That offense is downright sick. That rotation is deep. The bullpen is solid, and they will have Gonzalez back by the summer. They win easily and lose hard...and I'm just curious when people are going to start noticing? The only reason that they happen to be three games back in their division is because the Marlins had a great start to the season.
It just seems as if nobody notices what a wonderful team this could be this year.
Yea... they've also had one of the easiest schedules in baseball, thus far, not to mention they happen to be a full game behind the Mets, and 3 back on the Phillies. They have no depth in the starting pitching, their bullpen isn't spectacular, and while their lineup is good, they'll be prone to cold streaks without a strong starting 5. After Hudson, its a toss up. Jurrjens is good for now, but he's young, and its a matter of time before he goes cold. He's very good... but not this good. And the only reason they're not another 2-3 games back is because Jurrjens has been lights out.
Their season ended the day John Smoltz got hurt. They'll be lurking all year, but they don't have the rotational strength to make a push at the Phillies or Mets, both of whome have well balanced teams (who saw the Phils pen being this good?). They were never a secret. They were picked to win the division, by a lot of people.
And honestly... 8 against Pittsburgh, 6 against Washington, and a Cincinnati, San Diego, Colorado, and LA Dodgers during their cold spell set of series? I wish the Mets had a piece of that. They go through the Mets, Arizona, Philly, Milwaukee, Chicago, and the Angels in the next month. If they come out of it still back 3 games, I'll reconsider.
And remember... when Chipper gets his annual injury, they lose about half of their offensive production.
While Ozy to me just sounds like a Mets fan who is bitter that his team can't do squat, he does make some very valid points.
First, when Mark Teixeira finally starts swinging the stick like we know he can you will be hard pressed to find a better lineup in all of MLB.
After Hudson, its a toss up.
Tim Hudson is a bonafide ace and no one will argue that. But Jair Jurrjens has been great this season. The one time he faced the Mets he got absolutely squeezed by the home plate ump with the bases loaded and walked in a few runs. But his composure was terriffic and he ended up getting the win anyway.
Tom Glavine is only 1-1 but probably should have at least 3 or 4 more wins if it wasn't for the bullpen.
Jo-Jo Reyes has looked good thus far. Chuck James is horrible and hopefully will never throw another pitch for Atlanta.
The Braves do need to add an arm this year before the deadline.
John Smoltz, Rafael Soriano, and Mike Gonzalez will all be back soon and thus could make the Braves bullpen the best in the division if not the league. Right now the bullpen has been borderline horrible. Which is a big reason for their horrible record in 1 run games.
Every year for some reason it seems the Braves have a horrible time beating the teams they should but always are competitive with their top competition.
when Chipper gets his annual injury
Could Chipper Jones get hurt.......of course. But so could anyone. Maybe the Mets will lose a bunch of players to injury soon too. The Braves have been bitten by the injury bug all season.
As the team gets healthy and starts to get some key players back i expect the Braves to play better.
Go ahead and count them out if you want Ozy, but I expect the Braves to be there all season long. Hopefully the Mets will overlook them too, but they got enough stuff on their plate as is.
VolPride... the Mets have had just as many injuries as the Braves. Not counting Mike Hampton, because honestly, did you expect him to pitch? Outside of that, you have Smoltz down, and some relievers (and by the way, as good as they WERE, never expect a reliever to be consistent in performance, except closers... and thats why they're closers). Alou has been out, Pedro, El Duque, for what hes worth... the Braves haven't gotten the injury bug particularly badly. And just as many players are slumping on both teams, unless Teixeira is the only one on the Braves, in which case you have no cause for complaint, because of how hot Chipper is.
"Tom Glavine is only 1-1 but probably should have at least 3 or 4 more wins if it wasn't for the bullpen."
I'm not so sure about that. I watched him last year, and all the life was gone from his arm. I haven't watched him this year, but his stats tell me he isn't a guy who's gonna win 15. He's got a 1.00 K/BB, a whopping .368 OBP against, and of course a 4.41 ERA. Those aren't the stats of a guy who should be 5-2 or 4-1. I'm looking at his game log. He's had some games he should have won, yes, but 2 or three he certainly should have lost and got bailed out on (May 4th and 14th jump out immediately).
"Could Chipper Jones get hurt.......of course. But so could anyone. Maybe the Mets will lose a bunch of players to injury soon too. The Braves have been bitten by the injury bug all season."
Obviosuly. But so could anyone on the Braves. I singled out Chipper because he has a history of injury that most of the Mets don't have, outside of Alou, and he's already been out for a month and they're coddling him so I expect to get 120 more games out of him, at least.
The Braves are a good team. No one is denying that, especially not me. I was much more worried about them than I was about Philadelphia, until Smoltz went down. I just think there are a lot of pieces missing there, by which I mean, arms in the rotation. Jurrjens, as I said, is very good... but not this good. What happens when he comes down to earth? You have 4 guys who are, ostensibly, #4 or #5 guys behind your ace. Thats a dangerous situation
im a Braves fan and love the enthusiasm, though wish i can be as positive as you.... i think the bull-pen needs a lot of help and Gonzo's return will be huge. also, we need to add another starter or two to the rotation so Hudson, Jurrgens and JoJo dont feel the pressure. we'll see what happens!
