A Brave New World

Weather permitting, the Yankees will open a three game series with the Atlanta Braves tonight at Yankee Stadium. The average fan won't recognize most of the faces on this Atlanta though. The Braves are a far cry from the pennant winning teams of the late to mid 1990s and are about to have their amazing streak of 14 consecutive NL East division titles snapped. A handful of names remain the same- Andruw and Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Bobby Cox- but this team is made up of mostly inexperienced youngsters. The the Braves winning the division in 2005 said more about the weakness of their opposition rather than the strength of the Braves. With strong offenses in New York and Philadelphia, and a scrappy team in Florida, the Braves weaknesses have become very exposed.

The Braves recently endured a ten game losing streak and are currently 32-44. They sit in the cellar of the NL East, 15.5 games behind the 1st place Mets. Smoltz is the only holdover from the big 3 that included fellow Cy Young winners Greg Maddux (Cubs) and Tom Glavine (Mets). He's aided in the rotation by All-Star Tim Hudson, but after that it's slim pickings. The bullpen is a disaster area where the roles rotate every week.

The lineup still has some pop in though with center fielder Andruw Jones coming off of a 51 HR, 128 RBI campaign. His home runs are down a bit, but he's on pace to top his RBI mark. Chipper Jones has struggled through injuries the last few years and its taken a toll on his bat speed and power. He managed 21 HR and 72 RBI in 109 games last year, but so far is at just .275-7-35 in 61 games this season. He's also suffering defensively having already made 11 errors.

Edgar Renteria was acquired in the off-season from Boston and is excelling as a replacement for Rafael Furcal (signed with the Dodgers as a free agent). Renteria is back in the league he feels comfortable in and also is playing on an infield that is 1000% better than Fenway Park- of course it wouldn't take much to be better than the infield at Fenway. In addition to a .302 average and and .831 OPS, Renteria has committed just 8 errors in 64 games after committing a career 30 last season. Renteria also had a 23 game hitting streak to start the season (he hit in 10 consecutive games after the streak was stopped).

Renteria's double play partner Marcus Giles had his 2nd best offensive season in 2005, but has struggled mightily this year. He's scored 41 runs, but is hitting just. 239-4-24 and has an awful OPS of .673.

The Braves infusion of youth last season was instrumental in pulling out another division. No addition was bigger than that of Jeff Francoeur who splashed on the scene hitting .300-14-45 in just 257 at-bats. Francoeur got off to a slow start this season, but is hitting .250-15-55. 1st Baseman Adam LaRoche enjoyed a fine second season as well belting 20 homers to go along with 78 RBI. He's on a pace to match both those numbers this season.

2nd year catcher Brian McCann could be headed to the All-Star game with a .352 average. He's already matched his home run total, 5, from last year and is just 1 RBI shy of last year's total as well.

There's no doubt that these Braves have seen the last of the good times for a while, but with GM John Schuerholz and manager Bobby Cox at the helm, Atlanta will be contending again in no time.