Atlanta Braves baseball has always been one of the few shining stars in Atlanta’s dim sports history. The Braves were the team to watch in the ’90s and certainly the team to watch now, with the Braves clinching a postseason trip. They are going to have to give it their all to make it deep into the standings and make a mark on this 2020 MLB season.

The beginning of the season was a complete train-wreck for Atlanta pitching as their ace pitcher, Mike Soroka, tore his Achilles in one of his early starts of the season.  Unlike the ’90s Braves, they don’t have fantastic starting pitching. When they lost Soroka, they were really thrown off by it.

 Fortunately, the quality pitcher known as Max Fried stepped up to the mound and mowed down opposing hitting throughout the season. With a name in the Cy Young award running, Fried was the Braves’ savior. He continued to be the only adequate pitcher until two young rookies made their debut, Kyle Wright and Ian Anderson. 

Wright had a shaky start but towards the end of the season he started pitching absolute gems. Even the Braves bullpen has made a name in baseball by shutting down opposing hitting when they are called upon.

As for the Braves position players, they made their mark on the 2020 season with record-setting statistics. Marcel Ozuna and Adam Duvall had back to back three home run nights setting an MLB record.

 The Braves scored 29 runs in one game shattering the National league record and coming one run short of tying the MLB record, and Freddie Freeman and his MVP bound season did extraordinarily well and helped the Braves move on to the postseason. 

Towards the beginning of the 60 game show-down, Braves second baseman, Ozzie Albies, and outfielder, Ronald Acuna Jr, both had wrist injuries. Acuna Jr’s injury wasn’t that bad and only took about two weeks to recover, but Ozzie was out for a whole month. When the season is only 60 games long, one month is a large amount of time to not play baseball. That didn’t stop either of these players from prevailing after their injuries. In fact, Ozzie’s first game back was the night the Braves scored 29 runs. 

Although the Braves Regular season was fantastic, the post-season is going to be a whole new game. With the wacky rules initiated by the MLB during this season, about 16 teams will make it into the playoff (that’s half of the whole league). The Braves are going to need good quality performances from their starting rotation. 

The only completely reliable starting pitcher is Max Fried because we don’t know enough about Kyle Wright and Ian Anderson. If these two pitchers pitch during this postseason as they did in the regular season, then the Braves are going to do very well. 

Freshman, Robbie Kasakoski states, “In order for the Braves to do well, they have to keep the starting pitchers pitch count low, cut down on errors, and try to prevent injuries at all costs.” The Braves will indeed need to limit their errors because towards the last four games of the season the Braves made 6 errors according to, that’s not the kind of numbers playoff teams put up.

The Braves may need a few tune-ups to essentially do well during the postseason, but many people believe that they already have the key-factors to win the World Series. They may have a few kinks, but over all they are a grade A team. 

The Braves franchise is one of the most beloved teams in Atlanta with their famous past and gleaming future for up and coming stars. Many fans will tell you that they would do almost anything for an Atlanta team to bring home a championship.