The Yankees Aren’t Great but the Braves Are Just Bad

The New York Yankees have not had the start to their 2016 season that many would have hoped, that may be the understatement of the 2016 season thus far. It was thought that the Yankees depth would take charge and the rotation and offense would be great if it could avoid the injury bug but while injuries have happened to upset the depth, and specifically the Scranton Shuttle, it hasn’t been the injuries that have hurt the offense or the rotation. It’s been flat out ineffectiveness and it’s been frustrating but at least we’re not the Atlanta Braves.

The Atlanta Braves went all in this offseason and last offseason but not in a way you would expect for a team to knowing they have a stadium on the horizon and ready to open up on Opening Day 2017. The Braves went all in and have basically traded off every recognizable part of the franchise that wasn’t tied down or hidden in Freddie Freeman’s latest wrist cast only leave their fans frustrated and their stadium empty for the most part. The Braves just aren’t bad though, they may be historically bad this season if they continue on the pace they are currently on.

In fact there are a few members of the New York Yankees that are at least close or leading the entire Braves team in certain categories. Sure it’s a small sample size but this is going to be a common theme around Atlanta no matter how big the sample size, this team is expected to struggle. 

• The Atlanta Braves have three home runs this season. Carlos Beltran has four while Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann and Starlin Castro have three each. 

• The Braves team OPS is .583. Every Yankee in the starting nine have a higher OPS with the exception of Chase Headley (.447) and Alex Rodriguez (.515).

• The Atlanta Braves as a team are hitting .227. The usual suspects, A Rod and Headley, are the only Yankees regulars hitting below the magical number. 

• The Braves as a team have four wins at the time of this writing. Yeah the Yankees don't have many more than that but it's more than four so go with it.

• The Braves have three saves, Andrew Miller has five already and he isn't even supposed to be the closer right now. The Braves have five blown saves already, the Yankees have none. The bullpen is really good.