I would wager there are lots of guys in the farm system who can hit and field better…GET RID OF UGGLA !
observor
August 3rd, 2012
3:15 am
You guys are stressing out way too much….
You need to enjoy a little bit of Michelle Jenneke…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMgmYutL9W0
NorCal Brave
August 3rd, 2012
3:17 am
I don’t see the Uggla situation quite as dire now that we’ve picked up Johnson. If Uggla doesn’t get it going, move Prado back to 2nd and play Johnson in left. Then, when Simmons returns we’ve got a solid lineup all the way up and down the order. Dan did make a couple of fly ball outs to right field tonight, which I take as a good sign.
Derrick
August 3rd, 2012
3:17 am
Dan Uggla is the Braves’ version of Rob Deer.
Derrick
August 3rd, 2012
3:37 am
I don’t know if Dan Uggla will eventually fall below the Mendoza Line (doubtful) for the season, but at this current stature, his current numbers as of right now are looking eerily similar to Rob Deer’s statistics from the 1991 season, when Deer was playing with Detroit at the time, at the age of 31 (one year younger than Uggla’s age at the moment).
In 1991, Rob Deer batted a horrendous .179. He hit 25 Homeruns and drove in 64 Runs. Deer struck out 179 times that year, and had an On-Base % of .314; a .386 Slugging %, and an OPS of .700.
Compared with Uggla’s current numbers, he is batting a miserable .210, is sitting on 12 Homeruns with 50 RBI’s, and has an On-Base % of .346; a .364 Slugging %, and an OPS of .710. Dan has also struck-out 118 times, thus far, which is right on-pace with Deer’s 179 times.
Uggla’s similarities may not be exactly the same with Deer’s, of course, but the way things are going right now, he has that deer-in-the-headlights look…
Ted Striker
August 3rd, 2012
3:45 am
Diagnosis:
1) He has a good eye
2) Slow batspeed
3) Jobu no hit the curveball? (Not sure about this one — haven’t looked at how he does)
Cure:
1) Dance when you go to the plate — distract the pitcher
2) HIt for the gaps if it’s in the zone
3) Swing for the fences — you’ve proven u have power
Ted Striker
August 3rd, 2012
3:47 am
btw, Derrick I liked the “deer-in-the-headlights look” phrase.
Careful…Mark Bradley will steal that from you because it’s a good one. Ha!
J-MAN
August 3rd, 2012
4:54 am
Right
Walker, Texas Ranger
August 3rd, 2012
8:02 am
where is Nick Green
Art
August 3rd, 2012
8:46 am
I think Dan Uggla needs to quit tapping his foot and close up the stance. He is to wide open and when he swings it seems he is stepping his foot in the bucket. The other thing he needs to do is to drive the ball to right center. Go a couple of games and just swing to the right only. It seems he is trying also to drive the ball out of the stadium right down the left field line.
Pippa's hiney
August 3rd, 2012
8:53 am
Art: 75% of hitters use open stance.
Nativebird
August 3rd, 2012
8:59 am
Funny…strike outs and walks weren’t what we paid this bust to do.
Marvin Mangrum
August 3rd, 2012
10:01 am
Sorriest 2nd baseman I ever saw. I would trade him for an opened can of partially used spam, and would not even say tata! It amazes me that this whatever he calls himself is still on this team.
Keith
August 3rd, 2012
10:06 am
I think he’ll break out. As a matter of fact, he usually has a big slump in most of his seasons.
I think we may be seeing signs of him breaking out. Break us out right into the playoffs, UGG!
Pangloss
August 3rd, 2012
10:34 am
Mike S – The Yankees have a guy playing 2B named Robinson Cano and the Red Sox have Dustin Pedroia. Maybe you’ve heard of them. I don’t care how much Uggla improves as a hitter, he’s never cracking the starting lineup for either of those two teams.
