The Other Side of the Coin.

The Braves have had their overall record mired at around .500 all year, but do not be mislead. It is not time for thoughts of gloom and doom to enter into the fanbase, but rather for patience and hope to prevade it. We’ve suffered through an inordinate ammount of bad luck and a particularly difficult rash of injuries, both of which were out of anyone's control and only time can help either now. But believe me, we have the time and they will turn things around.

Remember, reinforcements are already on the way and others could be had using the farm system (via trade or promotion) as the season progresses. If you think this team is good now, just wait until you see them in the summer months! By the way, this is a very good ballclub that we have this year. And now, I hope you'll indulge me as I go off on an optimistic mini-rant of sorts, because I feel our boys deserve it tonight.

Thank God MLB has a long season, because it lets things like luck and health work themselves out. Yeah, the Braves are 6-15 on the road, but they’re also 14-4 at home. Sure, Atlanta is 1-11 in one-run games, but that just means that they're 19-8 in all others. Our guys are only one game over .500 after 39 games played, but that’s only 2.5 GB in the NL East right now and it’s still just mid-May. We did lose Smoltz, Soriano, Moylan and other valuable arms along the way (and some haven’t even come back yet), but we’ve been amazed by Jurrjens, rescued by Bennett, wowed by Boyer and we've discovered Campillo. Diaz might have failed as a full-time starter, but at least Blanco stepped up to help him in LF. Tex, Kelly and Francouer have all come out to slower than expected starts, but Chipper and McCann have been incredible AND Yunel and Kotsay have proven the doubters wrong.

That’s the thing about a .500 team: you have to remember that there are two sides to that coin. Moreover, not all .500 teams are created equal. It's early still and the Braves are clearly better than their record suggests. Keep the faith and your place in the bandwagon, because we'll be filling up in a hurry when our record begins to reflect our talent and performance thus far more accurately. I won't deny that this season has been almost too frustrating at times or that some of our difficulties are of our own making, but don't overlook the positives that are at least just as plentiful as the more publicized negatives.

We have the privilege of rooting for a great organization, one that has put together competitive teams for the better part of two decades now and this year won't be an exception. So sit back, relax and enjoy the ride Braves fans; we have a long road ahead of us and I still believe that we're ticketed for the postseason in 2008. Go Braves!

Series Preview: Philadelphia Phillies (05/13 - 05/15)

The road has not been kind to our Braves this season, but it's time for them to step up and improve on that account. We might not be as good as we've been in Atlanta and we're certainly not as bad as we've looked away from Turner Field, but which is ultimately closer to the truth will be determined by our performance against our divisional rivals such as the Phillies.

For this series in Philadelphia, we won't have either of our top two starters (Jurrjens and Hudson) out on the mound, but the pitching match-ups don't look all that bad either. Tonight we'll have Reyes going up against Kyle Kendrick. While I'm not sure what to expect out of Jo-Jo, Kendrick has been pretty bad all year, so we should be able to give our guy plenty of run support. Tomorrow night, Glavine faces Brett Myers on ESPN. Tommy has been a bit of a magician this season (making a ton of baserunners disappear before they can score) and Myers has really struggled with his return to the rotation, so I feel good about our chances there. Standing in the way of a potential sweep is Philly ace Cole Hamels, who gets the additional benefit of opposing Chuck James on Thursday night. I don't mean to be harsh, but I've kind of lost my faith in Chucky. Still, if we catch Hamels on an off night and James does his best Tom Glavine impersonation, our line-up should put us over the top.

Speaking of the line-ups, fans of hitting are in for a treat with this series. You'd be hard-pressed to find a weakspot in either line-up on any given night; in fact, if you put these two teams together, they'd give the remaining NL All-Stars are run for their money in the batting cages. Add to that the location of these games - Citizen's Bank Park is a pretty extreme hitter's park - plus the overall quality of the pitching (or lack thereof) and we could be in for quite a show.

I tipped my hand a bit earlier, but I'll go ahead and make my prediction known: the Braves will take the first two and drop the finale. I think we have the slight edge overall in both pitching and hitting, with the exception of Hamels' start to close the series out. As I've said before, what we need to do in May is keep our heads above water and stay within striking distance for the summer. If we can weather this early season storm of injuries and slow starts without falling too far behind, I like our chances to take the division and make a deep run in the postseason. Enjoy the games and, as always, go Braves!