At this point in the season, if you told me the Braves were going to be a game under .500 (39-40 to be precise), I would have told you the Brave would be 7+ games back of the Phillies and the Mets.
After winning 5 games in a row, including a 3 game sweep of Philadelphia earlier this week, Atlanta finds itself tied with New York, 1 GB of second place Florida, and 2 GB of slumping Philadelphia.
As we head towards the All-Star break, Atlanta has a chance of competing for the NL East title, but more realistically they will have to contend for the Wild Card spot. In order to push forward they need another bat in the outfield; they have to get more power and productivity from the corner outfield spots. While Garret Anderson has been solid in LF, when he is healthy, and Matt Diaz has been decent, their combined 9 HRs ties them for the team lead with Chipper Jones.
Then you have Jeff Francoeur in RF. It is time to move on from this failed experiment. A .620 OPS is just atrocious for a RF. How bad? Not only is Francoeur’s OPS the worst among all Braves starters, he is ranked 162 out of 169 across the board for the entire league. Then you add in Francoeur’s paltry 5 HRs, he is just not providing enough productivity to fill the starting RF slot. I know Francoeur is a hometown favorite that showed a ton of potential in his first three years, but I think a change of scenery will do him well.
Can the Braves make a push? It is possible, but one or two roster moves are in order for any sort of run to be possible.
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