MLB
Chief Of The Year?
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The offseason has already seen the 2018 Atlanta Braves start to rack up big time hardware, with several Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers being handed out to the National League East Division Champions.
All-Star Nick Markakis, put a nice cap on his Cinderella season by winning both a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger.
This upcoming week could (and should) see even more trophies dished out to members of the Braves; with the Rookie of the Year award and the Manager of the Year award being handed out on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
Ronald Acuna Jr. has stiff competition in the form of Washington Nationals’ stud outfielder Juan Soto, but he has a very good shot of coming home with the award. His case has already been made here in the pages of the Georgia Sports Edition.
Instead, it’s time to advocate for an award for the Braves’ skipper, Brian Snitker.
To me, this seems like a no-brainer. Snit lead the Braves to a nearly double-digit division win, besting the heavily favored Nats, as well as a stacked New York Mets pitching rotation and a young and hungry Philadelphia Phillies team that was in contention until the very end of the season.
The Braves were not picked to be in the playoff hunt at all, let alone topping the other teams in the NL East. In fact, the Braves probably should have finished in third place.
Instead, Atlanta kicked off the 2018 season with a comeback, walk-off victory against the rival Phillies and took control of the East before the month was out.
Teams with those kinds of low expectations and surprising performances will often get a good amount of love for their manager for leading them to play above their level. It stands to reason that Snitker should receive votes for just that very reason.
Comparing his team’s success with that of the other two MOTY finalists’ successes, the same argument holds up.
Bud Black’s Colorado Rockies may have also surprised some folks in the National League West, but they were not expected to win a division with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the mix. While they made it exciting by forcing a game 163, they settled for a Wild Card slot.
Craig Counsell’s Milwaukee Brewers did manage to win their division in yet another thrilling game 163, expectations for the Brew Crew were high. The acquisitions of Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich signaled to the world that Milwaukee was going for it; playoffs or bust.
So, while they were somewhat of an underdog squad to the Chicago Cubs, the Brewers had set their sights on making a postseason run.
Despite what anyone from the Braves’ front office might have you believe, the success Atlanta enjoyed was not expected.
Snit’s deservedness goes behind his team’s record (which, admittedly, is barely in his hands anyway). The old cliché about “player’s managers” is that players are always talking about how they love playing for their guy. It’s believable with Snit. Freddie Freeman was more than vocal about keeping Snitker on as manager after he took over for Fredi Gonzalez.
More recently, watch Snitker’s postgame interview after Miami Marlins’ pitcher Jose Urena blatantly went after Acuna’s hand with a fastball.
The words and fervor were that of a man that any baseball player would go into battle for. Watch Snitker speak of his pride for his guys after they clinched the division in September. Of course, they want to play for him.
Following the Braves season, the MOTY choice is clear and on Tuesday we’ll find out if the BBWAA has been paying attention.
A Brave Offseason
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Atlanta Braves officially kicked off their offseason on Thursday with a high-profile trade, acquiring 31-year-old career minor leaguer Rafael Lopez from the Padres in exchange for cash.
Okay, that’s not exactly a big deal. Despite catcher Kurt Suzuki hitting free agency, this was a trade made for organizational depth. Lopez spent less than 40 games on the Padres’ Major League roster in 2018, and it was his longest cup of coffee yet. He also didn’t crack the Mendoza line.
Still, the move signals the opening bell for Atlanta, and now that the flood gates have been opened we can speculate wildly about what big moves Alex Anthopolous may have in store for Braves Country between now and Spring Training.
A primary focus will certainly be filling in the recently-vacated right field and catching positions.
Suzuki is an option for a one-year deal, but it may also be time for the Braves to find a more permanent backstop after two years of backup catchers splitting time behind the plate.
Tyler Flowers will still be around to handle back up duty (after both he and Zuk had stellar years in 2017, the Braves offered just one of them a two-year contract, and unfortunately bet on the wrong horse), but Atlanta needs to find someone to solidify the spot.
