Braves News: Sean Murphy trade, comeback win, more

Ronald Acuna made some more progress on his 40-40 season bid on Wednesday, homering for his first in a little while. He is still behind 40 home run pace for the season, but getting another one on Wednesday certainly helps. He is on pace to blow 40 stolen bases completely out of the water, already with 13, through only 25 games. Home runs, however, sit only at 4. A quick look at his Baseball Savant page gives a pretty good explanation of why: his launch angle is way down this season, at only 5 degrees, by far a career low. This is the second straight season of a career low launch angle, with both coming after tearing his ACL. Acuna has been tremendously valuable this season and will continue to be, even with the depressed launch angle, but if he is going to really make a run at 40-40, and wants to maximize his value, he will need to get that launch angle back up to his pre-ACL levels.

Braves News

The Braves had a fun late comeback win to secure the four game series win.

Some highly rigorous predictions for the rest of the Braves’ season

Early returns on the Sean Murphy trade

A statistical look at Sam Hilliard

Bryce Elder is somehow keeping major league hitters off balance

MLB News

MLBTR has an extremely early list of 2025 free agents.

The Guardians are calling up top prospect Tanner Bibee.

The Cardinals optioned top prospect Jordan Walker.

Robbie Ray is getting season-ending surgery.

Kenta Maeda will get an MRI for elbow soreness.