The braves love to do this to me. start of the season with the best record in baseball. then go up and down all summer, with each series bringing new hope for playoff contention, and the next series leaving you counting how many losses until elimination. If they could just keep there act together once they get rolling, we'd be singing a different tune come post season.  And for goodness sake can we find some pitching?!  Smoltz and Hudson are quite dependable, but past those two there had to have been 2 dozen different names i saw on the mound this year, no one of which gave us better odds than a coin toss. I love my bravos, but boy, do they love to toy with their fans.

I'm surprised this club just never quite got it together. They seem to have plenty of pitching, and plenty of hitting. I guess Andruw Jones hitting .220 didn't help.

The Braves will probably keep it close in the NL Wildcard chase, but I see them losing out to one of their NL East rivals. Hudson and Smoltz are a great start to the rotation but I'm not impressed with the rest of their rotation. A strong offensive team and a decent bullpen should keep them in the race, but I think they will come up a little short.

Overated

2.5 The starters are mostly question marks at this point, and some of them are getting old. Chipper Jones is getting old, and is injury prone, though I'd expect a big year out of Andruw Jones as he becomes a free agent after the season. The catcher, McCann, is good but the bullpen is so-so overall, and there are some real weaknesses in the lineup. I'd say 3rd in their division, maybe 4th if Florida's youngsters can play to their capabilities. 2.5

If you think the wheels fell off this team last year, just wait until you see what kind of train-wreck this season will be.

Schmoltz and Hampton pitch for this team. Name one more. Can't do it can you?

On paper the Braves are as good as any other team in baseball but as we all know potential does not necessarily prove successful in the end. Look at how much money ($$) the Yankees spend each and every year and they have not won a World Series in years so, money doesn't always buy championships. In the Braves case they have one of the greatest managers in history (Bobby Cox) and one of the greatest GMs in history (John Schuerholz). Since last season the Braves have acquired Mike Gonzalez from Pittsburgh and Rafael Soriano from Seattle as set up men for closer Bob Wickman which instantly gives the team more than a fighting chance to close out games in the late innings (unlike last year's bullpin debacles). Starter Mike Hampton returns after almost 2 years away from pitching due to reconstructive Tommy John surgery and must be successful for the Braves to be successful. John Smoltz (team ace), Tim Hudson, Kyle Davies and Chuck James round out the starters and all have the potential to win 15 or more games each. We'll see. Of course we still have Chipper and Andruw Jones, Jeff Francoeur, Brian McCann, Edgar Renteria and a host of potentially great young players. Win it all? They might. A 6 month season is long and can lead to many surprises and disappointments and the Braves are like all of the other teams vying for that coveted WS ring. We'll see.