Remember how the Braves needed to get going? They have
Chipper puts the Braves ahead. He's done that before. (AP photo)
It wasn’t so long ago — 17 days, to be precise — that we noted that the 2012 Atlanta Braves’ window of opportunity mightn’t be as panoramic as that of most teams embarking on a six-month season. The Braves, as we know, were coming off a regrettable September, and they’d started 0-4 against teams slotted to finish last in their respective divisions. To which we said: Yikes.
Today we say: That window has grown so broad that on a clear day you almost can see October.
The Braves have won 12 of 15, taking five consecutive series in the process. They’re tied with St. Louis as having the third-best record in the National League and the fourth-best in baseball. Yes, they’re 2 1/2 games behind Washington, which has caught a flying start, but they’re three games ahead of Philadelphia and four up on Miami. And — get this — they’ve scored the most runs of any NL club.
The team that couldn’t hit is hitting .261, up from last season’s .243. Its on-base percentage is .324, up from the .308 of 2011. Chipper Jones, on whom so much still depends, has played in only 11 games but has 10 RBI’s. Jason Heyward, who hit .227 last season, is batting .303. Dan Uggla, who was hitting .195 eight games ago, is up to .264.
Apart from Jair Jurrjens working his way down to Class AAA, the starting pitching has been just fine. Brandon Beachy has yielded three earned runs in four starts. Tommy Hanson has an ERA of 3.38; Mike Minor’s is 3.42. Randall Delgado has already won twice, and Tim Hudson is due back Sunday. And the bullpen?
The Braves have blown one save in 19 games, that coming when Eric O’Flaherty lost a seventh-inning lead in a game his team would win. Jonny Venters hasn’t allowed an opponent to put the ball in play — forget getting a hit — in his past two outings: Six batters faced, six strikeouts. Craig Kimbrel faced eight men in preserving two narrow leads in Los Angeles: Five struck out.
Granted, the same caveat applies now that the Braves are winning as when they were 0-4: It’s a long season. Stuff can and will happen. But you can’t help but like the way this team shrugged off 0-4 and has been tearing it up ever since. They swept the Brewers, who played in the NLCS last season; took three of four from Arizona, which won the West in 2011, and two of three from the Dodgers, who’d started 7-0 at home.
Maybe my eyes deceive me — they’ve been known to do that — but this looks like a really good team. More to the point, the Braves have already assured themselves of a winning April, and having a good April was a big deal for this bunch.
By Mark Bradley
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121 comments Add your comment
urban redneck
April 26th, 2012
10:35 am
only thing worse than someone doing first is trying to get props for it………..gayest thing i’ve ever seen and i went to pride festival.
DetroitBraves
April 26th, 2012
10:36 am
@George Stein, you around? Small samples and all, but take a look at Heyward’s walk%, strikeout% and BABIP on Fangraphs. Then take a look at Freeman’s. Interesting stuff. Heyward’s power is back, at least according to his ISO, but in terms of drawing walks and avoiding strikeouts he’s about the same as last year, which is down from his rookie season. And Freeman’s rates are simply not good, particularly for a major league first baseman. This is a good team and I expect them to be in contention at the end but again, Fredi Gonzalez is not a good manager. He still does not deploy his resources in a way most likely to succeed. It would be fun to see what this talented team could do with better leadership.
DetroitBraves
April 26th, 2012
10:39 am
@dean, the hitting coach got fired. I don’t know how much impact a hitting coach actually has but since everyone seems to agree that the offense was the major issue last year I would say firing the hitting coach was something the Braves found of utmost importance, whether it really is or not.
dean
April 26th, 2012
10:42 am
No, Detroit. I mean nobody got fired since Opening Day.
DetroitBraves
April 26th, 2012
10:43 am
@dean, that in that case. You are correct. Though Jurrjens may feel fired.
dean
April 26th, 2012
10:52 am
I prefer to enjoy a ride like this rather than the 9-14 of 2010 or the 13-15 of last year.
dean
April 26th, 2012
10:54 am
Yeah, I feel bad for JJ. I’m afraid we may have seen the last of him in The Bigs.
B.
April 26th, 2012
11:04 am
Bring back the knee-length pants!
DetroitBraves
April 26th, 2012
11:06 am
I think he will be back. I don’t know how much success he will have. I’m actually hoping he is hurt because if so maybe he can regain his health and regain some of his success.
