Stock up and stock down for the Atlanta Braves at the midpoint of the 2023 regular season

The Atlanta Braves defeated the Miami Marlins in game 81 of the regular season on Friday night, 16-4. A regular MLB season is 162, so we're officially into the 2nd half of the regular season. Time flies when you're winning games!

Let's look at which Braves are trending up (and who is trending down) as we approach the midpoint of the 2023 season:

Stock up: Ronald Acuña Jr

81G: .334/.413/.595 w/ 20 HRs, 74Rs, 53 RBIs, 37 SBs, and OPS+ of 167

Yeah, we didn't know it could go higher, either, but it did.

Ronald Acuña Jr. is currently the betting favorite for National League MVP, and the list of stats that he's compiled is honestly ridiculous:

Ronald Acuña Jr has, by himself, scored more 1st inning runs (27) than the Marlins (25) or Mets (22).

With his performance on Friday night, he became the first player in MLB history with twenty homeruns and thirty-five stolen bases before the All-Star Break.

If Ronald can steal three more bases in the final nine games before the break, he'll be the first player in MLB history with twenty of more homeruns, forty steals, and fifty RBIs before the All Star Game.

And of course, he's officially on pace to finish with exactly forty homeruns and a whopping seventy-four stolen bases, which would be only the fifth 40/40 season in MLB history.

.@RonaldAcunaJr24 is on pace for video game numbers. 😳 pic.twitter.com/06IMMCsFjU
— MLB (@MLB) July 1, 2023

Stock down: INF Vaughn Grissom

19 MLB G: .277/.314/.308 w/ 0 HRs, 5Rs, 7 RBIs, 0/1 SBs, and OPS+ of 69

Everyone was rooting for Vaughn Grissom to win the starting SS job in spring training, and it was a surprise when both he and fellow prospect Braden Shewmake were sent to AAA Gwinnett for Orlando Arcia.

Grissom got another chance to prove he belonged in MLB after Arcia's fractured wrist, being called up and given the SS job, but he scuffled at the plate and in the field. He wasn't able to hit for power in his second taste of life as a MLB starter, collecting only two extra base hits and no homeruns in nineteen games, but his defense was what ultimately motivated Atlanta to make a change, being charged with six errors at shortstop in sixty-three defensive chances.

He's back in AAA Gwinnett, sharing time in the middle infield with Shewmake, and his future remains uncertain in Atlanta: Do the Braves continue to try and make him into a shortstop? Or is an offseason position change to left field on the horizon in lieu of Eddie Rosario being in the final year of his contract? Or, is a trade piece at the upcoming trade deadline?

Stock up: RHP Bryce Elder

16G: 6-1, 2.44 ERA in 96 IP with 79 Ks (7.4 K/9), 28 BBs (2.6 BB/9), 8 HRs allowed

The big righty from Texas went from AAA Gwinnett's Opening Day starter to a stabilizing force in Atlanta's injury depleted rotation. He's scuffled at times, most notably a two game stretch against the Mets and Nationals in early June where he allowed nine earned runs (with three homers) in eleven and a third innings, but he's done more than enough to keep the Braves in his starts, with Atlanta winning twelve of his sixteen outings.

A likely All-Star when the team is announced on Sunday, Elder's definitely been the breakout Braves pitcher of 2023 just like Kyle Wright and Spencer Strider before him.

Stock down: LHP Jared Shuster

9GS: 4-2, 5.00 ERA in 45 IP with 25 Ks (5.0 K/9), 22 BBs (4.4 BB/9), 4 HRs allowed

Shuster surprised many in spring training when he led all of baseball in ERA for most of Grapefruit League action and then made the opening rotation, starting game three of the season-opening series against the Washington Nationals.

But the lefty out of Wake Forest has struggled to put guys away, striking out only twenty-five, and only has one quality start in the big leagues. He's struggled locating his pitches like he was in spring training, with the walks directly tying into his struggles early in the MLB schedule. After returning from Gwinnett for a start against Texas on May 16th, he flashed better than previous starts, including striking out seven against Seattle on May 21st in his only quality start on the season, but quickly reverted to his previous ways and was finally sent back to AAA Gwinnett after a start against Cincinnati where he didn't make it out of the 4th innings after seven hits, four runs, and two homers.

Stock up: 1B Matt Olson

81G: .246/.352/.572 w/ 28 HRs, 63 Rs, 67 RBIs, 1 SB, OPS+ of 143

Now in his second year in Atlanta, Olson's been able to push last season's doubles over the fence and currently leads the team in homers. The Atlanta-area native was leading MLB in strikeouts while he was batting in the two-hole for a good part of the first half of the season, but a move back in the order has done him wonders:

In the four hole, where he's been for the last seven games, he's batting .400/.438/1.233 with 7 of his NL-leading 28 homeruns and 15 of his MLB-leading 67 RBIs. Even better, he's only struck out four times in those seven games, while tallying 11 runs, 15 RBIs, and a triple on Friday night.

He narrowly lost out to Freddie Freeman for NL Starter at first base, and stands a good chance of being selected as an alternate on Sunday night when the rest of the team is announced.

Stock down: 3B Austin Riley...but not for long

81G: .270/.337/.459 w/ 15 HRs, 55 Rs, 43 RBIs, 2 SBs

This one's tough, but Austin Riley's struggled on the whole this season. He has the lowest slugging percentage of his career (for a full-season, so excluding 2020) and is pacing for a career-low 30 HRs and a career-high 170 strikeouts.

All hope is not lost, however, as he's been on a mini-heater ever since Atlanta shuffled the top of the lineup, hitting .290 with a .516 slug in his last fifteen games and, more importantly, only striking out eight times in seventy plate appearances.

Who else did we miss here? Let us know!

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