The Braves' First Quarter: Maybe there's hope after all

As is usually the case, the first quarter of the baseball season passed by with me being far more engrossed in hockey and basketball playoffs to really catch too many games. This year, I even failed to notice that the Braves hit the 41-game mark.

The expectations for this season were dramatically lowered when Atlanta lost two of its starters before this season even began. It seemed like it was going to be extremely difficult to compete for the division, much less the Wild Card. Yet here we are, 41 games into the season and the Braves atop the standings. 

Of course, this isn't terribly likely to hold. The Nationals are right behind Atlanta, and they have far more talent on their roster for the long haul. Depending on how everybody's health plays out, there remains the chance that the Braves may be able to compete for a postseason spot. While the story thus far has been the pitching, the team's offense has struggled mightily. Considering that it's more likely that the former will regress before the latter improves dramatically, it's going to be a real uphill fight all year long. 

In an effort to do something more with these quarterly installments and also tie these blog posts somewhat to the name of the freaking blogs, I'm using this particular quarter to try out something new by looking at some of the good and bad numbers at this point in the season. It'll be somewhat like what I was doing a few years ago, but I'm not going to go back and look for best and worst games or assign best and worst players since those often end up repeating themselves throughout the year (see Derrick Rose during that Bulls season). 

THREE GOOD SETS OF NUMBERS:

1. The Pitching — There's no brighter spot to the Atlanta season thus far than the club's arm. The Braves have the lowest ERA (2.76) in the majors and lead the league in quality starts (33). Atlanta's pitching also has the second-best opponent on-base percentage (.296), slugging percentage (.344), on-base plus slugging (.641), and walks plus hits per innings pitched (1.17). Also, the 29 home runs allowed are the second fewest in the majors.
2. Justin Upton — If there's one bat in the lineup worth celebrating, it's Upton's. He's fifth in the league with 12 home runs, has a sixth-best OPS of .972 and is seventh in the majors with a .592 SLG.
3. Julio Teheran — Perhaps the finest starter, Teheran has the fourth-best ERA in the majors at 1.92, the sixth-best WHIP of 0.95, and his two complete games is tied for second most.

THREE BAD SETS OF NUMBERS:

1. The Offense — The Braves rank second-worst in the league in runs (149), hits (347), and OBP (.298).
2. B.J. Upton — We hoped for a turnaround, but he's batting only .197 and his 57 strikeouts are the most in the majors.
3. Luis Avilan — The only real concern among the pitching staff might be Avilan, whose ERA (5.73) and WHIP (2.00) are the worst of the boys in the bullpen.