And yeah, I think we should enjoy this ride too. I may be coming off as a bit too negative. It’s fun to watch them win. I guess my point is more that when they are losing, and at some point they will have a bad week again, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing right about this team. At the same time, when they are winning it doesn’t mean that there is nothing wrong. When the team is winning is a good time to take a look at what may still be going wrong despite the results (like JJ) or what is going right due to a lot of luck, but isn’t really sustainable, and address those issues before they impact the bottom line. Never a bad time to try to get even better.
Loosing Managar = Loosing Record
April 26th, 2012
11:10 am
Give it time. U will see the Braves finnish in last palce cuz…..They got a loosing managar!
Home of the Braves
April 26th, 2012
11:12 am
Doing great so far. But we haven’t had to deal with the injury bug yet. All it takes is 2 or 3 injuries to key players and the season can go south real quick.
kwajbraves
April 26th, 2012
11:12 am
It is fun to see young players grow in front our eyes. Freeman will be the cornerstone of this team for years to come and it is good to see that the Rev is playing like he belongs. Go Braves!
reality
April 26th, 2012
11:12 am
Baseball is magic. A bad team suddenly becomes great, and all the “smart” blogger/fans become stupid. But don’t worry. The magic has a way of balancing things and the “i told you so’s” will bounce around the blog soon enough. Smartness will return. In the mean time I think we should focus on the delightful surprise of winning and not worry about being right so much.
Hillbilly D
April 26th, 2012
11:14 am
As soon as they have a four or five game losing streak, people will be ready to jump off a cliff, again. This is baseball; it’s a long season. Don’t get too high or too low, especially in April.
Joe Tess Fish House
April 26th, 2012
11:16 am
Thing about it if UR best player is 40 year old criple that can only play 1 out of ever 4 days UR team is domed 2 fale.
Heisenberg
April 26th, 2012
11:21 am
Not sure what I dislike more: late night west coast games or the stupid meebo bar. Laying in bed last night with one eye closed and the other half open (or half closed). Last thing I remember is Dodgers up 2-1 and Ventors was warming up. Probably missed the rally by 10 minutes. Also lost consciousness Tuesday night before Prado hit the triple. Looking forward to being able to see the end of games come Friday. Should be interesting, Pittsburgh cannot hit but nobody has been getting much off them either.
DetroitBraves
April 26th, 2012
11:23 am
@reality, the fans can sit back and enjoy the winning but the front office can’t afford to be so complacent. But yeah, it’s a good team.
@hillbilly D, you are, of course, very, very right. Before this season is over the Braves will have several more streaks, both good and bad. The truth will always be closer to the middle. The reaction on the blogs will probably not be all that close to the middle.
@kwajbraves, I’m probably going to figure this out and feel stupid about it as soon as I ask but who is “the Rev”?
@loosing manager, they finished second with Fredi Gonzalez last year and even with his many missteps probably would have taken the wildcard with just a little bit better health in the second half. I’ve said many, many times out here that I don’t think much of Fredi but I think you are overstating his impact just a tad.
ATLSWAG
April 26th, 2012
11:24 am
NICE ARTICLE! IM LOVING THE WAY THE TEAM IS PLAYING CONFIDENT!
Possum Man
April 26th, 2012
11:25 am
Don’t win a penant in April. Without Chipper completing the season and starters keeping relievers off the field, similar collapse is in the mix.
msd
April 26th, 2012
11:35 am
It’s the same bats as last season. Come on. We all know the conclusion. It’s been done over and over. Come september, they choke. If they make it to October, they choke. The bats go silent. Why anyone expects a different outcome is well, insanity.
Drew Woodson
April 26th, 2012
11:43 am
69th!
dean
April 26th, 2012
12:06 pm
msd,
What would you say about the 2010 team? The one that lost (some say gave away) to the ultimate WS champs? This team is better than that team, imo. Last September was an aberration, not a trend.
drumdana
April 26th, 2012
12:39 pm
I think there is a distinct difference between the attitude of this year’s team as compared to last years. I credit Fredi and the new hitting coaches. Fredi seems to much more serious this year, almost pissed (which I like) and it is obvious that the new hitting coaches have made a huge impact.
