Are you not entertained!!!? The mega power high scoring 2023 Atlanta Braves seem to have disappeared. Yet, somehow, this 2024 team has played to a .658 pace. That is a little better than a 106 win pace. As Mr. Remington pointed out yesterday, since April 21 everybody other than Ozuna is hitting like Rafael Belliard with a little more power. And yet, we still sit in second, not only in the division, but in all of MLB. Hamm??? How could that happen?

Well, by golly, the man’s name is Alex Anthopoulos. He breathes and the spirit of the process of perfection permeates the front office. Lose Minasian. See you and raise. Lose Brown. Watch this.

I believe we have gone far enough now to upgrade our view of the Reynaldo Lopez signing. At the time, It sounded like a low risk shot at stabilizing the back end to the rotation with an absolute low bar (without intervention by injury) of a damn good righthanded reliever. That is the first part of the genius of Anthopoulos. If you operate in an environment where the down side risks are covered, then when you hit the upside, the upside delivers in a much more powerful way. Recapping last night (that is kind of the point of this, right?), Lopez pitched 5 innings in 74 pitches. (He was removed with back tightness as a precautionary move). He had 4 strikeouts. He gave up 2 hits and 2 walks (WHIP .8). He gave up no runs. He finished the game with a 1.34 ERA (shades of 68), So far, there is no reason not to believe that he can function as a playoff level number 3. REALLY??? For 3 years at 10 million each? With a pure club option on the back (the 90% Anthopoulos feature that so often plays bigger like maybe with Marcel Ozuna?).

Obviously with a goose egg on the board and the starter out after 5, somebody else had to pitch pretty well also. Ray Kerr got the next 2 innings and the “win.” And how did Ray Kerr end up in Atlanta. Well, A A took on a player with one option (already used, hmmm?) and less than one year of service time (600,000 ish salary) with 4 million or so of the salary of the dessicated remains of Matt Carpenter, and if Ray is “just ML decent” his “surplus value” probably blows that 4 million away. Oh, and Ray got 3 K’s and a WHIP of 0. “Take that, Reynaldo.”

Around that time is when ANOTHER of Mr. Anthopoulos’ Amazing Moves reasserted itself. Ray Short (who the __ is this?) is playing because Austin Riley has tweaked his oblique. So, Ray Short goes 1 for 3 (double) with a walk. And the double drove in the first and winning run and had a WPA of .179. Then, Mr. Tall scored the next and last run. Another of the skills of the Master is illustrated. He operates like a high stakes high finance version of Tom Sawyer. He swaps a marble for a ballpoint pen. Then, he swaps the pen for a better marble. Then, he takes w other marbles and adds those to the good one and gets an even better marble. This process of minor upgrades never stops.

Then, Dylan Lee and A. J. Minter wobbled a little, but neither allowed any runs. So, 2 for our side and none for the other side. The “pitching centric” 2024 Atlanta Braves continue to win.