The Braves announced this morning that they’ve reinstated outfielder/third baseman Austin Riley from the 10-day injured list. A knee sprain wound up sidelining the young slugger for nearly a month.
Atlanta has had a starting outfield’s worth of injuries, with Riley joined by Ender Inciarte and Nick Markakis on the shelf. In the absence of that trio, the Braves have utilized Matt Joyce, Rafael Ortega, Charlie Culberson, Adam Duvall and Billy Hamilton in the outfield alongside young star Ronald Acuna Jr.
Leading up to his injury, Riley had seen his playing time diminish thanks to a dismal slump, but the general play of the Atlanta outfield during his absence could again lead to increased opportunities for playing time. Since Riley’s last game, non-Acuna outfielders for the Braves have batted a collective .228/.321/.320. Riley’s own offensive output cratered after his blistering start to the season, but improving upon that collective level of production is a fairly low bar to clear.
Riley burst onto the Braves’ roster with a .293/.333/.629 batting line and an 11 homers in his first month of MLB action but has faceplanted with a .192/.258/.383 slash and a 38.6 strikeout rate in 132 plate appearances since that time. He batted .250/.286/.325 with three doubles and 10 strikeouts in 42 plate appearances during a 10-game minor league rehab assignment.
Barring a catastrophic collapse, the Braves have the National League East locked down for a second straight season, so Riley’s return to the roster has little bearing on whatever glimmer of a race for the division title remains. However, getting Riley on back on track in advance of the postseason would provide a significant boon to the team’s chances of advancing beyond the NLDS for the first time since 2001.
Well, would you look at that braveslifer? A Braves article. I had to clean my glasses to make sure I was reading it correctly.
Now we need more Mets and Reds articles to even things out.
HAHAHA, I’m glad you remembered! You have to see how biased the media is for some teams over others.
Every team has suffered significant injuries this year… all you hear about is how badly the Yankees have had it.
What’s really funny is the Astros are going to the World Series not the Yanks!
After yesterday’s win over the gNats, I tuned to Sportcenter to see what they would say about it. The anchor reading the highlights was genuinely surprised that Acuña had 37 HRs and that the Braves were in first place. Shows how much attention they pay to any team outside of Boston and NY
Yeah. Same can be said for mlb.com. after the game nothing on the Braves on their main page. Nothing on Fried’s 1 hit gem. If he was a Yankee we would never hear the end of it.
Speaking of, on MLB Network, Greg asked the other 2, who has a better chance at beating the Dodgers. Both said Nationals. While I do agree, despite everything the Braves have done this year, they are still the underdog.
Wilford… You should not be on this site. I was unaware you were still alive but now that I know you are you should be treating your diabetiss. Go get your testing supplies.
Huh?? What was biased and slanted? It was pretty factual stating the kid came up, blew it up, went in the tank, got hurt and is now back — with his team 8 games ahead in the East. Barring a catastrophic collapse, they have wrapped up the division — especially if the beat the Nats another two games in this series. I detected the flow of Mets tears.
I believe he was pointing out the lack of Braves articles in general versus a bias in this particular article.
yes, as in Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, Joel Sherman, et al
I’m not disputing that some bias exists, but if you’re arguing that ATL should get similar amount of media coverage that larger markets get, you’re going to be displeased for a very long time.
Disappointing numbers in triple A. I hope this kid doesn’t turn into the next Jeff Francoeur at the plate. His power potential is actually much higher. Believe it or not, Frenchy is probably exactly who he should talk to about it. Frenchy gets so mad when guys frequently swing at pitches way out if the zone because that’s what destroyed his own career. The sad thing is that Francoeur finally figured it out when it was too late. I think he was about a .280+ hitter for the last year or two before he retired to become the Braves announcer. Riley needs to learn how to stop trying to crush every single pitch thrown at him and focus on defending the plate. When sluggers go into prolonged slumps like this they need to take the Hank Aaron approach. Don’t worry about what the pitcher is doing. Focus on the strike zone as your territory and forget about everything outside. If it is outside the zone don’t even swing at it. If it is inside the zone hit it. See the ball. Hit the ball. Keep it simple/stupid. I know home plate umpires make mistakes and it won’t work out every time. Your power may even drop a little initially. On the plus side you will never swing at balls in the dirt and your OBP will go way up from a measly .286. After that pitchers will have to adjust to avoid walking you and your power will shoot right back up to higher than it ever was because you will see more strikes.