Sid
April 26th, 2012
12:51 pm
“Braves rally in the 9th”, man that has an old familiar ring to it…..!!!
Marteen is a Ballplayer
April 26th, 2012
12:55 pm
Possum, you are correct that you don’t win a pennant in April, but you can certainly lose it. I was alll doom and gloom after the way the Braves came out of the gate. Now, I am thrilled…not because I expect the Braves to continue at a 12-7 pace the rest of the year, but because I know how good this team can be. There will be peaks and valleys, but I just feel confident now that they will indeed be in the mix.
And it can not be overstated how important a 9th inning comeback is for this team or any team.
Dirty Dawg
April 26th, 2012
1:07 pm
Stayed with it last night and was rewarded with as satisfying an outcome as I can remember. Don’t know how this season will turn out but nothing beats fun at the old ballpark, so let’s just enjoy it.
Maybe it’s just me but the MLB Network hasn’t been very impressed with this game. Sure it was a late one and they probably ‘wrapped’ their stuff last night, but surely they could have made more of it by now. I will say that Harold Reynolds is likely to remind everybody that he’s the only one of their on-air guys that picked the Braves to win the East – OK, OK, it’s still April but dammit that’s what makes baseball special…we get the chance to live and die a jillion times over the course of a season, just so long as we’re still in it come September.
iTiSi
April 26th, 2012
1:08 pm
Definition of an “Eternal Optimist” : A Braves fan who really honestly thinks this season will be any different than any other year, just because it started out great.
iTiSi
April 26th, 2012
1:12 pm
“DetroitBraves”, nobody answered your question @11:23AM so I will. The “Rev” is the new young shortstop Pastor Tylernicky.
Dawg Haus
April 26th, 2012
1:52 pm
They’re certainly off to a good start and are swinging the bats as well as anyone right now. Who’d have thunk it? Hope they can keep this momentum going into the summer.
Tumbledown
April 26th, 2012
1:54 pm
I have expressed doom and gloom with the best of them on this and other blogs. However, can’t we all just enjoy this good stretch of baseball right now without nitpicking at the strength of the teams the Braves are beating or making speculative dire predictions at this point? After the nightmare of watching the collapse last season and the lack of optimism during spring training (I admit to being a doomsayer at that time and after the 0-4 start), this has been a wonderful period of time to watch Braves’ baseball. .
Longtimefan
April 26th, 2012
2:13 pm
To those who repeatedly bash FW and owner Liberty Media re “cheap” payroll-some facts:
1) The Braves are 16 out of 30 teams @ about 84M-so they are middle of the pack
2) The Phillies are about 170-180M and locked into several long term contracts with aging players-not a position you want to be in
3) FW has actually done a masterful job trading for talent(Bourn,Uggla), while not literally giving away the Farm to satisfy the uninformed, vocal minority.
Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinions, but there are clearly bloggers who aren’t truly Braves fans and perversely would like to see them lose or they are just agitating morons who like to get a rise out of people by saying and doing stupid things(see Joe Tess and Loosing Managar-same moron). If you are a real baseball fan and root for the Braves, how can you not enjoy and be excited by their recent play? Why throw cold water on it by saying how it won’t last or other negative comments? Just enjoy! There are as many reasons to think it will continue as not. Why pick the negative?
I dropped my fried twinkie
April 26th, 2012
2:46 pm
I WISH I could hit a ball as far as Chipper at his age.
Bobbys' Booger
April 26th, 2012
2:48 pm
Well I tip my hat to myself for admitting I jumped the gun on how bad this team was this year.
Keep it up and we could be in for a nice story. I like the quick …or quicker than usual hook on JJ. He is a head case currently. Every game won now mean one we don;t have to win in September…
DetroitBraves
April 26th, 2012
3:25 pm
@iTiSi, thanks. I had not heard that before. I don’t know if that’s what they call him on the broadcasts but living out of market I watch them on the Extra Innings package – and given I’m not blacked out to the other team’s broadcast I seldom listen to Chip Caray. Not sure how he’s received down there but between the constant chuckles, the “fisted”s, and the need to make every single at-bat sound like the 9th inning of a WS game ol’ Chip just kind of drives me nuts. As a result I may miss some of the nicknames. Liked his dad and his grandfather quite a bit but I just don’t get Chip.
