Dont get ahead of yourself, W4 currently
But I would still take them over for their season total of 74.5: Won 68 last year with that incompetent manager Fredi Gonzalez. Just looking at how they fared after firing him would make me take the over or nothing at all: With him gone, Swanson being called up to play SS and adding Kemp, they were one of the most successful teams over the last 2 months (iirc best record in all of MLB in Sept), averaging about 5 runs a game. They still have the same offense and even if you considered Kurt Suzuki & Brandon Philips no upgrade offensively, Suzuki should give them a decent backup C when Flowers is getting a day off and Phillips gives them depth because they can move Peterson around to 3rd or OF if needed. They also have Albies (2nd) and Ruiz (3rd) waiting, who could be called up later this year, esp. if Adonis Garcia keeps slumping at 3rd base. But in general there offense showed late last year that they can hold their own and that they are competitive. Freeman has been one of the best hitters since June last year and while Philips, Flowers and Markakis are bound to regress a bit after their hot start, players like Swanson, Garcia and Kemp havent delivered anything yet. Their bullpen isnt nearly as good as e.g. the Indians, but with Ramirez, Vizcaino & Jim Johnson they have a very good and vastly underrated trio at the backend of their bullpen and O Flaherty has looked really good as a lefty specialist so far. Plus once again, their #1 rated farm system has a bunch of young arms around and you might see some of them improving that bullpen later on this year.
Most important reason though for me to like the over would be their starting rotation: No, it is nothing special on paper with Teheran, Colon, Dickey, Garcia and Foltynewicz. While Teheran is extremely underrated in my book, the rest is nothing special, BUT: Colon still has great control and his velocity has remained the same. So I would expect his overall numbers to be mediocre (ERA in the low 4s), but he should keep them in 80-90% of his starts by throwing QS, same applies to Dickey, who should have a decent shot at a sub 4 ERA: He is leaving the AL East with good scoring offenses like NYY, BOS, BAL and hitter ballparks like Rogers Centre, Fenway, Yankee Stadium and Camden to play in the NL without a DH and facing teams like NYM, PHI. And if you look at his numbers after slow starts, he actually even did put up decent numbers in TOR the last few years. Foltynewicz is getting more experienced and already showed improvement by the end of last season. So even if turned out to be only an OK starting rotation, this would be a major improvement over last season when they had starters like Gant (ERA 4.86, 7GS) De La Cruz (4.88 ERA, 9GS), Matt Wisler (5.00 ERA, 26GS), Chacin (5.4 ERA, 5GS), Weber (5.45, 2GS), Kelly (5.82, 1GS), Jenkins (5.88, 8GS), Perez (6.04 ERA, 11GS), Whalen (6.57 ERA, 5GS) and Blair (ERA 7.59, 15GS) & Hernandez (ERA 8.00, 2GS). That adds up to a whopping 91(!) starts by starting pitchers with an ERA of 4.86 or higher. So thats more than half (56%) of your games with a starter that averages an ERA below the criteria for a quality start. Add in the stress that this puts on your bullpen because your starters regularly are being replaced in the 6th inning or way earlier than that and it should be pretty obvious, that bringing in guys like Colon & Dickey should be a pretty big improvement over last season.
do great vd, games are just like stock while i may not be doing well another is, again never but all your eggs in 1 basket, i just request a bank wire a few mins ago from a out.at this time im heavy into soccer here, this braves is just another game each day of many, btw it not even may yet.......
lol vd, this is just a 1/10 what i bet everyday, again it like the stock market , you have some stock up and some down, wait ntil the braves get in to the meat of the division...............heading down to the beach house here on wed for a few weeks, i love the locals when it not holidays back in about 3 week............btw vd 2-0 on the soccer today..i hope this atl thing hits for the season, but really it just another bet, i make so much on a daily thing what it win or loses i really dont care
