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Atlanta Braves must once again thrive in underdog role in 2019

By Daniel Rasmussen

ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 07: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam home run in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game Three of the National League Division Series at SunTrust Park on October 7, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 07: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam home run in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game Three of the National League Division Series at SunTrust Park on October 7, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Bravse Ozzie Albies Dansby Swanson
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – MARCH 13: Ozzie Albies #1 and Dansby Swanson #7 of the Atlanta Braves wait for a spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals to begin at Fitteam Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on March 13, 2019 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Nationals defeated the Braves 8-4. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

What is it that the Braves are “supposed” to do in 2019?

The staff here at TomahawkTake recently put together a great piece (and most certainly without the slightest bit of bias) on the outlook for Major League Baseball as the new season begins.

However, for a broader scope of what the expectation are for the Atlanta Braves in 2019, let’s take a more national look.

According to the experts, the oddsmakers, the “talking heads”, or whatever you want to call the ones who make the calls, there seems to be a consensus on the Braves’ 2019 postseason chances:

Close, but no cigar.

OddsShark has the Braves projected win total at 86.5, third best in the division behind Philly’s 88.5 and Washington’s 87.5.

Only two of the 13 Sporting News staff predictions even mention the Braves as making the postseason.

Ditto for CBS Sports, where none of the five staff members have Atlanta taking the division, and only one has them making it to the playoffs (as the second wild card).

Fangraphs projects Atlanta to finish at 84-78, fourth in the division behind the Nationals (90 wins), Phillies (86), and Mets (85).

Most recently, MLB Network Radio just came out with 18 “experts” who named their predicted division and wild card winners in all of MLB for the 2019 season. The graphic isn’t pleasing for Braves’ fans: zero picks for Atlanta to win the East, zero picks that they grab either wild card spot.

There’s several more of these “season predictions” articles that could be found, and true, you might find an isolated few that are more favorable towards Atlanta’s chances, but those are definitely exceptions to the norm.

The general feeling is that – while the Braves will be a competitive bunch – they don’t have the stuff to edge out two or three other teams in the division who significantly bolstered their rosters over the winter.

Here’s why writing off, or undervaluing, this Braves team at the start of the season might not be the wisest move.

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