I’m trying to figure out, here at first bloom of another Braves season, how this modest bunch can go all Loyola-Chicago on baseball.

A trade with the Cubs for Sister Jean could be a start. (I’m just assuming she’s an old-school, National League nun).

Otherwise, more practically, it is going to take some combination of the unforeseen to break through this season. Because just about everyone looking at this team from a studious distance seems to believe it hasn’t quite finished baking yet.

Five needs for the Braves, if they are to surprise anyone (and, please, feel free to add any Dansby Swanson reference or subtract others as you see fit):

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