by Jeff Washington | May 12, 2024 | THE THREE SPOT
Michael Harris II bounced back nicely from a recent ten game slump, going 3-3, including an RBI single to center field that drove in Austin Riley, to extend the Braves lead in the 4th inning. He also ran down and snagged a screaming drive to deep center field in the bottom of the seventh inning, preventing a sure extra base hit off the bat of J.D. Martinez to help temporarily hold on to a no-hit bid. The Braves would go on to lose the no-hitter in the ninth inning, but ultimately won the game 4-1.
The Braves center fielder was overdue for a breakthrough game at the plate. Coming into Saturday’s game against The Mets, Harris II was batting a paltry 0.28, with just one hit in his last 36 at-bats. Unsurprisingly, the Braves played mediocre baseball, going (5-5) during this time frame.
Like most quality hitters enduring a prolonged hitting slide, the numbers suggested Mike was pressing a bit, as his chase rate had noticeably increased this season to 44.9%, a career high. Or was it simply just bad luck? Harris has walked just two times during his hitting funk, and has been putting the ball in play, making a lot of solid contact in his plate appearances. His hard hit rate is just slightly down from last season, 48.5% to 46.4%.
Michael Harris II Is The Five-Tool Diamond-Igniter For Lethal Atlanta Braves Squad
Last season, Money Mike, slotted mainly between the middle and lower half of the order, saved his best for the nine hole, where he became the most feared nine hitter in baseball. He hit .293 with 18 bro bombs, and 57 RBIs in 2023.
The ‘24 season started off promising for Harris II, as he was leading the team or near the team lead for hits, triples, home runs, total bases, batting average, slugging percentage and WAR during the first 21 games of the season, in which ATL held a 17-7 record. We at MLBbro believe Money Mike to be the backbone of this Atlanta Braves offense.
The Philadelphia Phillies are the hottest team in baseball right now, leading the league in wins with 28 while sweeping teams left and right courtesy of their solid pitching and impressive, offensive production. When you take a look inside the numbers, it’s not hard to figure out why; they rank top three in almost every major hitting and pitching statistical category.
Yet, in spite of all of that, the Atlanta Braves are sitting just 2.5 games out of first place, continuing to stay dangerous in the NL East, a division they’ve maintained a chokehold on over the past six seasons. If the Braves plan to keep pace with the red hot Phillies, and eventually supplant them atop the division, they’re going to need more performances from Michael Harris II, like the one they got yesterday against the Mets.
by Chris Wilder | Jul 1, 2023 | FRONT STREET
Josiah Gray leaned on his 8 Ks to hold the Phillies bats down in the Nationals’ 2-1, Friday night win. His MLBbrother From Another Mother, Stone Garrett, homered to knock in both of DC’s runs.
by MLBbro Staff | Apr 8, 2023 | FRONT STREET
Phillies 1B Darick Hall will have thumb surgery. The MLBbro hopes to be back this season.
by Chris Wilder | Nov 3, 2022 | 5TH SLOT
In August of 2007 when Cameron Maybin made his Major League debut with the Detroit Tigers, he was the youngest player in Baseball.
Over his 15-year career he had 973 hits, but his first came off of none other than seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens. In just his second game with the big team, Cameron singled for his first career hit. singled for his first career hit.
His next time at bat? Homer. The 20 year-old rookie singled and homered off of the 45 year-old veteran. So, naturally his third time at bat… hit by pitch!
No one is saying Roger hit Maybin on purpose or anything, but that did happen to be Clemens’s first game back from a five-game suspension for hitting the Blue Jays’ Alex Rios in the back in what the Associated Press called “a testy series.”
Fifteen years later, Cameron made his broadcasting debut with the Yankees’ YES Network as a color commentator and with the MLB Network as an on-air contributor. It’s the MLB Network that has Cameron at this year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros. As an on-air contributor, Maybin opines on several different shows on the network and it’s throle that is allowing him to move around covering different aspects of the series.
Different aspects means doing things like predicting the Game One winner, or breaking down the Phillies’ Game Three, five-home run performance alongside Hall of Fame pitcher, Pedro Martinez.
Cameron incorrectly predicted an Astros win in Game One and correctly pointed out that four of the Phillies five homers in Game Three were hit off of breaking balls, by the way.
Covering the Astros in the World Series puts Maybin in an awkward position. As a player, he won his only World Series in 2017 as a member of the Astros. That, of course, is the year that Houston was caught in a major cheating scandal that rocked the sport.
Picked up from the waiver wire, Maybin joined the Astros in August of that year where he played the rest of the season as well as six postseason games. There are a lot of haters circling that Astros championship like vultures, but Cam lets that roll right off.
In February 2020, Maybin told The Detroit News, “Honestly, I feel like things that went on in the 2017 season with the Astros – which I was there for a month and some change – definitely doesn’t reflect how I approach the game and how I play the game.
“Hindsight is 20-20. It’s tough. Being in that locker room, knowing what was going on, we all could have said something about it.”
Analyzing the World Series games from behind the microphone, Cameron Maybin is definitely saying something now.
by admin | Nov 3, 2022 | FRONT STREET
Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker added to his list of all-time accolades by winning his 49th playoff game as a manager on Wednesday night when his Astros no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 in Game 4 of the 2022 World Series.
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