Jason Heyward: Why the Atlanta Braves Right Fielder Belongs on Bench, for Now

The most pressing debate among Atlanta Braves fans right now surrounds the playing time of right fielder Jason Heyward.

Although a select portion of Braves Country thinks it's an injustice to mankind that Heyward isn't playing everyday, Fredi Gonzalez is doing the right thing.

Through 90 games, Heyward has a triple-slash line of .217 / .313 / .396, which is a far cry from his breakout rookie season of .277 / .393 / .456.

His supporters will point to a low batting average on balls in play as the reason for his struggles, but there is more to it than that.

Heyward isn't squaring up pitches as frequently as he did last season. He has seen his line-drive rate fall from 18 to 13 percent since last season, and while he is hitting a similar number of fly balls, nearly a quarter of them are infield pop-ups, a 15-percent increase.

About 58 percent of the pitches he sees are fastballs, the same as last season, but after ranking in the top 15 against the pitch in 2010, he is barely above average against it in 2011.

Anybody who has watched Heyward knows that he has tried to move off the plate so he wouldn't get jammed as much, but the plan hasn't been successful.

He is swinging at about five percent more pitches this season, leading to a lower contact rate due to the additional pitches outside the zone he is swinging at.

While swinging more lowered his strikeout rate a tad, it has killed his walk rate, which has gone from 15 to 11 percent.

Hitting coach Larry Parrish has preached a more aggressive approach at the plate, similar to what the Toronto Blue Jays did last season, but it has clearly hurt Heyward.

Two of the best numbers to judge a hitter by are wOBA and wRC+, which are .315 and 98 respectively for Heyward.

Both numbers are those of an average outfielder.

The main reason Heyward is spending a lot of time on the bench is recent call-up Jose Constanza, or Georgie as his teammates call him.

Constanza has provided a boost to the Braves lineup, posting a .408 / .431 / .592 line in 13 games.

While those numbers are not sustainable over the long term, you simply can't take a player out of the lineup when he's hitting that well.

Constanza has a .450 wOBA and 190 wRC+ in his limited playing time, illustrating just how important he has been to the Braves over the last few weeks.

Benching Constanza now in order to play an outfielder who went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts looking in his last start makes no sense.

Over the past 30 days, Heyward has played in 21 games, accumulating a 0.1 WAR and -0.45 WPA.

During the same timeframe, Constanza has played 13 games, totaling 0.6 WAR and a 0.41 WPA.

Basically, what that means is that the difference between Heyward and Constanza over the past month is nearly a full win.

The people arguing that Heyward gives the Braves a better chance to win games right now are wrong.

Gonzalez has repeatedly told the media that he is going the play the hot hand, which is Constanza.

Heyward did himself no favors with that three-strikeout game earlier in the week.

The Heyward supporters need to understand that this isn't a long-term solution, it's a short-term fix. Constanza is going to come back down to Earth eventually, probably within the next week or so.

However, until he does, Constanza gives the Braves a better chance to win games than a slumping Heyward, plain and simple.

Heyward has given mixed signals about his health, first telling the USA Today Sports Weekly that his shoulder was still bothering him but he felt everybody was dealing with injuries at this point of the season.

He told local Atlanta media he was feeling fine, however.

Either way, Heyward is clearly out of sorts at the plate. He is trying to make up for lost time with every at-bat, but Dan Uggla should be evidence to him that sustained success, not any single game, is how you regain traction at the plate.

Heyward is still the future right fielder for the Braves; that hasn't changed.

Constanza will be entering a slump soon that should allow Heyward to get more at-bats to prove he deserves his full-time job back. Statistics tell us that.

Until that happens though, people need to stop acting like Heyward being on the bench is a major issue.

An offense is not carried by one player and certainly not by one that has been in such a funk for the entire season.

Constanza is the better option, for now.