It’s no surprise to hear that they will be one of my teams fighting to trade with Miami for JT Realmuto. Realmuto has established himself as one of, if not, the best catchers in the game, and he’s wasted on a Marlins team that is not going to be good any time soon.
The prospect price will be high, but don’t be surprised to see Antholpolous offer up some prized arms for this guy.
Yasmani Grandal is an option as well. While he looked appealing prior to the playoffs due to his impending free agency, his dismal performance behind the dish is going to give a lot of teams pause.
Replacing Nick Markakis will be high on the list as well. Coming off of his first All-Star appearance at the age of 34, the stoic right fielder will likely be looking for a multi-year deal.
The Braves are unlikely to make such an offer, though his presence was invaluable over the past four years, and in 2018 in particular. Replacing Markakis will be difficult, and it also lacks easy solutions.
It also seems probable that Antholpolous will be looking for a front-line starter to join the Braves’ rotation in 2019.
Clayton Kershaw is, unsurprisingly, already off the table, leaving Dallas Keuchel and Patrick Corbin as the biggest-name starters left on the market.
Keuchel showed signs of regression in 2018, though he can still fire away, while Corbin had his best year in the bigs, seeming to fully recover from his Tommy John surgery from two years ago.
Corbin is the more appealing option of the two, being younger and coming off a breakout year, which means he will be highly sought after. The Braves could make a splash by taking him off of the market early and making a statement to the rest of the NL.
The last area the Braves will be looking to improve is the much-maligned bullpen.
Atlanta will need to improve their relief corps in a big way before next season, and while relievers are a dime a dozen in baseball, Atlanta needs to find reliable arms.
They might even need to overpay a closer to shore up the last three outs of the game.
We don’t know what will happen yet, but whatever it is, it has already begun.
Braves Getting Scalped
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Going into the Division Series, few, if any, had the Braves taking 3 from Los Angeles and moving on to the National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers were in the World Series a year ago and still flaunted many of the big guns that they had in that Fall Classic, plus the huge addition of Manny Machado to their infield and lineup. They are bigger and scarier and have a recent track record. That’s fine. Every series is going to have a favorite and an underdog. So be it.
Going into Sunday’s Game 3, the Braves are in an 0-2 hole, having dropped two on the road in L.A.
That’s a bad spot to be in. Now they’ve got to win three in a row, but what’s been worse that the record has been the on-field play.
The Braves have yet to put a run on the board in the first 18 innings of the Division Series. The offense has been a dud. The Braves have scattered hits amounting to nothing and anytime a rally appears like it could begin, the next batter inevitably hits into a double play or strikes out to end the inning.
The Atlanta offense that ranked so highly in the NL in 2018 has gone into hibernation weeks too soon.
The biggest gut punch of the series, however, was Mike Foltynewicz’s Game 1 start.
He started the game by giving up a leadoff home run, which in and of itself wouldn’t have seen so big a deal, but it very clearly shook Folty hard.
He ended up throwing only 50 pitches and was yanked after giving up 4 runs in just two innings.
The runs and the inability to pitch deep into the game were an issue, of course, but nothing sucked the wind out of the sails of the Braves (and their fans watching from across the nation) like Folty’s complete defeat.
His body language gave it all away. He was shaking his head constantly, snatching the return throw from the catcher in a frustrated way and all-in-all looking like he had nothing to give.
It was the kind of Folty we hadn’t seen at all during his breakout year and it was clear to the entire country that he was just done.
Despite minimizing the damage to one run in what could have been a much worse bottom of the first, the Braves ace came back out for the bottom of the second and didn’t have it. The Braves ace gave up three more runs and showed even more defeat in his posture and mannerisms.
Even 4 runs aren’t an insurmountable hole to climb out of but Brian Snitker saw what the rest of us saw and pulled Folty from the game.
