Not so much a question, more of a rhetorical one…
Yesterday’s 9-5 loss to the Nationals featured this:
- Braves: .298 xwOBA, .311 wOBA.
Sadly, that xwOBA is all too familiar for this crew — you have to go back to July 29 for the Braves to have an even amount of above-.300 and below-.300 xwOBAs, and it’s not like .300 is a good xwOBA, either. I can’t do the same thing, for, say, above and below league average, because the Braves don’t have enough games with an above-league average xwOBA to compensate for their very weak run of inputs for much of the season. But, that part is too familiar to sting. Instead, what stings is:
- Nationals: .297 xwOBA, .415 wOBA.
This probably should’ve been a close game! But instead, the Nationals pulled off their third-biggest xwOBA overperformance in a game this season, and the third-biggest suffered by the Braves this season as well.
Nor can you really blame the fielding:
- Braves’ fielders: 86 percent chance of catching relevant balls, 80 percent of plays made;
- Nationals’ fielders: 83 percent chance of catching relevant balls (worse positioning), 71 percent of plays made.
The Nationals were one of just four teams to lose an aggregate run of fielding value in a single game yesterday; the Braves didn’t register on that specific list.
Ah, well. Just try to win today, I guess.