Atlanta Braves?

Question

How do think the Braves will do this year. I think the NL East will be tight but I think they have a decent shot at the division or at least a wild card.

Answer 1

The Phillies will win the division without a doubt. The Mets are in deep do-do when it comes to their pitching. Their lineup is pretty good but they will give us a ton of runs. The Braves have an outside shot at second place in the division. Whether their record will be good enough for a wild card birth remains to be seen.

Answer 2

no they are to young for the most part, they are under new ownership and who knows how much money they are willing to pay to get some decent players to go along with the Jones boys and the mets are going to be tough this year. i also think that if howard has another good year for the phillies the have a shot at bumping the braves down another spot in the nl east

Answer 3

The Phils will be very good, the Mets can buy their way into very good if they aren't, and the Fish and Nats are terrible, so I'd say that puts the Braves third. Out of the division race early, out of the wild card in early September.

Answer 4

In February 2007, after greater desirable than a 365 days of negotiations, Time Warner agreed to a deal that could sell the Braves to Liberty Media team (a corporation which owned a great quantity of inventory in Time Warner, Inc.), pending approval via seventy 5 % of MLB proprietors and the Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig. The deal contains the substitute of the Braves and $a million billion funds, for the vast block of Time Warner inventory held via Liberty Media.

Answer 5

If Hampton is healthy, and Smoltz can keep his head on straight, and Hudson regains the form he had in Oakland, and Chuck James wins half his starts as a number 4 or 5 guy, and the offense puts up the kinds of numbers that they did last year, and Bob Wickman doesn't pull a Dan Kolb on us, then yeah, they've got a pretty good chance. Basically, their offense is solid. If they stay healthy, keep hitting, and their pitching staff can knock half a run off their team ERA from last year's 4.60, they should win the division with 92-97 wins. Look at their competition:

New York Mets: The Mets' offense is better than the Braves'. Period. New Yorkers can whine about Beltran's numbers-to-numbers ratio (as in: stats vs. paycheck), but I happened to be at Turner Field the afternoon last season that Beltran had 7 RBIs, and I'm impressed. They have a legitimate leadoff man (which the Braves don't), and they've got Delgado and a ton of other guys who can make runs happen. Their rotation (at the start of the season), though, is an over-40 Tom Glavine and four question marks. If their starters finish with a combined ERA of around 4.50 (they finished at 4.15 last season with Pedro and a relatively healthy El Duque combining for 250 innings), they'll probably win around 87-92 games.

Philadelphia Phillies: I'm still trying to figure out how the hell these guys got better after they traded Bobby Abreu. 58 HRs from Ryan Howard, and the emergence of Cole Hamels, and great years from Utley and J-Rol did a lot to keep them in the hunt. Realistically, though, it's hard to believe that all those things will fall into place again. Rollins had the best OPS of his career; Utley got 200 hits for the first time in his career, and I find it very hard to believe that Howard's going to chase Babe again next year. Something else that I don't see maintaining: nobody on their entire pitching staff won more than twelve games last year. At least one of their guys should break fifteen wins next season (Hamels -- the guy is for real), and they'll have their share of 10-game-winners. I see them finishing just barely above .500, though, because of the lack of consistent run support (82-85 wins).

Florida Marlins: Somebody needs to rescue Dontrelle Willis from his Purgatory. I'm gonna offend the two Marlins fans who read this when I admit that I only knew the names of two of their position players before I pulled up the stats page -- Uggla and Cabrera -- and I'm going to further offend them when I say that neither one of those two guys is going to have as good a season next year as he did last year. Anibel Sanchez and Josh Johnson aren't going to finish the season with ERA's below 3.10 again unless they both hurt themselves in April and don't pitch again for the rest of the year. In other words, I think last season was a fluke, and the Marlins will be lucky to win 75 games this year (69-73 wins). They have talent; they're on the way up; but this isn't their year. They have too much in common with the Tigers of three years ago.

Washington Nationals: They lost Jose Vidro and Alfonso Soriano. They only won 71 games last year. They'll fight tooth and nail with the Marlins for the basement.

So, back to your original question: How do I think the Braves will do this year? I have no idea. There are too many 'ifs' right now. But, I think it'll be a fun season to watch.

Answer 6

i think they will be fourth in the east actually, although that may not be that many games out...they do have a decent team, but the marlins will be much improved, as will the phillies, and of course the mets are still there to contend with...the bottom line is that this division is just too tough for them to win, for sure, and i don't see them passing florida or philly either

Answer 7

Sorry but I disagree. They will probably end up third between the Mets in 1st and the Phillies in 2nd. There isn't a lot of offense behind Jones and the pitching is not nearly as good as it was during their time at the top.

Answer 8

Well I am a Braves fan and I think they will win the division.

Answer 9

if the starting rotation comes back strong with Hampton returning and if Hudson can rebound to his former self and Smoltz is strong enough, etc., i think they have a better than decent chance of winning the division. i believe the offense will be there again, especially if Kelly Johnson can adapt to playing second base.

Answer 10

atlanta braves are going to be third behid the mets and the phillies

1) Mets young team w/ lots of tools
2) Phillies improved
3) braves ok
4) marlins young but still getting better
5) nationals need work