It was tough to watch. It was tougher still by comparison to the way the Dodgers were playing. Kike Hernandez and Yasiel Puig were making basket catches and sticking their tongues out while making sliding plays. They were playing so casually and with a confidence that basically shouted: “we belong here.” Their swagger alongside a lackluster Braves squad showed a divide between the two teams as wide as the distant between their two home cities.
Game 2 was easier to watch. Anibal Sanchez did what he’s done all season: keep the Braves in the game.
Unfortunately, Clayton Kershaw decided it was time to remind the world that he’s a future Hall-of-Famer with plenty of road ahead of him.
There was to be no scoring against the Dodgers on that night and in fact there were only three hits, two of them by Ronald Acuna, Jr.
It was a long shot for the Braves to win this series but there was hope.
While many Braves fans will be satisfied just by their ahead-of-schedule NL East crown, no one could have expected or wanted to see this absolute outclassing at the hands of the Dodgers.
But to end on a positive note, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger; and while the Braves aren’t likely to win after being down 0-2, this young squad will have gotten their first taste of the postseason. There’s only one way to go from here.
A Tale Of 2 GM’s
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With an NL East Division Championship on their mantle (and in fact being the only team in the National League to wrap up their division prior to the last day of the season), the Braves have put together an unexpected and incredible run in 2018.
Lots of people will get credit, primarily and obviously the players, but also the coaching staff and front office, and deservedly so.
Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos came aboard during the last offseason and made an impression quickly with a financially clever trade, sending Matt Kamp to the Dodgers for Brandon McCarthy and Charlie Culberson (also Adrian Gonzalez and Scott Kazmir, neither of whom made an appearance for Atlanta).
Anthopoulos continued to put manager Brian Snitker in position to succeed throughout the year, taking gambles when necessary but also not dragging out mistakes out of pride (Jose Bautista, for example). He has been an asset to the team since he arrived, and he’ll get heaps of deserved praise for the season the Braves have completed.
But there’s also someone else who deserves praise and will get very little of it.
Part of a general manager’s job is to add pieces as needed, like Anthopoulos has done. But arguably a much larger part of the job, especially in the current era of MLB, a GM must build a team for sustained success. Alex Anthopoulos just got here, so he can’t claim to have done that for Atlanta.
Instead, erstwhile and disgraced former general manager John Coppolella gets credit for a lot of the Braves’ 2018 success.
He was fired (and banned from baseball for life) for shady dealings, but prior to that, Coppy – along with John Hart – tore down a Braves team that was heading for a tailspin and began crafting the young team we know today.
The formation of the 2018 NL East Division Champions is a tale of two GMs.
Who traded Evan Gattis to the Astros for a young, flame throwing pitcher named Mike Foltynewicz? Coppy did.
Who saw the talent in Kevin Gausman being squandered on a last place team and traded for him, installing the pitcher who would eventually take a spot in the postseason rotation? Double A gets the credit there.
Who moved the Braves’ only All-Star from 2015, Shelby Miller, in a blockbuster trade that brought Dansby Swanson AND Ender Inciarte to Atlanta? That was Coppollela.
Which GM took advantage of service time loopholes to make sure that the Braves get six years of Ronald Acuna, Jr., though it also turned out that Acuna struggled to start the season so maybe the notion that he needed more seasoning was right all along? Anthopoulos.
Who signed 2019 All-Star Nick Markakis to lead the young Braves on and off the field? Coppy again.
Who decided after an abysmal-yet-brief run by Bautista that the Braves didn’t need to hunt for a new third baseman and that Johan Camargo was going to produce at the hot corner? Anthopoulos made that call.
Who signed Acuna and Ozzie Albies as teenagers? Well, Frank Wren, actually. I suppose he deserves a little credit too.
Alex Anthopoulos has already made himself a lot of fans in Atlanta during his brief tenure as Braves GM. After the season they had, he’s very likely going to be a strong candidate for Executive of the Year.
