Martin Prado, Brian McCann, and Jason Heyward Carrying Atlanta Braves Offense

Thus far into the season, the Braves have continued their offensive woes from the run-challenged 2009 summer.

Only Martin Prado, Brian McCann, and Jason Heyward have been better than league average.

Those three have been more than impressive, but the lack of production from the rest of the lineup is starting to be a concern. While nine games is not an appropriate sample size, the team should be hitting better than they currently are.

Let's take a look at the production of the three aforementioned players compared to the rest of the team.

Martin Prado: 43 plate appearances, .459/.524/.649, one home run, four doubles, two RBI, eight runs—12.35 RC/27

Brian McCann: 35 plate appearances, .346/.514/.692, two home runs, three doubles, six RBI, eight runs—14.73 RC/27

Jason Heyward: 39 plate appearances, .303/.410/.667, three home runs, three doubles, 12 RBI, six runs—10.19 RC/27

Rest of Braves lineup: 248 plate appearances, .169/.226/.228, two home runs, five doubles, 24 RBI, 25 runs

The only other Brave besides Prado, McCann, and Heyward to have an OPS above .650 is Eric Hinske, and he only has nine plate appearances. The Braves are currently 4-3 and have won two series, but if they are unable to hit again this year and rely only on a strong starting staff, they will find themselves chasing the Phillies the entire season.

There is hope for this lineup.

Chipper Jones, Troy Glaus, and Yunel Escobar should hit better than they currently are, and when McCann, Prado, and Heyward start to cool off, these hitters should start to heat up.

The lineup one through eight is solid, with the exception of Melky Cabrera. He was expected to have a better season with the transition to the NL, but he does not look like anything close to a major league starter at this point. This is not just an evaluation of the past nine games, but rather of his entire career. His low on-base percentage and limited power scream fourth outfielder.

The Braves can't rely on these three hitters to do all of the work, and if they want to win these tough series against the Rockies, Phillies, and Mets, then they will need to get better production throughout the lineup to take the slack off these three players.

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