You would think that the Braves have had enough go against them the last few years. So many injuries last season and they still played in October. Heck the year they won it all they did it without star Ronald Acuna Jr. when he blew out the other knee.
This time they did without Acuna again plus electric starter Spencer Strider for almost the entire season, Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II and Matt Olson also missed significant chunks of the 2024 season.
Things were looking up, everyone looked healthy. The only guy missing long term will be Max Fried off for riches in the Bronx but the Braves have pitching.
What they didn’t have to start the season were Acuna and Strider which was expected, and wins, which was not.
How Bad is Bad?
A week into a schedule of one hundred and sixty-two games. despite how good they are, and the Braves are very good, history suggests they won’t make the post season.
One thing in their favour is the fact that we keep having more playoff teams, however, no team has ever started a season 0-7 and reached the playoffs. Only three 0-6 teams got there, the most recent being the 2011 Rays.
Bad To Worse
There’s no doubt that opening up on the road several time zones away didn’t help but to be greeted by the Padres and Dodgers for your first seven games was overkill.
Then came the two pronged attack of losing outfielder Jurickson Profar to an eighty game PED suspension and starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez to the injured list and the Braves have to be in stun mode.
So even after barely a week’s full of games, the Braves season is already sitting precariously too close to the edge of doom. They do have a general manager in Alex Anthopouulis who has taken his team through troubled waters before.
