Atlanta Braves: Riding the Wave That is Ozzie Albies
There is no question Ozzie Albies has become one of the best second basemen in baseball, but that doesn’t mean the Atlanta Braves second baseman doesn’t come with some flaws.
A lot of players will ride hot-and-cold streaks throughout a season, but it seems like the Atlanta Braves have a lot of players who are streaky — and unfortunately, many of them are on a cold streak at the same time.
Even earlier in his career, Freddie Freeman could be streaky at times, but for the past eight or nine years, he has become one of the most consistent players in baseball.
I think Matt Olson can be that guy, and last year Austin Riley was that guy. Obviously, Ronald Acuna Jr. is someone that wont’ go into a slump for very long.
But pretty much everyone else in the lineup will go on very hot and very cold streaks.
The two notorious cases are Dansby Swanson and … Ozzie Albies.
Braves — Ozzie Albies Inconsistency
A lot of people like to focus on Swanson and his hot and cold streaks, but Ozzie has been just as streaky over his career.
Ozzie Albies is one of my favorite people in all of sports, but as a Braves fan, he’s one of the more frustrating players to watch when he’s on a cold streak as he currently is.
The reason he’s so frustrating at times is because even when he’s slumping, he doesn’t take a lot of walks. And he always goes up there swinging at everything he sees.
He’s seeing 3.73 pitches per plate appearance last year. Compare that to Swanson who is seeing 4.18 pitches per plate appearance this year, or Matt Olson who is seeing 4.12.
I’ve come to accept that is just Ozzie’s game and he’s going to live and die by it — and when you look at the back of his baseball card, it’s hard to argue against his strategy. .
It’s something we just have to live with and know that eventually, he’ll turn things around.
Last year his month-by-month OPB looked like this:
April — .300
May — .318
June — .367
July — .299
August — .294
September — .277
Most players will have some up-and-down every month, but those are pretty drastic differences.
Here are the numbers for Dansby Swanson
April — .267
May — .317
June — .286
July — .345
August — .378
September — .283
Again, big highs and big lows.
Now Austin Riley from 2021
April — .409
May — .394
June — .281
July — .409
August — .395
September — .327
Other than June and September, Riley remained fairly consistent for most of the season.
The question then becomes, would you rather Ozzie be someone who just consistently has an OBP around .290-.320 every month of the season, or be the guy that can go off for two weeks and carry an offense and then disappear for a week or so?
Your answer doesn’t matter, that’s just who Ozzie is.
Next. Has Strider Earned a Shot to Start?. dark
But history tells us, he will get hot at some point and he’ll look like the All-Star level player we’re used to see. We just have ride the wave.