The Atlanta Braves have looked far from the juggernaut they were through the first four months so far in August, and these players deserve some blame.
In the grand scheme of things, the Atlanta Braves are fine. Sitting at 72-41, they have the best record in baseball and a 10-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. They're a virtual lock to make the playoffs and should be able to contend for a World Series… as long as they don't keep playing like they have at the start of August.
The Braves started out August with three straight wins, two over the Angels and taking their series-opener against the Cubs 8-0. But the wheels have fallen off by the standards for Brian Snitker's team since then, going 2-4 with a pair of losses in Chicago and then splitting a four-game series to the lowly Pirates, punctuated by a 7-5 loss on Thursday.
Over the course of a 162-game season, there are bound to be poor stretches. When you look at this cold start to the August for the Braves, that's likely the case as well. However, there are some players who are on thin ice for how they've negatively contributed to this skid. They won't be released or anything of that nature, but the pressure should be mounting for these three players to get right — and do it soon to get out of this slump.
Braves: 3 players on thin ice after cold start to August
3. Sean Murphy has fallen out of All-Star form
Coming over from Oakland in an offseason trade, Braves catcher Sean Murphy made his first career All-Star appearance this season as the starter for the National League, and deservedly so. With his two-way ability and increase in his production at the plate from his time with the A's, he's been arguably the best catcher in MLB overall this season.
That has been decidedly less the case at the start of August, however.
Making six appearances in August, Murphy has been struggling quite a bit overall, slashing just .222/.364/.389 with only one extra-base hit and three RBI over that span. Though it's more than just August, over the last month, he's hitting a measly .143 with a .487 OPS. And those numbers are even a bit inflated by the fact that the Braves catcher has already started to turn it around a bit lately with hits in his last four games.
Having said that, the Braves have Murphy hittng after the elite heart of the order in Atlanta when he's in the lineup. And for him to have taken such a dip in terms of his hitting has been detrimental to the offense. Now, it might not be as problematic if it weren't for other issues that we'll touch on shortly, but it's been noticeable because, after all, this is a player who is Top 10 in baseball with an .899 OPS overall this season.
As stated, Murphy is showing some signs of snapping out of it lately, which is good. But he needs to get all the way back to the way he was performing prior to the All-Star break if the Braves are going to return to being nearly unbeatable, which is the expectation they set early in the season.
2. Marcell Ozuna has cooled off quite a bit from his bounce-back May and June
It's been a season of extremes for Marcell Ozuna. The much-maligned outfielder/DH (with a heavy emphasis on the latter) started off the year abysmally, hitting .091 with a .425 OPS in April and seemingly looking like a player who had no business being at the plate in the major leagues.
Things turned around dramatically over the course of May and June, however, as he accrued an OPS around .950 over those two months while racking up 14 home runs, six doubles and 35 RBI. Who knows what exactly changed, but he looked like the player that the Braves and their fans thought they were getting when they inked him to a lucrative four-year contract a few years ago.
Admittedly, it's not been as bad as April was for Ozuna, but he hasn't come close to matching what he did over May and June as of late. Over eight games in August, Ozuna is slashing just .214/.313/.321 with a single home run as his only extra-base hit and while only driving in two runs and striking out 11 times.
Perhaps the new norm for Ozuna is this level of extreme swings where he's either super-hot or super-cold with very little in-between that we see at the plate. If the lineup around him can stay swinging big bats, that actually might not be too problematic, especially if he can get into the groove at the right times — the playoffs would be nice.
In the context of the Braves' struggles and cold start to August, though, his lack of production has definitely been a part of that.
1. Braves starting pitchers have not been doing their jobs
Pick a Braves starting pitcher, any of them. They've probably been an issue for this club that has put the team in bad spots consistently.
In two August starts, newcomer Yonny Chirinos has given up 13 hits, three walks and nine earned runs over 10.0 inning. Charlie Morton's lone August start saw him give up four hits, four walks and five earned runs over 4.1 innings. And Bryce Elder followed up getting shelled by the Cubs for seven runs (five earned) in 4.1 innings by giving up six hits, two walks and five earned runs over 5.0 innings on Wednesday against the Pirates in the loss.
Perhaps the biggest offender is Spencer Strider. The mustachioed flamethrower who had emerged as the club's ace this season has looked far from that with a 6.75 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in his two August starts, giving up 10 hits, five walks and seven earned runs over ust 9.1 innings of work to this point. Yes, the strikeouts are still there, but his ERA has ballooned to 3.94, which is obviously less than ideal.
Ironically enough, the only starter who you probably can't pick a bone with is Max Fried. Though he gave up four runs in his Aug. 9 start — his second since returning from the IL — he held the Cubs scoreless and set the tone for the aforementioned 8-0 drubbing that opened that series.
Since the All-Star break, the only team with a worse ERA from their starters (6.15 for the Braves) is, coincidentally, the Pirates (6.21). For a group that held it together so admirably and impressively with Fried, Kyle Wright and others on the shelf with injuries, they've lost their mojo, which has put an inordinate amount of pressure on the offense.
It's a testament to the offense that the team is still 5-4 in August in spite of the pitching performances they've had to combat from their own staff. But if this team wants to win a World Series, something has to be fixed with the starters.