Gene
August 3rd, 2012
11:16 am
Uggla has shown that there is an inverse relationship between bicep size and ability to hit a baseball. Maybe Uggla should put away the curl bar and hit the swimming pool. A little flexibility might help.
DetroitBraves
August 3rd, 2012
11:37 am
I know looking at statistics precludes me from watching games and all, but according to Fangraphs Uggla is swinging at pitches outside the strikezone less than ever and swinging at pitches in the strikezone about the same as ever. Interestingly, his contact % outside the zone is about the same as it’s been the last few years. But within the zone he’s swinging and missing more than ever before. I’m not sure how to reconcile those things but to MB’s point that his BABIP isn’t too crazy, he’s just not putting enough balls in play, I think he’s right.
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August 3rd, 2012
12:01 pm
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Ken Stallings
August 3rd, 2012
2:16 pm
Not really weird, nor particularly difficult to observe. Uggla is being more patient at the plate and swinging at less balls. The problem is when he ID’s a strike, he swings recklessly. He swings so hard that he wheels around on his heels more than any other batter on the Braves roster, which is why Buck Baleu apparently called him a “weathervane with ears!”
It was a stark but quite accurate description. Uggla is strong enough to hit the ball out of the park without swinging so hard. A 400 foot homer counts as much as a 425 foot homer! Hitting the ball to opposite field counts as much as a hit pulled to left. When Uggla does more than reflect that understanding in batting practice sessions with Greg Walker (meaning applies it in the game like Walker wants him to), then Uggla will start hitting at the .250 clip (with a .380 OBA and a .420 slugging percentage) he is capable of putting up.
Then, he’ll be the kind of hitter the Braves are paying for, vice one who merits a contract about $11 million a year below what he’s earning!
Bill Donohoo
August 3rd, 2012
3:15 pm
Uggla, cut down on the swing
Uggla Troubles
August 3rd, 2012
4:16 pm
The trouble with Uggla is the price and expectations BUT….there are really only 3 or 4 better options at 2B in the majors. The real problem is that the Braves banked on MVP numbers from a position where that almost never happens. Outside of Sandberg, Morgan, and Utley, how many true 100 RBI guys were there ever at 2B? Move Uggla to LF and let him concentrate 100% on hitting and bring Prado to 2B. It’s at least worth a try. By the way…..I project Uggla for .227 with 25 HR and 80 RBI.
Not a Clue
August 3rd, 2012
4:45 pm
I also hate the way he’s always tapping his foot while batting. But I bet he doesn’t even know he’s doing it. It’s a reflex, something he has been doing forever. Not saying it’s right or wrong. What I am saying, is it his toe tapping, his big arms or his vision? Whatever it is, he best do what he’s paid the big bucks to do.
flagger
August 3rd, 2012
4:50 pm
when u swing like u r killing a grizzly bear every time, plus swing up rather than square, i would guess u r gonna strike out a lot. if u can’t hit a ball to ure off field then u r not much of a hitter, but like the infamous andrew jones he’s a pull hitter and thats just the way it is…
danno
August 3rd, 2012
5:40 pm
I’m warming up- rbis & a hit in 4 of last 5 games by next weekend I will be ablaze
Felix
August 3rd, 2012
6:11 pm
Maybe Joe Simpson was such a bad hitter that to him Uggla looks like a Ted Williams.
captguitarman
August 3rd, 2012
7:16 pm
Sorry, but walking is not hitting. When you walk, the on base runner in front of you also walks, to the next base. The on base percentage is nice too, but walking is not hitting, and it is happenstance that you get walked if you are trying to hit the ball, even if you get walked a lot.. When you hit, that runner in front of you takes all he can get. Uggla does a great job at second base and with him out there, the Braves turn a lot of double plays. That’s reason enough to play him every game and get some production for that big pay check. He’s a streak hitter and he may hit a streak before this season ends, or maybe not. Let’s hope he does.
Luscious Lucius
August 3rd, 2012
7:34 pm
Joe Simpson was a turrible hitter. He and Mario Mendoza are brothers…