The Atlanta Braves are the worst team in the National League (though the Cincinnati Reds are hot on their tails for that title). Star first baseman Freddie Freeman is one of many Braves hitters struggling, and he was incredibly blunt about his season so far on Thursday.
“Right now, I suck. There’s no getting around it,” said Freeman, who’s hitting just .186 in his past 14 games and is 1-for-26 with runners in scoring position.
“I feel great. I’ve had a pretty horrible season so far. There’s not sugarcoating it, I’m just not getting hits. The hits I do get are obviously not with guys in scoring position, but obviously that needs to change. If it doesn’t happen soon. … I’m already getting frustrated. Usually my track record’s pretty good with guys on base.”
Freeman is hitting just .254/.342/.439 with a team-leading eight homers this year. He’s about 20-30 points below his career triple slash of .283/.365/.464.
The main gripe about Freeman is that he’s not hitting with runners in scoring position, and that’s certainly true – this season, he’s hitting .125/.340/.175 in the situation. His career line with RISP is .300/.421/.484.
At least Freeman appears to realize it’s stupid luck as opposed to something that needs to be dramatically changed.
“I guess it’s back down into a valley,” Freeman told reporters Thursday. “That’s just the way this season’s going. I feel good up there, just nothing’s working, nothing’s falling. I had a good three-week stretch there, now I’m back down for some reason.
“I feel good, I’m not doing anything different. There’s nothing I can really do but keep going out there and swinging.”
Freeman’s proven himself to be a major league quality hitter, so it’s not as if he’s been pushed into a role that he’s not capable of filling. But in a season where nothing much has gone right for Atlanta, Freeman’s regression has been a big disappointment.
[ESPN]
