After a 4-win improvement over their 2016 record in 2017, the Atlanta Braves roster seems primed to take the next big step in their rebuild.
The Atlanta Braves won a lot of games in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the team has fallen on hard times in the last few seasons, which led to a rebuild. The team did well in their tear down and rebuild, building the top-rated farm system in the entire game, but the major league club is just starting to see those results. We’ll take a look at the 2017 season in summation, take a deeper dive into what went right with the team, similarly with what went wrong, and then explore the team’s top 3 needs to accomplish over the offseason…
Season Wrap
The Atlanta Braves played through a tough April through June schedule with significant injuries to their top player, extremely poor production from their veteran pitchers, and 12 of their 19 games against division power Washington before the All-Star break, the Braves still came into their second series after the All-Star break with a .500 record.
However, the Braves then had the worst record in the National League in the second half and only the Detroit Tigers were worse this year in the second half as they dove toward the first overall pick.
Team leaders:
AVG – Freddie Freeman .307
OBP – Freddie Freeman .403
SLG – Freddie Freeman .586
HR – Freddie Freeman 28
SB – Ender Inciarte 22
W – Julio Teheran 11
SV – Jim Johnson 22
K – Julio Teheran 151
ERA – R.A. Dickey 4.26
WHIP – Jaime Garcia 1.32