As some observers draw parallels between the Braves’ 1991 breakthrough and the present, similarities might extend past the “young exciting team” tag.
The Braves’ divisional success is the reason they sit atop the National League East on May 7, even after getting swept at home by the Giants over the weekend.
Division wins allow for more breathing room. The Braves feasted on the East since the current iteration’s inception in 1994. They posted a winning record from that point until 2005 during their unprecedented run of 14 consecutive division titles.
While the franchise has had moderate success since the streak ended, including a 96-win campaign in 2013, the premise of launching a full-scale rebuild following the 2014 season was to recapture sustainable success.
The rebuild is beginning to bear fruit. The Braves boast the three youngest players in the majors with Ronald Acuna, Mike Soroka and Ozzie Albies.
There’s finally a lineup around franchise centerpiece Freddie Freeman. The rotation, while still a work in progress, is slowly being filled with arms acquired over the past few years.
But the roster composition has to translate on the field. That starts and ends with the NL East, where the Braves have rushed out to a 14-7 record without playing the consensus worst team, Marlins.
The Braves have taken two of three from the upstart Phillies three times. They’re 5-1 against the Mets, who led the division before the Braves swept them in New York last week.
The Nationals, the favorite until dethroned, has played the Braves to a 3-3 mark, with each team holding serve at its home ballpark.
“Hopefully we can maintain it,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We’ve played a lot of division games already.”
Maintaining strong divisional results is what propelled the Braves during their heyday. They had a winning record in the NL East every year before a 35-38 posting in 2006, when the Mets won the division.
The Braves won the NL pennant three times while members of the current East. They went 31-21 in the division during their World Series run of 1995, despite a 5-8 mark against the Mets.
In 1996, the Braves overcame a 6-7 record against the Marlins by going 26-13 against the others in route to another pennant.
The 1999 Braves were the only team to claim a winning record against every team in the division, going 35-16. The Braves beat the playoff-bound Mets in five of six games down the stretch, and eliminated them in the National League Championship Series in six.
Prior to the rebuild circa 2014, the Braves only had a losing NL East record twice: 2006 and 2008. They’ve earned three straight losing seasons in the division since the rebuild began.
Including the early returns of 2018, the Braves’ record against division rivals since 1994:
vs. Mets: 226-180 (.557)
vs. Phillies: 217-192 (.531)
vs. Nationals/Expos: 224-183 (.550)
vs. Marlins: 233-169 (.580)
And that’s with the reality they’ve had three losing campaigns against the Mets in four years after having the same total from 1994-2013. They’ve had a below .500 result against the Nationals six times in 10 years, including the past three, after owning two in the 14 seasons before.
Such success allows for hiccups outside the East. Like, say, being swept at home by an NL West team playing better than anyone in baseball.
It’s why the Braves are still 1.0 game up on the Phillies despite being pulverized for much of the weekend.
The early wins matter. Even the Braves’ most recent division championship, 2013, is a reminder of such. They defeated the defending divisional champion Nationals in seven of the first 10 meetings by early June.
“In ’13 when we won the East, we beat the Nationals early,” said Snitker, who’s been part of the organization for the past four decades. “Had a good record against them. That was the team we needed to beat. It’s just been good we play them tough because you never know.”
Four of the East’s five teams sit above .500 on Monday. The Nationals are waking up from a slow start. The Phillies, like the Braves, are poised to jump from bottom-feeder to threat. The talented Mets are already bitten by the injury bug, an issue that’s plagued them since they won the pennant in 2015.
“I think the National League East is the hardest division in baseball,” Freddie Freeman said before the season. “I really do. Starting pitchers up and down, you never get a night off. Everybody in this division has their work cut out for them. You know it’s going to be a tough division but we can stack up and if we do the little things right, we can be right there.”
It was understandable that Freeman’s comments drew laughter. Since the Braves and Phillies elected to punt on several seasons, the NL East has commonly been considered among the worst divisions in the sport.
That’s no longer the case, as the Braves will tell you.
“I knew they were going to be really good,” Snitker said of their divisional foes. “We saw the Mets in spring training, the Nationals. The Nationals are always going to be good. The Mets are solid, just a really good team they have. Knowing what the Phillies had at the end of last year, they’re really talented. They went out and added some nice pieces to that too. We knew it was going to be a rough go.”
If the Braves are going to restore their glory days, even as early as this year, they have the formula. They’re already executing it.
“I didn’t foresee that, just looking at the schedule,” Snitker said. “I didn’t know what the team is going to be either at that point in time. Given the alternative, it’s pretty good to have a good start (in division).”
