The Braves' Second Quarter: Surprises Abound

When both Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters suffered season-ending injuries, I thought that meant for sure that Atlanta's bullpen would inevitably be struggling throughout the season to hold leads and allow Craig Kimbrel to even have a reason to enter ballgames. As it turns out, the Braves arrived at the halfway point of the season with the best relief ERA in the majors (2.70). But the even bigger surprise is that Fredi seems to have learned from what many believe was the error of his ways a few years back when he seemingly exhausted the arms in his bullpen, as the amount of Atlanta's relief innings after 81 games was the fifth-fewest in Major League Baseball.

So midway into this 2013 season, the pitching has in fact been remarkably strong. That, of course, was the story throughout the 1990s, which could just as easily make the average Braves fan confident as it could skeptical. Still, with the second-best overall ERA (trailing only the remarkable Pittsburgh Pirates—whom you might recall I picked to win that division this year) in baseball, I'd be nuts to complain.

In addition to the pitching, the other pleasant surprise at this point would be that Atlanta is no longer in the lead for that team batting strikeout record that I thought they would eclipse this season. The Astros overtook the Braves in that category, and ended up only four behind where the 2010 Diamondbacks that own that dubious record were after 81 games. Of course, Atlanta's batters are indeed still striking out a lot, but they've been scoring and winning too. All things considered, it's hard to have asked for more at this point.