The Braves' Second Quarter: A fortnight later

Halfway through the 2010 season, the Bravos are were making me look pretty smart—if you ignore that aside from the gimme pick of the Yankees, all my other division picks are still waiting to make their move, I guess.

But, hey—ain't no complainin' when we've got some OutKast in the house, there's a little bit of fun hazing going on, and the team tied a streak that sure makes me feel pretty good about that World Series pick. Yep, it sure does seem like Bobby's determined to go out on top this year.

After ending the first quarter of this year's campaign by being one game over .500 instead of one game under, Hotlanta quietly went about some consistent ass-kicking this past second quarter:

RECORD FOR THE QUARTER: 27-13 (48-33 OVERALL) — P.F.S. should stand for Pretty Fucking Stellar—which is exactly what the Braves were between May 21 and July 4. Consider this: Of the 13 series Atlanta played in that timespan, the team won 10, split two, and lost only one. Keep winning two of every three as often as the Bravos have done, and they'd have to enter the playoffs as the favorites in the National League.

BEST WIN: May 31 (Braves 9, Phillies 3) — The win came in the middle of a nine-game winning-streak and was the opener of an always satisfying sweep of the 2009 National League Champions, but this Memorial Day game was sweetest of all games this past quarter since it put the Bravos into first place (they were supporting the troops, of course). Chipper's two-run shot got things started and Tommy Hanson not only held the Phillies to a single run with 6 2/3 solid innings, but had a pair of hits himself (NOTE: The designated hitter is still for pussies, not real athletes). Troy Glaus also brought the good wood, driving in three and crossing the plate three times himself. But most importantly, the rising Braves moved above Philly for the first time to enter June in first place—right before putting a little more distance between them for good measure.

WORST LOSS: June 24 (White Sox 2, Braves 0) — Remember that one series loss I mentioned earlier? Yeah, well ... this was it. And worse yet, I was there. Seriously, I couldn't wait to wear this to the Cell for the first time. I was originally more concerned about running into somebody like this guy, but instead there were only a couple snide remarks at the ballpark—and, of course, the bevy of annoying post-game texts from Sox fans I knew. The game was certainly not an altogether horrible one; a friend and I sat in the right field seats and the game moved along so quickly, neither of us left our seats once for a bathroom break (I didn't even remember to bitch incessantly about a possible smoking ban!). Still, getting swept by the Second City's second team stung a bit—and also probably ended my quiet hope that Ozzie Guillen might end up in an Atlanta dugout next season (once far-fetched, now downright improbable). But you know what made me feel a whole lot better? This.

MVP: Martin Prado — I'm not quite ready to buy into a campaign for National League MVP, but there's little doubt Mar-teen deserved the recognition for this quarter—if not the entire first half. David O'Brien wouldn't say Prado's better than Chase Utley, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you concluded that. I'm not sure FanGraphs drew a definitive conclusion of what to expect for the rest of the year when it asked "How Good Is Martin Prado?"—but I can live with "quite good." Prado's actually been solid enough all year so far to have earned the team MVP honor for both quarters so far. While Tim Hudson also continued to be encouraging (most notably on this occasion), but his 4-3 record over this stretch isn't as impressive as the numbers he put up in the first quarter. Troy Glaus also had a nice little offensive outburst going for a while, but ultimately Prado's been pleasantly exceeding expectations all year long so far.

  

LVP: Yunel Escobar — The benefit of publishing this late is my hindsight clearly being 20/20, and now that Escobartender has gone all the way from Cuba up to Canada, I can comfortably throw him under the bus. In the aforementioned defeat of the Phillies that put the Bravos into first, Yunel's lack of hustle had him being thrown out at second on what should have been a fairly easy double (Mark Bradley knows what I'm referring to). I've been among the many in Braves Nation that were reluctant to trade away an otherwise talented, young shortstop, but Bobby Cox doesn't have another year to wait for Escobar to get his act together—not to mention that most reaction seemed to indicate Yunel wasn't especially popular in the clubhouse (example: "Bobby hates him"). I could jam in a number of links to the seemingly plentiful assortment of mesmerizing defensive plays that I've seen Escobar make in the field, but this season also saw enough lack of plate discipline (quite often with runners on base, unfortunately) to justify finally letting a different team try to get through to Yunel.

THREE THINGS I'VE LIKED SO FAR:

1. FIRST-FUCKING-PLACE — Sooner than I expected, really. But you couldn't possibly think I'd complain. Also: 16 final at-bat wins. Noice.
2. FIVE ALL-STARS — I especially enjoyed the story about Omar Infante originally thinking the phone call with the news of his selection was Frank Wren about to tell him he'd been traded. Billy Wagner missed out on being a sixth representative, but the Bravos still sent the most guys since they had seven players on the team in 2003.
3. SPEAKING OF BILLY WAGNER ... — Congrats on save No. 400. And to the naysayers who thought this was a bad move to sign him: Make sure to get the entire dick in your mouth.

THREE THINGS I HAVEN'T:

1. NATE MCLOUTH, WHERE ARE YOU? — He's no threat to steal any bases when even Tim Hudson's got a higher batting average. McLouth's been on the DL ever since cracking heads with Heyward in mid-June, but pressure's on to turn it around when he hits the field again.
2. SERIOUSLY KAWAKAMI, WHAT'S THE DEAL? — One win. One measly win. The result being Kenshin going to the pen instead of Kris Medlen.
3. THE METS NEED TO START CHOKING SOONER — It seems inevitable, but having both Philly and New York that close behind can be a little unnerving.

25 WORDS OR LESS:

Keep this up, and the post-season drought will most certainly end this year.