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The Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball (60-29) and have been a well-oiled machine this season. Are they the team to beat across MLB?
FOX Sports MLB Analyst Derek Jeter argued during the MLB on FOX postgame show Tuesday that the Braves are indeed the best team in the sport at the moment.
"They have a great offense. Obviously, we [have] seen a lot of the guys, Acuna, Albies, Riley, Olson, Arcia, and then you got [Max] Fried and you got Kyle Wright coming back, so they're just going to continue to get better," Jeter said. "So I think as currently constructed the Atlanta Braves are the team best built to win the whole entire thing."
At 60-29, the Braves have an eight-and-a-half-game lead on the Miami Marlins for first place in the NL East.
The Braves had a franchise-record eight players get invited to the 2023 MLB All-Star Game: catcher Sean Murphy, infielders Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Orlando Arcia, outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. and starting pitchers Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder.
Atlanta has recorded 499 runs (third in MLB), 827 hits (third), 169 home runs (first), a combined .271 batting average (second) and a combined .831 OPS (first) this season. Meanwhile, its pitching staff sports a combined 3.63 ERA, the best in the sport.
Fried (forearm), the team's ace for the better part of the past four seasons, and Wright (shoulder), who posted a 3.19 ERA across 30 regular season starts in 2022, have been out the last two months due to injury.
The Braves won the 2021 World Series against the Houston Astros, who are the current defending champions. They've won the NL East in each of the last five seasons and were the league's No. 2 seed in 2022 before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in four games in the NL Division round.
David Ortiz opined that the Braves' chemistry is vital to their success.
"I was having a conversation with Albies and Acuna yesterday, and I was basically trying to find out why they are playing so well as of right now, and they say their chemistry is unbelievable," Ortiz said. "Their pitching is unbelievable. Fried's not there; he's about to come back … they were out there these past couple days just getting things done. They are two of the best players in the game, and their confidence level's pretty high."
Alex Rodriguez referenced the Braves' veteran minds, like manager Brian Snitker and third base coach Ron Washington, as another element to their success.
Snitker is in his seventh full season and eighth overall season as Atlanta's manager. The Braves are 602-480 (55.6%) with Snitker calling the shots.
