Stuck in the Middle

The middle infield has been the area most focused on by the Braves organisation and the media thanks almost exclusively to the acquisition of slugging second baseman Dan Uggla from the Florida Marlins. The lack of power has been an issue for the Braves since 2006, the last time they team had someone hit more than 30 home runs when Andruw Jones hit 41. Of all the possible situations for the Braves landing Uggla was somewhat of a coup given Dan’s familiarity with the division and also with his new teammates. Coming off the back of the best year of his career the Braves stole Uggla from their NL East rivals the Marlins trading away Omar Infante, after the utilityman’s breakout year, and lefty reliever Michael Dunn in exchange for a player who has hit less than thirty homers in only one of his five big league seasons. Uggla has a career 22.1 WARP after posting a 5.3 mark last year along with a line of .287/.369/.508 as well as a career high 33 home runs. Shortly after arriving in Atlanta Uggla was rewarded with a five year contract extension at about $12 million a year, hardly chump change but, if Uggla continues his power and continued improvement in other categories, will be in line with his market value. With the arrival of Dan that Braves finally a powerful right hand bat to go slap bang in the middle of their predominately left handed line-up. In nine games at Turner Field in 2010 Uggla hit at a .343 clip with a .629 slugging percentage, .378 OBP and 3 home runs. Despite some question marks around his defensive abilities the new Braves manager and former Marlins boss Fredi Gonzalez believes most of his issues with the glove stem from Uggla trying to do too much which whilst not being a huge positive isn’t exactly going to hurt the team long term.

Uggla will be joined in the middle of the infield by former Blue Jay Alex Gonzalez who arrived in Atlanta on July 14^th as a replacement for the formerly mercurial latterly immature Yunel Escobar. Gonzalez arrived on a tear having hit 17 home runs with the super charged Jays and an above career average of .259, unfortunately for the Braves this pace didn’t play out that well for either the team or Gonzo who hit only .240 in a Braves uniform with only 6 home runs in 72 games. I certainly never had much confidence in Alex whenever he got to the plate but, reviewing his numbers and the way he played in the eyeball test, he was certainly not the disaster area he seemed at times. While Gonzalez may not provide the same pop at Uggla or the average of former middle infielders Prado and Infante, he will provide the security and dependability that the Braves need to anchor the bottom of the order. Given he will be hitting near rookie first baseman Freddie Freeman and Vegas style gamble Nate McLouth it will be important for Gonzalez to simple be reliable and play the solid defence he showed last year.

With the two acquisitions over the past year the Braves built one of the more reliable middle infields in the division with potential for fireworks. Hopefully we will all be able to sit back and enjoy the show.