27 games remain in the regular season. The final push is on for categorical leaders in numerous offensive categories. But are any Atlanta Braves close to leading any of these?
It’s a fun exercise to check the leaderboards in homers, hits, average and the like. But for the Atlanta Braves, it can also be a measure of how well they’re doing against other contenders as we race to the finish line… or is theirs more of a total team effort?
As a team, the Atlanta Braves stand at 81-54. With 27 games remaining, even a 10-17 finish would best the 90-72 record that was posted in 2018… and it would probably make all of Braves Country freak out bout a team crawling to the finish line.
As things stand, there’s almost no chance for them to pass the Dodgers (88-47) for the best record in the National League, but locking up home-field advantage for the 1st round is certainly within reach.
In fact, the Nationals are currently closer to the Braves (5.5 games back) than either the Cardinals (6.5 GB) or the Cubs (8 GB).
But do the Braves show up among the league leaders in the key offensive categories?
Some teams win seemingly by smoke and mirrors… winning despite their stats. Such teams are often seen as fragile – ready to fold in a stiff breeze against them.
That’s hardly the case with this edition of the Atlanta Braves, as we’ll see.
Let’s see how individual players are matching up on the charts.
We’ll check only the NL leaderboards as of Thursday morning’s stats unless there’s a particularly interesting MLB-wide stat of note.
HOMERS
- Bellinger, Alonso (42)
- Yelich (41)
- Suarez (38)
Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna both have their own team battle going as they are tied with 36 apiece right now. Both should reach 40 and both should finish roughly in the same 5th/6th spots they are currently at.
Josh Donaldson has 32. There’s a fair chance of 3 more Braves getting over the 20-mark (Albies 19; Swanson 17; Riley 17). Of those, Swanson could be the last one.
Overall: Dodgers #1 (231), Braves #2 (212).
These teams are also 1-2 in slugging percentage, which shouldn’t be surprising. The Rockies being 3rd is probably something of an upset, but then the Phillies being 10th in the league is almost incredible given the offense we thought they might have.