While the Braves' starting rotation has certainly been better than it has been lately, the Atlanta Braves are still in a great spot. After some late inning baserunning heroics from Michael Harris, the Braves stitched together another win to push them to 32 games over .500. The win also meant that Atlanta got to continue to have a 10.5 lead over the second place Phillies who have been playing pretty well of late.
Braves fans are a funny bunch because unless the Braves are dominating every single game like they were in June, a certain amount of negativity starts to swirl around the team. The College Football Syndrome is real when these folks live and die with the result of every single game and drawing crazy assumptions from really small samples which just isn't how baseball works.
To help ease some of that anxiety, lets take a look at the current playoff odds put forth by the fine folks over at Fangraphs.
MLB Standings ordered by playoff odds: Braves are in firm control of their destiny
As of 8/10, the Atlanta Braves currently have essentially a 100% chance of making the playoffs and a 99.8% of winning the National League East with just the Phillies having a slim 0.2% of taking home the division crown.
If you are looking at the grand scheme of things across the entire league, the Braves still come out on top although that certainly have some competition across the league.
MLB odds of making the playoffs (with World Series odds)
Braves - 100% (25.5% to win the World Series)
Dodgers - 99.9% (14.3%)
Rays - 95.4% (10%)
Orioles - 95% (3.9%)
Twins - 90.5% (3.4%)
Astros - 88.4% (11.8%)
Rangers - 87.2% (5.6%)
Phillies - 85.5% (4.3%)
As you can see here, the playoff picture is becoming much clearer with only around 50 games left in the season. The Braves and Dodgers are near mortal locks to make the playoffs and the Braves are far and away the most likely to win the World Series at 25.5%.
For what it is worth, the American League East has been a bloodbath all year long and Fangraphs seems to think that is going to continue with the Rays and Orioles very close together in terms of what the computer predicts out of them.
A number of Braves fans have been doing some scoreboard watching and have noticed that the Phillies have been playing well. Fortunately, not only have the Phillies not made up any ground on the Braves over the last 30 games or so, but they have their own wild card aspirations to worry about as the Giants, Cubs, Reds, and even the Marlins could pose some challenges there as that race remains tight.
In short, while the Braves aren't playing their best baseball right now, they are still finding ways to win and as you can seen from the numbers, they are still in a great spot for the postseason and are still favorites to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.