That’s not unfair, he’s done a lot to make sure the Braves stayed in contention long after they were expected to drop out.
But let’s not forget the impact that John Coppelella had on the team that is heading to the playoffs this week.
He may not have turned out to be much of a model citizen, but it might be worth to raise a glass to him. You’re enjoying the fruits of his labor this season.
P.S. It’s probably also worth noting that one of the very last things that John Schuerholz did before ending his legendary run as Braves GM was draft a kid from California named Fredrick Charles Freeman.
Brave October
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s been half a decade, but the Braves are going to the playoffs again.
It is an exciting and frankly unexpected development in the Braves franchise in 2018, coming at least one but probably two years before the earliest anyone could have expected a division title.
Let’s take a quick look back at how they managed to end up on the top of the heap and briefly look ahead to the playoffs.
So, the Braves weren’t expected to make the playoffs in 2018. They weren’t really expected to compete for a spot.
So, does that mean that they lucked into a division title? Is their spot on top a fluke? Not at all.
Players like Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna, Jr. took steps as players, Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis stayed consistent and stayed healthy and the starting rotation, anchored by Mike Foltynewicz and Anibal Sanchez of all people, put in enough quality innings to help out a fairly poor bullpen.
This team is talented enough to belong where they are, make no mistake. To give credit where it’s due, it certainly didn’t hurt that both the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals, the two teams people actually thought would be at the top of the heap in 2018, were busts from nearly Opening Day.
The Mets in particular were lost causes early on but people kept expecting the favorite Nationals to wake up and make a run, at which point the Braves and Phillies would fall back to their natural places in the middle of the pack.
But that never happened and the NL East has been all about Atlanta and Philadelphia throughout the year.
So yes, Atlanta took advantage of a top spot that was vacated by the Nats, but the team they fielded still deserves to pop champagne, at least once.
On that note, let’s look ahead to what the playoffs might look like for Atlanta.
At this point it’s pretty clear that Chicago will have the best record in the NL, which means that they’ll take on the winner of the Wild Card Game, leaving the NL West Champs to face the Braves.
That’s clearly going to be either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Colorado Rockies. Both teams offer big challenges and the Braves played neither particularly well, going 2-5 against each club in 2018, including an ugly four game sweep at Suntrust Park at the hands of Colorado in August.
There may be a psychological benefit to playing a smaller market team like the Rockies to start off the playoffs but there would also be a measure of sweet revenge if the Braves could face Los Angeles, the team that knocked them out in the first round in 2013 (though only Freeman and Julio Teheran remain on the roster from that season).
Either way, it will be a huge challenge for the Braves to win their first playoff series since 2001. Whatever happens, Atlanta should be proud of what they accomplished this season – not just that they won the NL East, but that they DESERVED to win the NL East.
They hit, pitched, caught and had the kind of no-quit, gritty attitude that hasn’t been seen in Atlanta since the scrappy and resilient team that led Bobby Cox back to the playoffs one last time in 2010.
They’ve been incredibly fun to watch play and now we’ll get to watch them play just a little bit longer.
Acuna Matata
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Braves fans were already chomping at the bit for Ronald Acuna, Jr. to be awarded the NL Rookie of the Year award all the way back in February. As the league’s top prospect, he seemed a safe bet for the award.
A late debut wouldn’t make much of a difference but missing nearly a month to injury and a good, but not stellar initial run in the lineup threatened to derail those plans. Not to mention the emergence of Juan Soto as a legit contender for the award.
Acuna’s return and subsequent move to the leadoff spot has put him firmly in the running once again. The two young phenoms’ numbers are incredibly similar and it looks to be a tight race for the trophy.
But I think Acuna could aim a little higher. As in, Ronald Acuna, Jr.: National League Most Valuable Player.