Francoeur just couldn’t lay off that slider low and away. Had to be frustrating for him knowing what pitch was coming and not being able to lay off or hit it. It’s like he couldn’t see the spin till it was too late.
Man.. I know. More importantly he knows now as well. He hates nothing more than guys that have real hitting talent making the same mistakes he did. He kinda figured it out towards the end of his career but he was a 4th outfielder by then. I thought he was a pretty good 4th OF. He was hitting over .280 and had some pop. His arm was still great. The Braves had him on a one year deal and traded him to the Phil’s at the deadline. I thought the Braves might pick him up again the next year but I guess they offered him more to be in the box. He is a REALLY good guy. He always wanted to be a superstar competitor and turned down a contract after his 2nd season and said he wasn’t going to negotiate on his .261 batting average. He knew he could do better than that but figured out how to do it too late. The Braves offered Brian McCann the exact same contract at the exact same time. McCann took it and it worked out for him. Frenchy will never forget that. I don’t like to name drop because I think it is tacky but I only know a lot of this because I played at Norcross High School against Frenchy when he was a senior at Park view as well as Mac when he and Kyle Davies played for Duluth. I think Blaine Boyer played at Duluth at the same time but I’m not sure. I know we played against Boyer too though. Anyhow, I talked to Frenchy about it years later when I ran into him at Taco Mac. He also repeatedly talks about hating when hitters can’t lay off the low outside pitches that are almost in the dirt. It’s personal for him. He always tried to swing and crush everything out of the park without considering if it was in the zone. He realized later that if he were patient he wouldn’t have to swing out of the zone. The pitchers would be forced to provide the opportunity for him. I hope that Riley is able to get some of his wisdom because they seem to be similar in some of their early plate discipline.
Francoeur gets better in the booth every game. When he’s with Glavine and Chip lets them talk, they convey a lot of baseball wisdom. … As for Riley, I agree a sit-down with Francoeur could do a lot of good. What’s the consensus here on whether the Braves let Donaldson go and move Riley to third base next season, or try to re-sign Donaldson? Maybe whatever happens in the postseason will be a large factor?
I think if the Braves offer Donaldson a decent amount he resigns with them. It’s obvious he’s having a blast as a Brave.
I like Riley and what he brings to the table but if Ender & Markakis get healthy soon he probably does not make postseason roster. The Braves would probably go with Joyce & Hamilton as the extra outfielders. They both have much more MLB experience and have unique skills. Riley has more power but the Braves already have plenty of that.
Fried outduels Strassburg and now Kuechel beats Corbin. So, WHO right now has the better starting rotation? Or is it the Braves offense is just so much better?
As a Phillies fan, I kept waiting for the Braves to come back to the pack. Instead, they’re off on another eight-game winning streak. With a nine game lead and only 20 games remaining, they’d have to do an el-foldo like my ’64 Phillies did not to win the NL East.
As for their chances in the playoffs, they’ll open up against the NL Central winner (Probably St. Louis), and I believe the Braves can beat them. Other than Flaherty,I don’t really like any of the Cardinals starting pitchers. Yeah I know Dakota Hudson is 15-6 with a sub 3.50 ERA, but he has been more lucky than good (Just look at that WHIP number.).
Chances vs. the Dodgers? I wouldn’t favor the Braves but I believe the series will be far more competitive than most of the MLB Network pundits would have you believe. Kershaw and Ryu are a tough one-two punch to beat, but Ryu has been slumping of late and Kershaw, though still one of the best, isn’t quite what he was a few years ago.
Bold prediction Dept:
1. I think between now and the end of the season, Folty is gonna discover what made him so great in 2018 and be a pleasant surprise in the post-season.
2. Braves and Yankees in the WS that goes the full seven games. Braves win Game 7 in extra innings on a Donaldson home run.
@ Lou Orlando. I agree with a lot you said but I think it Astros and Braves in the World Series with the Braves in 7.