The Braves' Second Quarter: Excuses from the author

While my quarterly thoughts for all Four Bs typically follow the same format, I'm regrettably going to be keeping this update on the Atlanta Braves' past 40 games to much more of a minimum. While I did go and find an image from this gallery to create the annual graphic, I can not in all honesty pretend to have followed this part of the baseball season as closely as I will/have for any of the other three quarters of the season. Part of this can be blamed on the attention I gave priority to the NHL and NBA playoffs, and part can also be blamed on the weeks devoted to the out-of-state move that occurred during that time—not to mention the majority of time spent after completing said move being primarily devoted to looking for a job, securing a job, and then stressing about keeping said job. 

I suppose that from what I've been able to catch of Braves baseball this past quarter, there's still plenty to be optimistic about with the performances the team has gotten from all over the pitching staff. The offense, however, remains underwhelming and inconsistent, so I certainly won't be surprised if come third quarter of the season, I'm busy reacting to a move made at the trading deadline to try and bolster some run production.

I only wish I had been able to better document even the presumably paid online positions that had failed to update Atlanta's record the day after they'd officially arrived at the halfway mark of this 2011 season. While I'd made a mental note of it, when trying to confirm that I had the number of games correct in both our morning newspaper and online at the Sports Illustrated site I use to screencap the standings at that point, both publications had forgotten to do so. As a result, moments after completing a sweep of the Seattle Mariners, I saw the Braves somehow go from 45-35 that morning to 47-35.

Fortunately, the MLB site does allow you to go back to a specific day, and for posterity's sake, here's where the Bravos were situated when they finished playing the first half of this year's regular season schedule:

I'm hoping to be back to regular, die-hard fan form by the next quarter's end in late August.