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The Braves Outfield

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What do I want to complain about today? Maybe that Edgar Renteria drove in a run on a weak groundball, then followed by grounding out with the bases loaded twice later in the game. Must...repress...evil...urges...

Instead I'll focus on the Braves to take my mind off of that. How about that Braves outfield?

LF: Brian Jordan
CF: Andruw Jones
RF: Raul Mondesi

If this were 1999 I'd be claiming it was one of the best. Of course it's not and it isn't. I'm still of the mindset that if the Braves were going to sign an old Cardinals outfielder they would have been better off with Ray Lankford, but that is a story for another day.

Ryan Langerhans and Andy Marte, two young outfielders of the Braves. Marte is in the minors, playing for Richmond. He was considered the top prospect in baseball by many different sources...

Andy Marte 2005 Richmond
HR: 7
2B: 10
BB: 23
SecAvg: .386
Iso: .221

...and is performing better than Jordan and Mondesi.

Ryan Langerhans 2005 Braves
AB: 63
HR: 5
2B: 2
BB: 4
SecAvg: .333
Iso: .270

You might think his stat line is low, but take a look at Jordan's and Mondesi's:

Raul Mondesi 2005 Braves
AB: 127
HR: 4
2B: 6
BB: 11
SecAvg: .244
Iso: .157

Brian Jordan 2005 Braves
AB: 129
HR: 2
2B: 4
SB: 2/2
BB: 8
SecAvg: .155
Iso: .077

It is obvious the Braves do not even have to look outside the organization and they can find a viable replacement for atleast one of these players immediately in Langerhans. By the way, Jordan's 2004 line looks eerily similar to his 2005 line so far, so do not expect any rapid improvement. Raul Mondesi only hit .241/.313/.376 for all of 2004, so even if he "improves" it is not much help.

2005 MLVr and VORP
Jordan: -0.486; -3.1
Mondesi: -0.243; -5.7
Langerhans: -0.149; -2.4 VORP
Marte (Projected): 0.55; 11.3 VORP

Langerhans is likely to improve as the year goes on, and Marte cannot possibly do any worse than the awful-twins, so methinks it is time to give them both their shot at starting. The Braves sit in first place now; if they can significantly improve their outfield soon, they may see themselves climb higher than 5th in the NL in runs scored, where they somehow sit with multiple below replacement level players starting. Bless John Schuerholz and his winning ways.

And one last, unrelated item that is related to my first paragraph:

Edgar Renteria Double Play Rate
DP Percentage: 0.231
NetDP: 4.25
DP: 9

By the way, his NetDP ranks 4th worst in the majors...even if you don't know what NetDP is (and I can't find the definition, I apologize) the fact that he is 4th worst in the majors should make the point have some meaning.