Atlanta Braves rain delay edition: looking into June

The Braves have held onto first place for virtually all of May, yet the sound of footfalls from behind are louder than ever. Here’s a look at how the month could go.

It’s not surprising that injuries can have a substantial impact on team performance during the course of a baseball season. Mercifully, the Atlanta Braves have largely escaped serious harm thus far – weathering absences by Luiz Gohara, Tyler Flowers and Dansby Swanson. Hopefully that will be the case for Ronald Acuña Jr as well.

That has clearly not been so for the Mets. Even today, they placed Noah Syndergaard on the disabled list for a ligament strain to the index finger on his pitching hand.

In just the month of May, here’s their list of woe:

Matt Harvey – designated and then traded (though Devin Mesoraco is helping them)
Todd Frazier – 10-day disabled list (left hamstring strain; just starting rehab now)
Jacob deGrom – on the 10-day disabled list for a hyper-extended elbow. It appears that he’s okay now
Anthony Swarzak – moved to the 60 day disabled list
Hansel Robles – 10-day DL (knee sprain)
Yoenis Cespedes – 10-day DL (hip flexor)
Juan Lagares – 10-day DL (that’s highly optimistic; left big toe plantar plate tear)
Jose Lobaton – designated for assignment
A.J. Ramos – 10-day DL (right shoulder strain)
…and 2 different players hit the paternity list this month!

It’s so bad, that an ex-beat writer for that team is contacting blog writers and requesting trade offers for Jacob deGrom… which suggests that he’s in the mood to blow up this team and rebuild from the ground up. This for a team that’s still 26-25 as of today.

But while we may snicker from afar on the troubles from Gotham, there’s still this cautionary note: the injury bug can hit anybody at any time. Happily, the Braves are more-or-less keeping their ailments to only one key player at a time at this point.

June Schedules

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES (29-22)

The Phils are on a tough stretch right now: on the West Coast vs. the Dodgers and they will continue this trip against Giants and Cubs.

It doesn’t get any easier for them when they get back home, either: the Brewers and Rockies will come to call before Philadelphia heads out on the road – for only 3 games – against the Brewers again.

After that? It’s actually even worse, and their travel people will be busy as well.

So after this 3 game road trip (Milwaukee), they have…

3 games at home (Cardinals)
3 games on the road (Washington)
Back home vs. the Yankees and Nationals… the latter being a 4 game series stretching to July 1st

In short, the Phillies should be little more than a puddle of goo by July. They will be either extremely lucky or extremely good if they are still above .500 by then.

Seriously, though: this is perhaps the worst schedule look-ahead I’ve ever seen for a single month… for anybody. Good luck.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS (30-22)

The Nats already weathered a West Coast swing and their own injury issues in May. They faced Arizona (happily for them, that’s when the D-Backs tailspin began), Dodgers.

In June, they begin with the Braves in Atlanta.

From there, it’s back home with the Rays and Giants before going to Yankee Stadium for 2 more against the Bombers, then to Toronto for 3.

They lost 2 games in May with the Yankees… one of those will be made up on the 18th back in D.C. to kill one of their off-days. However, they will stay home to face the Orioles and Phillies after that.

One more road trip to finish the month: to St. Petersburg to face the Rays, and then a U-turn to Philadelphia – a 4-game set that wraps into July as already noted above.

This really isn’t too bad for Washington: the Phillies have traditionally played well against the Nats, but as suggested, I think they will have a much harder time in doing so in June with their own schedule concerns.

If the Nationals continue to bring players back from the DL themselves, they should be strong ion June and that will make life difficult for the Braves as they try to maintain first place.

ATLANTA BRAVES (31-22)

After the Nationals leave town this weekend, the Braves hit the road – the West Coast – for their first long (mileage) trip.

More from Tomahawk Take

California has been decidedly unkind to Atlanta for the past several seasons, but maybe… this could be different.

3 games vs. the Padres followed by 3 against the Dodgers – and the Braves are currently scheduled to face Buehler, Stewart, and Maeda.

That wraps up on June 10. June 11 is technically an off-day as they come back to Atlanta to face the Mets again, with the Padres following.

June 18 is another off-day, with a bizarre 2-day road trip to Toronto… followed by another off-day. At least they will have time to recover.

Then the schedule turns a bit with 3 games each against Baltimore and Cincinnati back in Atlanta.

June finishes with the Braves venturing into St. Louis, a series that finishes on July 1st.

July could be a bit tougher, but let’s concentrate on June for now. This actually has the makings of a nice stretch… and one that comes at the right time for perhaps putting themselves into the position of “buyers” for the trade deadline at the end of July.

If Atlanta can steal 1 or 2 from the Dodgers and Nationals, then there are a lot of teams with below-.500 records coming up (and the Dodgers are still one of those). Indeed, of these 3 NL East contenders, this appears to be the easiest schedule for the month.

Next: Acuna down... who's up?

So there’s a chance… a favorable schedule will allow Atlanta at least an opportunity to hold serve. After that… the next move could be up to Alex Anthopoulos.

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