The 2016 season has ended for the Atlanta Braves. It was an unusual ride, to say the least. So what have we learned from all of this? Here’s 10 things.
A 68-93 mark for the 2016 season would elicit a round of, “Yeah, sounds about right,” from the Atlanta Braves faithful if that’s what they had collectively been promised in April.
The abysmal start and torrid finish not-withstanding, this is right around where most had them pegged. In fact, according to Baseball Reference, they outperformed their Pythagorean win expectancy by one (which, what Pythagoras knows about baseball remains murky, but still).
But as the glow of the 2016 campaign begins to fade, Turner Field goes dark and SunTrust Park becomes a tangible reality, let’s reflect on what we learned about the Atlanta Braves this year. It was a period of change and growth, for all of us—we went from Erick Aybar to Dansby Swanson, for goodness sake. So much has changed.