What happened to Travis d'Arnaud and Sean Murphy's bats?
The Atlanta Braves are having a season for the ages: Matt Olson's set the franchise single-season homer record, Ronald Acuña Jr is looking to be the first 40/70 player in baseball history, and the team's on pace to break the single season home run record while they've mashed their way to a 6th straight division title.
But there's been one part missing in the 2nd half: Production from the catchers.
Travis d'Arnaud and Sean Murphy, who were so hot early in the year that Atlanta DH'd whoever wasn't catching that day for a short while, haven't been good at the plate since the All-Star Break. Matter of fact, they've been downright BAD.
All-Star starter Sean Murphy finished the first half of the season with a .306 batting average and 17 homers. He's hit only three homers in the second half with a .181 batting average.
Travis d'Arnaud hasn't been any better: He's batting only .175 with 3 homers himself, despite playing in almost as many games (31) as Sean Murphy (34).
Why?
For Travis, it feels like a bit of regression. His BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play) was over .300 for the first half, which is hard to sustain for anyone without serious wheels, and it's in fact cratered to only .198 in the 2nd half. He's also walking a lot less, with 14 in the first half of the season and only 3 to this point.
For Sean, the BABIP discrepancy is even more extreme. He was at an absurd .353 BABIP in the first half of the season, with it falling to .209 in the 2nd half.
But surely this can't be explained by luck alone, right?
It's possible to speculate that the modified rotation has impacted them both - after stretches where they were both everyday starters due to injury in the first half, manager Brian Snitker settled into a rotation of starting Sean for the first two games of a series with Travis d'Arnaud taking the third/final game of the series.
In the 2nd half, that's shifted to more of an even split, with Travis even sometimes getting two consecutive starts and Murphy rotating in for a third. Maybe Murphy's lack of playtime is preventing him from getting into a groove?
These cold stretches also coincide with moving the catchers back in the order. For a good portion of the season, they were batting 5th (with some brief time even spent at cleanup), but moving them to 7th impacts the pitches they see and how much protection they have in the lineup - Orlando Arcia's been through some cold stretches this 2nd half, as well.
I have to admit, it's weird to look at this and not see a glaringly obvious answer. Let's hope that catching instructor Sal Fasano, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and manager Brian Snitker can figure it out and getting one of them producing at the plate when the postseason gets here.
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