PMC
April 26th, 2012
3:37 pm
2 out of 3 in LA against one of the hottest teams in MLB is AWESOME!
Go Braves.
Joey
April 26th, 2012
3:41 pm
“This Braves team, as currently constituted, will not win a thing.”
Haha, I had to remind Mark of one of his Braves predictions (paraphrased I’m sure) – in ‘09?
IHEARTCARROLL
April 26th, 2012
4:15 pm
“on a clear day you almost can see October”
I love that line. Is it a Mark Bradley original, or has it been around ?
luvthosedawgs68
April 26th, 2012
4:18 pm
Loving the excitement over the last 2 late inning wins!! I do agree that as long as the batters are more patient at the plate, they will be more productive. Not necessarily in the immediate at-bat, but in later at-bats. Patience at the plate also jacks up the pitch count, which means the starter is gone earlier. It’s a win-win for the team when they’re patient at the plate.
AGTFan
April 26th, 2012
5:00 pm
@dean – I love that quote. Atlanta sports have some of the most negative fans (if they’re really fans?) of any city in the world. If the teams had payed attention to some of the folks on the blogs, the Hawks would have fired Larry Drew before he ever coached a game, the Falcons would have cut Matty Ice after the Giant’s game, and the Braves would have cancelled the rest of the season after the opening series. Seriously some of these so called Brave’s fans are so bad that they’ll be picketing the HOF for letting in Bobby Cox and Chipper Jones.
Dudley Dooright
April 26th, 2012
5:24 pm
@9:49 am: Is there something wrong with having one’s finger up their nose?
74 Dawg
April 26th, 2012
5:48 pm
I won’t say it… yes I will. I told you it was only one week into the season, and everyone was jumping off buildings:)
Skeezix
April 26th, 2012
5:54 pm
Great article Mark! The Braves have giving us reason to hope and dream again.
iTiSi
April 26th, 2012
6:13 pm
“Detroit Braves@ 3:25PM”…………. You’re correct about Chip. I just tolerate him and try to ignore him, about like I have heard Joe Simpson does. He is nothing near like his dad Skip, and “grandpappy Harry”! Skip kept me rolling in the floor most of the time. One thing about it, while the Braves were in LA there were complete opposites announcing in the booths of the Braves and Dodges. By that I mean Vin Scully(I know some people think he is great) who sounds like he is about to fall asleep most of the time with his monotone and no emotion. They played some of his broadcast on MLB recaps the other night and on Chipper’s HR it sound like he was announcing a golf match! As you said, Chip does overdo it and does sound fake some of the time. At least he is awake though unlike VS.
phil
April 26th, 2012
6:19 pm
msd
April 26th, 2012
11:35 am
It’s the same bats as last season. Come on. We all know the conclusion. It’s been done over and over. Come september, they choke. If they make it to October, they choke. The bats go silent. Why anyone expects a different outcome is well, insanity.
******
sadly, i tend to agree….it likely will depend on end of career magic from Chipper….
Like we’ve seen from David Robinson in ‘03 and michael strahan in ‘07.
63 year Braves Fan
April 26th, 2012
6:22 pm
I hope we can get Uggla & McCann to stop trying to pull every pitch and hit the ball to the opposite
field which will also yield less strikeouts.
snoopy
April 26th, 2012
7:04 pm
Still need terry francona to be our manger
brooksrobinson
April 26th, 2012
7:21 pm
Nats pitching is looking out of this world. But their hitting…Braves have that upper hand. Looking forward to those 2 teams meeting.
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
April 26th, 2012
7:36 pm
only problem that concerns me is Chipper & road trips. is this the norm now to expect at least 2 games per road trip due to the knee?
Ken Stallings
April 26th, 2012
7:59 pm
The month of April is practically over. The season is a marathon, but after a month you can start to evaluate what kind of team you have. The Braves seem to have made great strides with the offense, with Heyward playing well again and Freeman tearing it up. Bourn was the leadoff man they did not have this time last year and he’s playing very well. If Chipper’s knees can hold out, he can be a force and Uggla is playing like Uggla of a full season vice a walking disaster of this time last year.
It is a good thing!
Ralph
April 26th, 2012
10:10 pm
Braves did a U turn after that terriable start, every team has their hot streaks. Let us hope their isn’t another U turn down the road.