ROTY tends to be handed to whichever player puts up better pure numbers. The MVP award tends to fluctuate on that point, sometimes going to players with higher slash lines, sometimes going to players who lead a team to the postseason.
What the appropriate criteria should be is a debate for another time. What tends to be the case when an MVP is awarded to a player on a last place team is that their numbers are so gaudy or historical that they are worthy of merit (A-Rod’s MVP while he was on last-place Texas Rangers team, for example).
The NL features no such player in 2018. No one has run away with the award and in fact there could be as many as five or six players worthy of the trophy come season’s end. And one of them, arguably the most deserving, is Ronald Acuna.
Since taking over the leadoff spot in the batting order, Acuna has been on an incredible tear and has been a huge part of solidifying the Braves’ spot at the top of the NL East.
The Braves briefly dropped out of first place over the summer but Acuna heated up and has been the sparkplug that has the Braves on the cusp on an NL East Title.
He’s hovering around .300 and could very reasonably reach 30 homeruns by the time the season comes to a close. He will have barely played in over 100 games.
To that point, his OPS would be tied for best in the National League, except he doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify.
So regardless of slash line, counting stats (RBIs is a notable deficiency), or impact on a team’s postseason aspirations, Ronald Acuna, Jr. has an incredibly strong case for National League Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player.
There’s precedent too: Ichiro pulled off the trick in 2001, so writers are willing to throw votes at a rookie (Ichiro’s standing as a true rookie was, of course, debatable).
Will it happen? If Acuna can get and stay over .300 and reach 30 home runs for a playoff team, it might convince a few voters.
Standing in his way, ironically, would be his teammates. Freddie Freeman was considered the frontrunner for the MVP for most of the season but his production lately hasn’t been up to MVP level. If Freddie finds another gear to close out the season, it might actually be tougher for either of the Braves stars to win. A split vote would be more likely.
But whatever happens, Atlanta has seen something truly special in 2018 and he’s only 20. So, regardless of whether or not he wins this year, Acuna needs to buy himself a trophy case sometime soon. A big one.
That’s My Guy
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Babe Ruth. Ted Williams. Nolan Ryan. Chipper Jones. Frank Robinson. Rod Carew.
Do any of those names feel out of place with the rest? None should. They are all, as of July 29th, Hall of Famers. First ballot Hall of Famers, in fact – and all deserving. But seeing Chipper’s name among those legend is a bit surreal.
And to reiterate my point, he absolutely deserves it. Anyone who watched him play knew he was a Hall of Famer years before he hung up his cleats for good. It’s no surprise that he was voted in, or that he was voted in first ballot, or that he got as high as 97% of the vote on that first ballot. The guy was as all-time great, and everyone knew it.
You’ve seen the numbers. You’ve seen the resume. Top ten in this, top ten in this, top ten in this. The numbers he put up in his 19 years as a big leaguer were getting him in.
Plus, he was one of the few (one of the last?) players to retire having played their entire career with one team.
Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter are going to follow him in 2019 and 2020. Chipper was a lifelong Brave and that was just as special as his numbers.
I wonder if watching him play every night for all those years is what makes his induction so strange. Hall of Famers are to be revered and while I have always admired and respected and even been in awe of Chipper’s talent, he never had that ‘legendary’ aura to me.
Maybe it’s because I got to see him interviewed on Braves Live every few days, or because Fox Sports South won’t stop replaying that episode of Driven about him, or maybe even because he laughed at a stupid joke I made when he signed my baseball bat a decade ago; he was a consistent part of my life for years and so it’s surreal to see his name among those greats. He’s just our Chipper, after all.
I wonder as well if kids who just recently started watching baseball will see him go in and it seem completely normal. They’ve heard about how great he was, they can look up his stellar numbers and agree with the consensus that he belongs in the hallowed grounds of the Hall. Anyone who started watching baseball in 2013 and anyone who watches baseball from now on will just think of Chipper Jones as a legendary ballplayer, a Hall of Famer who rightfully went in on his first shot. And they’re right. He is those things.
