By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Braves will be entering the All-Star Break sitting pretty atop of the heap of the National League East.

That fact, plus a three-All-Star showing in the personages of Ronald Acuna, Jr., Freddie Freeman, and Mike Soroka, should make baseball fans all across Braves country rejoice.

It’s especially sweet given the potential offseason improvements made by the Washington Nationals (adding Patrick Corbin, among other things) and Philadelphia Phillies (adding Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen, and Jean Segura, among other things), both of whom are tied for 2^nd place in the East at 6 games back going into Sunday’s contests.

The Mets too, made moves to improve themselves (blockbuster trade for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz), and they sit under .500 at 13 games back going into Sunday.

The Braves, for their part, made very few headlines in the offseason other than signing Josh Donaldson to a hefty $23 million contract for a year and he has only really been bringing the rain for the past two weeks or so, offensively.

So, the fact that the Bravos have managed to put a relatively nice cushion between them and the rest of the NL East at the end of the first half is truly an impressive feat, though maybe not an entirely surprising one, as they did win the division last season.

The question is: can they maintain the lead they’ve carved out for themselves during the second half of 2019? And if they can, are they capable of playing deeper into the playoffs than their fairly unimpressive showing against the Los Angeles Dodgers last October?

The answer to the first question is a resounding yes. The Mets are being the Mets and seem to be on the verge of implosion, so let’s table them for the time being.

The Phillies are a talented squad but the Braves have shown that they can handle them, winning the last two series against them and outscoring them 50-25 over those six games.

The Nationals are a bit more of an unknown factor. The Braves have only played them five times so far this season, and have gone 2-3 so far. Granted, they took 2 out of 3 from them in the nation’s capital two weeks ago, so recency bias has the Braves at an advantage for their season exchange going forward.

The Braves have won with a nearly unstoppable offense in 2019. They’ve set a new season record for home runs before the break and tied the franchise record for most players with 15 bombs in the first half – both records set by the 2003 squad (note: if Ozzie Albies knocks one out on Sunday, the new record will be set with six – SIX – players with 15 homers).

The pitching for Atlanta in 2019 has been more inconsistent, which is partially why the answer to the second question is probably a no.

Mike Soroka has earned his All-Star selection, but the Atlanta rotation just hasn’t shown it can get the job done day in and day out. Obviously, the team has been winning, but that doesn’t mean that if the Braves draw the Dodgers in the first round again that they won’t get spanked.

There’s potential here. However, Julio Teheran has found his old self in 2019, though he still has his poor streaks.

Mike Foltynewicz has proved that he can be better than he has been this year, and I feel confident we haven’t seen the best of Dallas Keuchel in an Atlanta uniform yet (he just got started, after all).

But these guys need to find another gear if this second exciting year atop the NL East is going to end differently than the last one.