Barnes is crashing, Martin is badly needed

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 23, 2019 ♦ 4 Comments

Austin Barnes barreled out of the gates this year and after the first seven games seemed to affirm the faith the Dodgers had in letting him be the everyday catcher.  Barnes had an OPS of 1.328 on April 7th. The Dodgers left the sweet confines of Coors and it appears that Barnes left his bat behind. Since leaving Coors, Barnes is 3 for 33 with zero extra base hits, four walks, and has an OPS of .512.

Overall his numbers look very much like they did in 2018 which is not a good thing. Russell Martin got hurt and Barnes is playing way more than he should be and you can hope that is why he is struggling. We will find out, as Martin is due back this week, and Rocky Gale can go back to the depth cage of AAA.

I’m not sure we can count on much offense from either Barnes or Martin, but the Dodger offense in April has shown they can carry a weak bat at catcher. It is doubtful that Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson will be hitting over twenty home runs per month but as they cool down, Justin Turner, Cory Seager, Max Muncy, and AJ Pollock will step it up.

Looking at the last seven days, I was surprised to see how bad Muncy/Verdugo/Hernandez have been. I knew Turner/Taylor/Barnes were all struggling but hadn’t quite noticed that so many Dodgers were struggling to hit. It really has been just the Cody and Joc show with Pollock and Seager quietly producing.

Player                    Split Year   OPS PA HR RBI   BA  OBP  SLG TB
Cody Bellinger      Last 7 days 2019 1.177 22  2   5 .389 .455 .722 13
Joc Pederson        Last 7 days 2019 1.109 19  2   2 .313 .421 .688 11
A.J. Pollock        Last 7 days 2019  .990 16  1   3 .231 .375 .615  8
Corey Seager        Last 7 days 2019  .826 18  0   1 .313 .389 .438  7
Max Muncy           Last 7 days 2019  .597 18  1   2 .125 .222 .375  6
Enrique Hernandez   Last 7 days 2019  .548 14  1   3 .083 .214 .333  4
Alex Verdugo        Last 7 days 2019  .523 12  0   1 .182 .250 .273  3
Justin Turner       Last 7 days 2019  .387 19  0   0 .071 .316 .071  1
Austin Barnes       Last 7 days 2019  .277 15  0   0 .077 .200 .077  1
Chris Taylor        Last 7 days 2019  .222  9  0   0 .111 .111 .111  1
David Freese        Last 7 days 2019  .167  6  0   0 .000 .167 .000  0
Rocky Gale          Last 7 days 2019  .000  2  0   0 .000 .000 .000  0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/23/2019.