He’s also our guy, our family member getting a prestigious award. Everyone claps and applauds for the accomplishment because everyone claps and applauds for the accomplishments because they dictate that he is deserving. I will clap and applaud for the guy I spent so much of my time with for more than a decade because I saw him earn it.
Maybe what I’m trying to get at here is that I’m actually proud of him. I’m not proud of Derek Jeter, even though I think he’s one of the great shortstops of all time and will deserve his probably record-breaking vote percentage. Why would I be? He isn’t my guy the way Chipper is.
And Chipper definitely is, more than Maddux or Glavine or Smoltz was, even more than Bobby, I think. Being that, being my guy, being our guy, makes this surreal, and strange and absolutely deserved, and absolutely wonderful.
Congrats Chipper. We knew you could do it.
Braves Run Over?
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For any Braves fans out there, who haven’t been kicking around the Earth for the same 32 years that I have, this season has to be a strange and exciting one.
You grew up rooting for a juggernaut of a team that was a threat to win it all throughout the 90’s. There were also some truly bad stretches of play where Braves hats were traded out for the fan’s college football team of choice by the Fourth of July. And there were a few years mixed in where Atlanta was expected to be thoroughly average and did just that.
But this is something new. Many preseason predictions had the Braves as a young team still squarely in the middle of a rebuild. While they weren’t expected to lose 100 games, they were overwhelmingly picked to finish third or worse in the National League East.
I’ve encountered plenty of Braves fans who aren’t sure what to think. Sure, they’re excited, but it’s hard to look at some teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros with a lineup full of superstars and not wonder if the other shoe is set to drop.
Braves fans in the 25-35 age group spent the first half of their lives knowing that the regular season was a formality leading up to another division championship. Following that long run, there were a few lean years that everyone saw coming.
A bounce back from that saw an improved lineup from 2010-13 that was expected to contend and did, making a wild card game and two division series while winning another division title.
Then came another swoon that was expected to only be showing the first signs of a turnaround in 2018. Instead, the Braves are on pace for 90 wins.
Only time will tell in that matter, but I’m here to tell you to enjoy it, because these surprise seasons are the best of all.
If you’re around my age and a Braves fan, the only comparable season to 2018 that you might remember is 1991.
It’s my reference point as one of my first concrete memories of watching a game was seeing Kirby Puckett hit his Game 6 home run. Sorry for the cheap shot, but that really is the first baseball memory I can put into context.
I’m sure that the summer of ‘91 was spent with a lot of Braves fans not quite sure if they should allow themselves to get wrapped up in a run that always feels like it could stop at any moment.
Don’t do that. Lean in. It will be a summer to remember. And if not. Well, there’s always next year.
Mortgage The Farm
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A few weeks back I wrote an article assessing the merits of two potential trade targets for the Atlanta Braves: Cole Hamels and Mike Moustakas.
I went over what they might bring to the team, the kinds of packages the Braves might send over in return for these two particular players and whether or not I thought such a trade would be worth it for Alex Anthopolous to make (to sum up: I did not think so).
I wrote about these two because they were the two names bandied about that actually made sense that Atlanta could possibly go out and get them. You know who I did not mention in that article? Manny Machado.
Machado, who is in a walk year and who is having arguably the best year of his already stellar career for the Baltimore Orioles.
I didn’t bring him up because trading for the guy didn’t seem particularly feasible. The price would be too high for a two-month rental.
But now, as June has turned to July and the trade deadline fast approaches, Machado – who is almost certainly going to be traded somewhere – is being linked to a number teams.
One of those teams in the Atlanta Braves.
Now no one is sure what kind of return Baltimore is expecting, but Machado is a fortunes-changing talent, even for just two months, so the asking price is sure to be high.
I ask you – is there anything the Braves could conceivably give up for Machado that the Orioles would accept that would also be worth trading away for two months of an elite talent?
