Atlanta Braves Take 5: More Questions for 2017
Q1: Can the Offense Continue the Summer Surge?
That’s a fine question.
In our Outlook piece on the Mets, I picked on some players that had some career-high numbers in 2016. Others (Granderson and Cespedes in particular) played well, but are generally in decline.
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Well…
- Freddie Freeman had a career year
- Matt Kemp had something of a resurgence, but he’s still getting older – regardless of his conditioning.
- Adonis Garcia… maintaining, but you wonder what he really has in the tank.
- Nick Markakis: another solid year, but it’s another year for him, too.
- Tyler Flowers: best year he’s had in a long time.
- Sean Rodriguez: he found something in Pittsburgh, but will that stick with him?
Every one of these players had a really nice second half in 2016, but every one will be a ‘suspect’ for continuing that kind of pace in 2017.
You could argue that even 90% of that output would give the Braves a heckuva offense. That’s probably a good argument.
You could argue that Peterson, Swanson, and Inciarte might improve and fill in some gaps, if any.
You could argue that with better pitching, the offense doesn’t need to carry the club. I can buy that for the most part.
So is this a 75-win offense? 80? 85?
Those are questions that will will be utterly unable to tackle until next April.
Next: The Next Big Carribean Thing?
I am already itching for Opening Day to find out. Baseball’s version of Christmas.