I say two months because the argument that getting a player to play in your city helps sell your city to that player is nonsense. The notion that Machado would come to Atlanta and sign an extension is fantasy.
Machado, for some stupid reason, seems to be second fiddle to Bryce Harper for the coming offseason (Machado has a higher career batting average, three seasons of 30+ homeruns to Bryce’s one, two Gold Gloves to Bryce’s zero, and is having a much better 2018); but he’s going to make ungodly sums of money next year and for years to come.
There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that he doesn’t reach free agency. And then what? Are the Braves going to get into a bidding war? Of course not. They will have money to play with during this offseason, but not that kind of money.
There is very little chance Machado is playing with a tomahawk on his chest come Opening Day 2019, so whatever the Braves hypothetically give up to get him in 2018 will be for less than half a season’s worth of Manny.
In a vacuum I would, of course, love to see Manny in the Braves lineup, but there would be a cost to make that happen. And the Orioles will want too much.
I know the Braves have incredible depth in pitching, but any of their top 10 pitching prospects are worth hanging onto for something more sustainable. Is trading away five more years of what Max Fried could be equitable to two months of what we know Manny Machado is? I just don’t think so.
Full Schedule
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Despite dropping a big one in their homestand against the Baltimore Orioles and the Cincinnati Reds, the Braves have maintained a steady lead in the NL East over the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals.
It’s a bit a miracle, to be quite frank, because the baseball gods should have made Atlanta pay for losing consecutive series against two last place teams. One of which, the O’s, is the worst team in all of baseball (and outside of Kansas City, it’s not even close).
But the Braves escaped from that abysmal stretch pretty much unscathed and have been plenty appreciative thus far on their current road trip, putting up big numbers in the first two games against St. Louis.
It’s a good sign that the Bravos can still beat good teams, because July is going to be a hell of test for Atlanta. Arguably this is a month that can prove that the Braves are for real or humble them in a big way.
Why? Because of who they are playing. The best records in the National League belong to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Atlanta Braves, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals.
Beginning with the current series against St. Louis and excluding Atlanta itself because, duh, the Braves play every one of those teams except for Chicago and Philadelphia.
Not that missing the Cubs is much of a relief, because instead of that club the Braves are traveling to the Bronx for a three-game set against the Yankees, who have a significantly better record than anyone in the entire National League anyway.
There’s a two-game set against Toronto in the mix as well, but even they managed a split against Atlanta earlier in the season.
So, when I tell you that July is an important month, you can take that to the bank. The Braves have to win these series. Especially, because the Nationals play Miami EIGHT times during the month in addition to a six-game road trip against Pittsburgh and the Mets.
Plus, Philadelphia gets treated to series against those same Reds and Orioles that Atlanta should have stomped. The Phillies get a home series versus the Padres and play the Marlins and Pirates as well.
This would be the time, if I were a writer for a publication in Pennsylvania, I would suggest that Philly needs to take advantage of the schedule discrepancy and put pressure on Atlanta. Especially, considering that the Phillies and Braves won’t play each other until two of the last three series of the season.
On the flip side, that is what makes it so important that the Braves come out of this month not having lost any ground to the teams below them, Philadelphia in particular.
Just as they won’t be able to control their own fate if they are behind, so too will the Braves lack the ability to widen the standings (or worse, make a comeback) in head-to-head matchups until the campaign is almost over.
Atlanta will play Washington in one series per month for the rest of the year, including in July. I would argue it’s actually more important that they keep Washington down by playing well during these dog days of summer.
The Nationals still feel like a sleeping dragon. If they manage to climb to the top of the standings and subsequently start playing at the level at which they are capable, they will be very difficult to unseat as division leaders.
Make no mistake, this is going to be a very tough month for Atlanta and me saying ‘they need to play well’ seems obvious and easy.
However, come October, this may prove to be the most important month of the season for the National League East.
